Spring Spiritual Season

 Spring is a time of growth, rebirth, and fruitfulness.  The days begin to get longer and the temperature begins to get warmer. Buds start to appear on trees and shoots begin to poke out of the ground.  Soon, trees, hills, and grasslands become blanketed with wildflowers of every shape and color. Animals that have been in hibernation for months emerge for the first time in many months, and animals of all kinds give birth at this time as food becomes quite plentiful.

For us human beings, Spring is often one of the most delightful times of the year – a feast for all our senses.  We are refreshed by the cool, crisp, and pleasant temperatures that Spring brings us.  We are enchanted by the serenades and choruses of birds nesting in trees all around us.  We are captivated by the the many colors and fragrances of the flowers in bloom.  And our taste buds are tantalized by the Spring fruits and vegetables that we harvest.  For children in particular, Spring is an exciting time, not only because it is a wonderful time to explore and notice all of God’s creatures emerging from the earth, but it also a time that points to another time in the not-to-distant horizon when they will finally be free of their studies and can play in the sun for hours.

Especially for those of us who have gone through a long, stark, white and gray winter, Spring is a time of refreshment and renewal.

The Spring Season in Our Spiritual Lives

Similarly, the Spring spiritual season is a time of refreshment and renewal.  It is a time of attentiveness, awakening, engagement, fruitfulness, and a conscience living for Christ.  In this season, we have a more conscious awareness of God’s presence and activity in our lives, and our spiritual lives are filled with sweet encounters or “mountain top” experiences with the Lord.  In this season, we very often find that music, art, liturgy, times of prayer and worship, and God’s Creation usher us into transcendent encounters with the Lord.  We feel loved by God and we love Him back, and we are eager to study the Scriptures, spend time in prayer, go to church, and serve Him.

In this season, we also often have an awakening of a call in our lives, and thus this can be a season of great productivity for the Kingdom.  We find ourselves serving the church in the unique ways that God has gifted us, and we are generally absolutely delighted to do so for this is a way to show our love to the Lord.  At the same time, we may find ourselves living more fully into the life work or vocation to which God has called us.

The Spring season is often a wonderful time in our spiritual lives – a time when we feel God’s presence keenly and we are mesmerized by His love, goodness, and beauty.  It can be so delightful that we want to hold onto this season for as long as we can.  In fact, we may think that this is the pinnacle of the Christian spiritual life and thus expect that this will always be our experience of God as we move forward into the future.  This is not the case, however.  In the spiritual life, we don’t perpetually stay in a state of spiritual Spring just as Peter, James, and John could not perpetually stay on the mountaintop with the Transfigured Jesus.  Rather, we move in and out of it throughout our lifetimes.   When we do experience spiritual Spring, we are to receive it as a good gift from God and be thankful.