A Journey to the Heart
Fr. Jim McBurney, OSA will lead A Lenten Journey to the Heart Retreat in March. Here he offers a poem and reflection questions to ponder during our Lenten journeys.
Perhaps you are familiar with the following poem from Carmelite Sr. Ruth Burrows. It is a favorite of mine! The words of this poem invite us to some personal reflection.
What kind of ‘garden’ are you and I creating for God? What is in your heart? Is your heart restless? Is it hopeful? Is your heart divided in some way? Is your heart searching for something more?
The season of Lent invites us to look into our heart and recognize those places to which we are being called to some change of heart. How might Scripture and some thoughts from St. Augustine and other spiritual authors assist us in better knowing ourselves and embracing the call to ongoing conversion of heart? Consider joining me for a weekend retreat from March 14-16, where together we will explore these and other questions as we journey into our hearts.
I Made a Garden for God
By Ruth Burrows, O.C.D.
I made a garden for God.
No, do not misunderstand me.
It was not on some lovely estate or even in a pretty suburb. I made a garden for God in the slum of my heart,
a sunless space between grimy walls
the reek of cabbage water in the air,
refuse strewn on the cracked asphalt …
the ground of my garden!
This was where I laboured night and day over the long years in dismal smog and cold ….
There was nothing to show for my toil.
Like a child I could have pretended:
my slum transformed …
an oasis of flowers and graceful trees …
How pleasant to work in such a garden!
I could have lost heart and neglected my garden to do something else for God.
But I was making a garden for God,
not for myself,
for his delight, not mine.
And so I worked on in the slum of my heart.
Was he concerned with my garden?
Did he see my labour and tears? I never saw him looking
never felt him there.
Yet I knew (though it felt as if I did not know) that he was there with me waiting …
He has come into his garden.
Is it beautiful at last?
Are there flowers and perfumes?
I do not know.
The garden is not mine but his. God asked only for my little space to be prepared and given.
This is ‘garden’ for him
and my joy is full.