Wednesday’s Wink from Above 09-02-2026 The Garden

In a little town in Ireland, John O’Toole found a messy plot of land.  

He spent weeks cleaning up; then raking & fertilizing the soil.  He planted flowers and carefully watered them.  After a few months, his garden was a thing of beauty.

As he was admiring his garden one-day, Fr. O’Reilly walked past and said,  “What a fine garden you & the Lord have made.”  O’Toole said, “Father, you should have seen it when the Lord had it on his own!” 

Well the garden of our life is our offering of Love to God, Who created us and loves us totally. Planting seeds is the easy part of gardening, the weeding, the racking, the watering, of the garden are the hard parts.

In the Book of Genesis we read, “The LORD God planted a garden in Eden, ….. Out of the ground the LORD God made grow every tree that was delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” [Genesis 8-9]

St. Francis de Sales offers us these precious insights for spiritual purification [fertilizer]: Pruning the Soul: Just as flowers require cutting away dead growth, our hearts' good desires require us to prune away sinful habits and attachments. Spiritual growth is Gradual for most people, spiritual pruning is a slow, lifelong process.  

St. Francis de Sales proffered this observation "illnesses of the heart come on horseback" [rapidly] but "leave on foot" [slowly]. Purification is achieved primarily through the Sacraments [Eucharist and Reconciliation], regular examination of conscience, and prayer. [Part One, Chapter 5 of St. Francis deSales’ Introduction to the Devout Life] Life in the garden of this world is filled with sin and temptations, crosses and hardships making walking with the Lord hard and difficult.

May we prepare for our eternal garden by cultivating the soil of our garden [life], we are offered the rich fertilizer of the Sacraments, prayer, and a review of our day. To aid us in living our Baptismal call as disciples of Christ, there are beautiful  additional [spiritual] fertilizers to cultivate our spiritual garden here on earth, to support us to “Live Jesus.” Make your decisions on the Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope & Charity [Love] & implement them using the Moral Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance.  The frame of reference for using our time and energy should be The Beatitudes [Matthew 5:3-12].

When our time here on earth is finished we will take the bouquet of our life to the Lord.

May God Be Praised.