Is there not a certain springtime in all prayer? Maybe we breathe easier with the passing of winter and its coldness. The time we spend in prayer refreshes both our bodies and our spirits. While all times and seasons are God’s and we can never limit God’s working, yet springtime can enliven us with the youthfulness and newness of the Creator each day.
Spring does not always come easily. For the trees which prepare to blossom afresh, there is pain for the wood as the bud breaks through. Sometimes too there is a bud that doesn’t make it.

Prayer engages us to deepen our welcome and our openness to God. That is its task. Sometimes this will be easy: at other times it will painfully challenge us. Does not all challenge in the name of love have its own special sweet bitterness? There is a letting go of something we treasure in order to make space for something better. Any openness to love is an openness to the immense blessing of the Creator God. Like the spring our prayer brings a certain gentleness and warmth to us, the gentleness and warmth of God. Those who pray are being secretly nourished from within. The sap of divine life runs freely through them. It enables them to cope more generously with the demands of loving.