Fruit Trees and the Spirit

We built our home 18 years ago on 5 acres. Within the first 5 years we planted 3 pear trees, 1 apple and 1 cherry tree.  Our cherry tree has always produced fruit. It's still small, we might get enough to make one pie before the worms and birds get the rest.  We also had 3 girls in 3 years and 2 of them during those first 5 years in our home. Needless to say we were busy, the fruit trees were never pruned or taken care of properly.  We occasionally got a few apples and pears but not more than 6-8 from each tree.

But this year we had a bumper crop from our pears and apple!  I have no explanation of why or how it happened.  We don't spray our trees so they are truly 'organic'.  We did nothing to fertilize and certainly did not prune.  In fact, an unusual phenomenon happened on Halloween, it snowed. I went out and picked the rest of the pears so as not to waste them in the cold.

Bosco and a Pear Tree

This random bumper crop got me thinking of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit, in human terms, has no rhyme or reason. It doesn't make sense. Just like this years crops had no reason to be so bountiful.  The Queen lyric "anyway the wind blows" comes to mind.  The Holy Spirit seeds blow where ever it wills and plants itself in the souls that are ready for planting.  .

My 'organic' apple tree.

Bountiful Fruit of the Spirit 

God's love is always bountiful and is ever ready for harvest.  If we prune our hearts properly, our fruit will be abundant.  What is the fruit that we bear?

• Charity (love)
• Joy
• Peace
• Patience
• Kindness
• Goodness
• Long-Suffering (patience under provocation, enduring quietly the attacks of others)
• Gentleness
• Faith
• Modesty
• Self-Control (Temperance) 
• Chastity 

How can we grow this fruit?

We can ask the Holy Spirit to plant a seed in our hearts, pray that this fruit grow within you, be open to what ever promptings you believe are being asked of you.  If you mindfully and specifically ask for the Holy Spirit enter into your life, you might just find, for no rhyme or reason, that you have been transformed into a new tree that has abundant fruit to share.

Come Spirit Come!

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23

(St. Jerome used the Vulgate translation (Latin) that's why Catholics traditionally have 12.)

Do you pray specifically to the Holy Spirit to produce fruit in your life?