by Eilín Teeling, AMMM                                Ireland                                             23.08.2025

Last March, I stood in awe at the sight of the large field, perfectly ploughed and tilled.  The earth was like a smooth, brown blanket.  I wondered how many hours it had taken to plough to remove unwanted weeds, briars, large stones and what crop would be planted soon by the farmer in the rich, fertile soil.  The seeds will need rain, sun, and light to grow into a great crop.  The farmer needs commitment, time, patience, and faith that the crop will be bountiful.

I was staying with the monastic Cistercian Sisters in Glencairn as a guest.  My spiritual self was enhanced by the daily Liturgy of the Hours sung by the Sisters, quiet days and the surrounding fields.

I’m reminded of the Parable of the Sower (Lk 8: 4-15) where a sower sowed seed: some fell on a path, some on a rock, some on thorns, some fell onto good soil where it produced a hundredfold.  The key to the parable is that the seed is the Word of God.  Those “who hear hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patient endurance”.  I’ve heard this parable called “the parable of the soils”.  The seed is the same but it lands on different soils.

The changes of growth of the crop in the field happen too slowly for us to see.  Perhaps, this is the same for our heart and soul, over time, growing closer to God.

A bell rings a few minutes before the Sisters sing the Liturgy of the Hours seven times a day, offering praise to God and making intercessions. I fall in to their routine so easily, yet at home I have a poor prayer routine as there are so many distractions.  How can I prepare my heart and mind to be the right kind of soil to receive the Word of God to full benefit, allowing the Holy Spirit to “water” the seed, to water me?  Are distractions like the rock or thorns that the seed land on and which don’t bear fruit?  What distractions are more important than spending some minutes with God each day?  Perhaps I need to think more like a farmer, turn up, tend the field and be patient that the crop will be bountiful.