What do the following have in common (other than the obvious of being farm produce): arugula, asparagus, beets, bok choy, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, chives, fava beans, fennel, greens, green onions, herbs, kale, leeks, lettuce, mushrooms, onions, pecans, peas, radishes, rhubarb, sweet potatoes, spinach, summer squash, strawberries, and turnips?
They are all “in season,” locally harvested produce available in April in Alabama. They do not need to be flown in from another country or trucked in from another state. I was reminded of this as I stared at the Seasonal Food Guide for Alabama posted on the side of the refrigerator as I sleepily waited on my brewing morning coffee. I pondered whether my recent food purchases were in or out of season for Alabama. Verses from scripture came to my mind: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…He has made everything suitable for its time…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11a)
I feel fortunate to live in central Alabama where we have all four seasons, albeit a roller coaster ride between them. Spring has sprung here with riotous colored blossoms, new buds everywhere, grass to mow, weeds to pull, shrubs to prune, new seedlings to plant, and pollen to make me sneeze. Because I didn’t do it during the winter months (the appropriate season!), my gardening tools need sharpening now. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”
Besides our agricultural seasons, what about the church’s liturgical seasons? Here we are, nearing the end of the church’s 40-day season of Lent from which the Easter season will emerge. I ponder whether since Ash Wednesday, I have been living in or out of season during Lent. Are there yet tools to be sharpened to prepare my heart for Resurrection Day?
In his little book about monastic Liturgy of the Hours, The Music of Silence, David Steindl-Rast, OSB’s first chapter is titled, The Seasons of the Day. He writes (in pages 7-9): “The hours are the seasons of the day, and they were originally understood in a mythical way…not ruled by alarm clocks” that measured time, but as encounters with angel messengers at different points of the day. “The word ‘season’ comes from a Latin root meaning ‘to sow,’ and it also means a station or a stage. So the hours of the day are the stations or phases of the day when we sow certain seeds within ourselves and outside in the world. The seeds we sow are the virtues appropriate for each hour.”
When I celebrated my 74th birthday this year, it was another reckoning with this “season” of my life. What virtues are needed at this station? While faith in Christ gives me hope for eternal life, my earthly adventure is getting closer to the end. What does it mean to live “in season” when my earthly years are growing shorter?
To sum up…I am still learning how to live “in season” whether it is in my refrigerator, in the church’s changing liturgical seasons, the monastic hours of prayer, or my advancing birthdays. What is this season calling forth in me? In you?
By Sister Sara Aiden Burress, OSB