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This may sound funny, but every spring I read the children’s book, “The Secret Garden.” For those of you who haven’t read it, it’s about a young girl whose parents die and she is sent to live with her uncle in a grand manor in Yorkshire, England. She grew up pampered by servants, but not loved by her parents, so she is a little spoiled and angry girl. The story is about how she comes alive and is ultimately transformed.
Other characters undergo their own transformation and all this comes through the spring unfolding of a secret garden at the manor and through their friendship.
Sisters have asked why I like it so much and I find myself somewhat without words to explain. As Third Order Franciscans, we are very much about “ongoing conversion.” And I think this story is about that – not in a way that is self-defeating or finding every way I need to change - but allowing the Holy Spirit to bring new life into areas of my life that have previously been closed to Him.
One of my favorite moments in the book is when Colin, who has been ill for a long time, realizes that after a summer of being out in the garden and exercising and digging and breathing fresh air has made him well. This is what he cries out to his friends,
“Mary! Dickon!” he cried. “Just look at me!” They stopped their weeding and looked at him... “Just this minute,” said Colin, “... when I looked at my hand digging with the trowel— and I had to stand up on my feet to see if it was real. And it is real! I’m well—I’m well!” …He had known it before in a way, he had hoped it and felt it and thought about it, but just at that minute something had rushed all through him—a sort of rapturous belief and realization and it had been so strong that he could not help calling out. “I shall live forever and ever and ever!” he cried grandly. “I shall find out thousands and thousands of things. I shall find out about people and creatures and everything that grows... I’m well! I’m well! I feel—I feel as if I want to shout out something— something thankful, joyful!”
The knowledge that He has changed and become well inspires him to want to shout out and sing and so the other children teach him the Doxology - a praise of the Holy Trinity. They give him the words to praise the One who works change and transformation in all His creation.
I love reading this every year during the spring because there’s so much new life in the spring - new growth coming out of the ground, sunshine and rain, green grass, buds on the trees - it’s always fresh and new. It tells me there’s always a new start possible, a new beginning. The Holy Spirit has new life for me right now.
Thank you Holy Spirit for the many ways you make me more alive and change me. I invite You to come into every part of my life, body, and heart this Pentecost.
- Sr. Sarah Rose Dent, TOR
