Chapter 5. Seasons
With the tilt of the earth on its axis, its orbit, and the changing angle of the sun, we are blessed with the seasons, and day and night. Spring flowers and the morning sunrise remind us of new life at Easter. We spend the longer sunny days in the heat of summer trying to stay cool while working or recreating, visiting parks, gardens, mountains, and shores. Falling autumn leaves warn of the approach of winter, and the dusk of nightfall signals the passing of time. The shorter cold days of winter and the darkness of night remind us of the shortness of life and the end times; however, during the darkest days, the celebration of Christmas reminds us of the birth of the Christ Child—the Light of the world. Though the seasons are ever changing and time passes from night to day, God's Love is constant and eternal. May we be steadfast and faithful in our love of God, family, and neighbor.
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Exodus 34:21
Do your work in six days and rest on the seventh day, even during the seasons for plowing and harvesting.
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Leviticus 26:4
... and I will send rain to make your crops grow and your trees produce fruit.
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Deuteronomy 11:14–15
... he will send rain at the right seasons, so you will have more than enough food, wine, and olive oil, and there will be plenty of grass for your cattle.
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Deuteronomy 28:12
The LORD will open the storehouses of the skies where he keeps the rain, and he will send rain on your land at just the right times. He will make you successful in everything you do. You will have plenty of money to lend to other nations, but you won't need to borrow any yourself.
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Job 5:26 (NIV)
You will come to the grave in full vigor, like sheaves gathered in season.
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Job 6:17
... then suddenly disappear in the summer heat.
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Job 38:32 (NIV)
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
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Psalm 1:3
They are like trees
growing beside a stream,
trees that produce
fruit in season
and always have leaves.
Those people succeed
in everything they do.
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Psalm 90: 1, 4–6, 12
Our Lord, in all generations you have been our home. ... but a thousand years mean nothing to you! They are merely a day gone by or a few hours in the night. You bring our lives to an end just like a dream. We are merely tender grass that sprouts and grows in the morning, but dries up by evening. ... Teach us to use wisely all the time we have.
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Psalm 104:19
You created the moon
to tell us the seasons.
The sun knows when to set,
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Ecclesiastes 3:1
Everything on earth has its own time and its own season.
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Song of Solomon 2:12
... flowers cover the earth,
it's time to sing.
The cooing of doves
is heard in our land.
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Jeremiah 8:7
Storks, doves, swallows, and thrushes all know when it's time to fly away for the winter and when to come back. But you, my people, don't know what I demand.
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Ezekiel 34:26 (NIV)
I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing.
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Daniel 2:21 (NIV)
He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.
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Mark 11:13
From a distance Jesus saw a fig tree covered with leaves, and he went to see if there were any figs on the tree. But there were not any, because it wasn't the season for figs.
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Acts 14:17 (NIV)
Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.
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Galatians 4:10
You even celebrate certain days, months, seasons, and years.
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2 Timothy 4:2 (NIV)
Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
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Titus 1:3 (NIV)
... and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior ...
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In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against Nature not to go out, and see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth.
—John Milton. Tractate of Education [1644].
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If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
—Anne Bradstreet (c. 1612–1672). Meditations Divine and Moral [1664], 3.
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A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.
—Isaac Watts. O God, Our Help in Ages Past (The Psalms of David) [1719].
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Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee,
Whether the summer clothe the general earth
With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing
Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch
Of mossy apple-tree, while the nigh thatch
Smokes in the sun-thaw; whether the eave-drops fall
Heard only in the trances of the blast,
Or if the secret ministry of frost
Shall hang them up in silent icicles,
Quietly shining to the quiet moon.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834). Frost at Midnight [1798], 65.
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O, Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
—Percy Bysshe Shelley. Ode to the West Wind [1819], l. 69–70.
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While I enjoy the friendship of the seasons I trust that nothing can make life a burden to me.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862). Walden [1854], in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 2, p. 145, Houghton Mifflin (1906).
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Dear children, we now have lovely Spring days; the sun with its warming rays awakens everything to life, and the grass grows beautifully from the earth, the flowers take on colors, and, in a word, all this enraptures a human being. So, too, dear children, in our life and in our soul, Springtime should arise. The sun, which is God, should send its warmth flowing forth into our soul with its rays. Those rays are Mary; the warmth flowing forth from the sun should warm our hearts, so that in our soul much good would grow, and the flowers of virtue unfold and blossom. ... let us beg the Immaculata that she herself would plant the flowers of virtue in our hearts and that these flowers would bloom to God's greater glory.
—St. Maximilian Kolbe. Will to Love—Reflections for Daily Living by St. Maximilian Kolbe, "Prophet of the Civilization of Love." Marytown Press.
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Spring
As the morning's sunlight
grows brighter
As the crows awaken and caw
As the songbirds begin a symphony
The floral display is revealed.
Crocus petals unfold
Tulips stand proud and tall,
The morning dew disappears
The fog fades above.
Squirrels scurry about
Searching for seeds and nuts
The fauna feast on new blades of grass and sedges
On seeds, nuts, and fermented berries.
Geese rise together and
Flock northward
Continuing a long journey
Robins, blue jays, cardinals
Proclaim their territories.
Nests are built and remade
By many species of birds
Showers water the fields
For the planting by farmers
Nature proceeds without
Notions of what people are doing.
We are small, compared to the
Chief Spring Creator.
—Anthony R. Brach (1981).Dicentra eximia (Ker-Gawler) Torr.—wild bleeding heart. Photo courtesy of Paul G. Brach.
(C) 2002 by Anthony R. Brach.