As a young novice for the Congregation of Holy Cross our early training took place on a farm.
Many of us were city boys but would soon learn how to milk cows, feed the chickens, collect discarded food from area restaurants to feed the pigs, plant corn and reap the harvest. Two seasoned religious brothers, Brother Laetus, csc and Brother Protase, csc taught us.
It was on the that farm that I heard Brother Protase say that “snow was poor man’s manure” I didn’t understand what he meant then but what he said is what we heard Isaiah say today in the Scripture reading. “Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down…God sends us rain and snow to water the earth, make it fertile, enriching the soil getting it ready for the Spring planting”.
Maybe now we can better understand the call during Lent to not only give alms, and fast but to pray for when we engage God in prayer we allow God to speak words to us that will not only renew us but renew the face of our earth.
