The Prayer Thread is a collection of teachings and practical prompts to help as we learn to pray in community. This text was originally delivered on March 14, 2025 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
I recall the year, when during the late winter months, I was feeling down, depressed, eager for light. That same year, I learned that as the days grow longer in the Northern hemisphere, the angle of the sun shifts, intensifying the heat that hits the earth. Not only do the days lengthen in the spring, but the air also warms up. Thank God! The warming of spring arrives in time to contribute to the thawing of winter. The earth, and its inhabitants, cold and still in the dark of winter begin to stir and awaken with the warming. Spring, even more than summer, is a season of warming, a season of fire.
We might recognize similar patterns in the life of prayer. There are times of dark, cold and still. In these times, our hearts are weary, our spirits are heavy, and our sights are short. Yet, always, the light returns, the heat warms, and the senses stir again! We shift from dead and dreary to alive and fiery! At times, this cycle occurs within a single day, or week, or month. Sometimes, as do the seasons, the cycle takes months, and months even become years.
Regardless of length, the pattern maintains and remains. It is cyclical. It is the Paschal Mystery– life, death, resurrection. For those times when we feel stuck in the season of winter’s dark and stillness, when our hearts feel heavy and lifeless, we can remember the warmth of spring’s sun. We can turn our faces toward the Light, and in the disciplined acts of remembering together, in prayer, we recognize when the Hand of the Holy One rubs together briskly, sparking a fire through prayer that is heartwarming and life-giving. In prayer, let us remember the Fire of the Holy One and surrender our hearts to the Warmth of Light!
