“Be glad, O sons of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord, your God; for he has given you the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before.
The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you the years which the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.
You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame.
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even upon the menservants and maidservants in those days, I will pour out my spirit.”
– Joel 2:23-29
This Old Testament promise is traditionally understood to refer to the Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit upon those hidden away in the upper room.
It’s a good reminder that it is the Lord who brings the rain. This week in Green Ridge, we’re feeling a little more like Noah than Joel. We’ve had more than four inches of rain and there’s no sign of it stopping. Every yard is sloppy and flooded. All the baseball games are canceled. Creeks and ponds are running over, and gardeners are struggling to finish their planting. But amidst it all, he really has “dealt wondrously” with us. The birds are louder than ever, waking us with their chattering in the 5 o’clock hour. Irises of every color are still blooming, from white to peach to dusky red. They are joined by nodding red poppies and and an explosion of roses in every color, including that beautiful bane of every cattleman, the wild multiflora rose. White daises and lavender phlox are profuse on the roadsides. The strawberries and sour cherries are almost ripe. We’ll pick them soon — if it ever stops raining.
On this vigil of Pentecost, here’s your news and notes of rural life and Catholicism!
This story from 2019 is very long and very sad. Nonetheless, it provides a great in-depth look at the plight of Black Southern farmers, who have lost about 90 percent of their farmland between the years 1910 and 1997. How does this happen? It’s a legal labyrinth more twisted than streams of the bayou.
What if our cities, our urban planning, and our architecture reflected a Catholic understanding of natural law? “Living Laudato Si” isn’t just for us folks out in the country.
A Green Ridge Devotional
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