There is something exceedingly spiritually intimate about being in a church all alone, blanketed in darkness and silence. The world becomes a very still and silent place when it is just you, Jesus, and a few candles; and, it is at times like these when even the statues seem to breathe life. I prayed for my loved ones, let my tears drip freely, and tried to savor everything that I encountered until we left the church at 4 AM.In the last hour that I was there, I used a small light source to read a few pages from my Bible, and I sat on the side altar near the statue of St. Therese. I decided to open my Bible to the page onto which I had randomly thrown a leather bookmark when I was packing earlier in the day. I felt called to look beneath it, and there, behind the leather, was a verse that spoke profoundly to me. I had spent a good majority of the weekend thinking, praying, and talking to my closest friends about my 3-year Marian promise, and this verse was specific about what to do during the duration of a 3-year period. How appropriate!
From the Book of Second Kings, Chapter 19 Verse 29 (which happens to be my age) the Scripture said:
This shall be a sign for you:
this year you shall eat the aftergrowth,
next year, what grows of itself;
But in the third year, sow and reap,
plant vineyards and eat their fruit!
Astounded by this call to wait until the third year to sow and reap (and realizing that here, in Year #2, I must remain open to whatever grows naturally in my life) I paused and reflected with a dropped jaw, exceedingly joyful that God should present me with such a relevant message.
But that wasn't the only miracle.
I decided to look further, and so my fingers grabbed an unknown amount of pages and flipped at once to a new page.
That page was within the Book of Isaiah, where--within a few moments--my eyes went to Chapter 37 Verse 30, where the Scripture said verbatim to me yet again:
This shall be a sign for you:
this year you shall eat the aftergrowth,
next year, what grows of itself;
But in the third year, sow and reap,
plant vineyards and eat their fruit!
Never before in my life had I known the Bible to repeat word-for-word a particular verse unless the writer was quoting previous Biblical text, and this did not seem to be the case at all. I believed without a shadow of a doubt that God wanted me to hear this message, for he was being quite clear with His delivery of it!Later, when discussing my amazing experience with Melanie and showing her my Bible, she noticed that the text previous to the above words spoke of "Becoming like the plants of the field, like the green growth," and from this verse she expanded. She shared with me a beautiful connection to the farmer's preparation of soil in a field.
She explained that all of us--like fields--are rejuvenated by the Heavenly Farmer by way of three seasonal phases. First, the farmer removes the plants from the soil, making the field seem desolate, barren, and lonesome while the soil is tilled, fertilized, and renewed of its nutrients.
In the second phase, the farmer lets develop whatever grows naturally. Yes, even in the confusion that comes from having such a myriad of things on one's surface, the soil is being prepared.
And, in the third phase, the field is finally ready. Now it is time to sow and to then to reap, and the fruit of the labor is to be enjoyed! This is why, perhaps, the Church calls us to fast; doing so makes us more able to enjoy the feast! And it is to the feast that we are each called!
Encountering these verses from the Bible gave me beautiful confirmation of my Marian promise. I will continue to trust myself to Mary's guidance.
After Mass on Sunday, breakfast out at a cute Irish cafe with Melanie, and lunch with my friend James who will be going into seminary soon, the weekend came full circle when he mentioned the Venerable Mary Agreda, who wrote The Mystical City of God. Clearly, I have my reading material cut out for me.
I glided home, happy to be walking on fertile ground.
