“Blessed Winter Of The Spirit”

Life has its ups and downs; but to be honest, I prefer the “ups”. I love the times of grace and blessings when I’m feeling peaceful in body, mind, and spirit…..  I wake up rested, the sky is blue,  the kids are acting like saints, my teams are winning, peace is breaking out in our country and the world. Yet, it’s probably not news to any of you, but these “heavenly days” seem somewhat rare. 

Carolyn Houselander,  a wonderful Catholic author, has the gift of articulating in words what we are often feeling in our soul. She can put things in perspective. Listen to her thoughts from a recent Magnificat.(11-28-25):

• “most of us tend to want to feel the presence of the indwelling Christ all the time; we want to experience continual sweetness in devotion, 
• Yet we are distressed because we know long periods when prayer brings us no sweetness at all. We are impatient because we do not immediately feel the healing of our wounds, or do not at once after confession, recover from the effects of our sins; we are still tempted, and if we have formed a bad habit, it takes time to un-form it.“ 

Yes it appears that Carolyn has been reading my mind again. I’m impatient and I want patience right now. I want heaven, right now. I get a taste of the sweetness of God and I don’t want it to dissipate. She goes a little deeper saying:

• “…. allowing the Holy Spirit to feed our souls consists in accepting God’s plan, and in that plan there is winter as well as spring, spring as well as summer with its flowering, and autumn with its harvest. 
• This means that we must deliberately refuse to be anxious. There are times when we shall not feel the indwelling of Christ, when we shall not feel that we have faith. Yet these blessed winters of the spirit, are the times when Christ is growing in our souls….. these times of dryness in prayer —times when, if we are honest, we know that we have not entered into “the dark night of the soul” but have merely become bored by prayer; 
• being human, after a period of intense sweetness, or of giving of ourselves to others, a succeeding period of emptiness and flatness is certain… this time of emptiness is the preparation for the new influx of life, the new sweetness, which we cannot force but which will come only when there is an empty heart, a fallow mind, awaiting the inrush of heaven’s life. “ (ibid)

To be honest after many years of trying to follow the Lord, I have actually come to know some of what she is talking about. I know it to be true. Yet I can forget  in the midst of the “blessed winter of the spirit”. I can easily become disappointed when I don’t walk in the spirit of love and service and attunement to God’s Holy Will. It’s during these times that I need to be reminded. So I’m happy when I come across someone like Carol Houselander who reminds me.

As we enter Advent, may these words help us to  stay focused on the Lord and his will and persevere in the blessed winter of the spirit, when we don’t experience his sweetness in devotion. May we deliberately refuse to be anxious and know that blessed times are right around the corner. And that is very good news.