It has been a rough first month of the new year for many folks, between the bitterly cold temperatures and winter storms, and the morally distressing public acts of violence and impunity in our country. These can seem like harsh winter times, in more ways than one.

For the past few years at our church, on the first Sunday in February we have honored St. Brigid’s Day with a ritual that embodies our faith and hope in the signs of renewed life that are to come. This can be a helpful ritual for us now, during these tough “wintering” times.

It may feel like spring is a long way away, but in fact, in February, many plants and seeds are beginning the metabolic processes of stirring out of their dormancy in preparation for spring. At a different level, how can we see the activity of Heaven on Earth stirring to life in our midst?

We know that our God has made this world good and worthy of love and flourishing. So, periods of darkness and cold can be in fact fertile times, in their way, important parts of the larger cycles of life and death and rebirth, of action and rest and preparation for renewed vitality.

We can all benefit from naming and praying for these kinds of deep roots and living waters, naming and praying for budding gifts of God that are soon to come.

It is significant that St. Brigid is honored at this time of the year. St. Brigid is a beloved representative of the life-giving, life-renewing roots and fruits of a life lived with the heart of Christ.  St. Brigid was born to a woman who was enslaved. The experience of her upbringing, coupled with her experience with the living Christ, made her lovingly attentive to those who need special nurture, especially those who have been neglected. She also is associated with the sacred powers that can bring fertility and creativity and healing and renewed life out of desperate situations. In Ireland, this is symbolized by the wells that are dedicated to St. Brigid in the midst of groves of trees.

            One of the practices on St. Brigid’s Day is to go to one of her wells and dip a piece of cloth in the water and tie that cloth to a nearby tree. Often people use this as a way to pray for healing for themselves or a loved one, bringing a piece of cloth from that person. But it’s also an opportunity to pray for other ways one may be needing or yearning for a deepened faith in the eternal truths of God through hardships and tests of that faith. It’s an opportunity to pray for a blessing on whatever new buds the fruits of the spirit of God’s Love are courageously preparing to emerge.

We can participate in this ritual wherever we are, by taking a ribbon, praying over it, dipping it in a body of water, and tying it to a tree. In the weeks to come, return to that tree and notice when it begins to form buds. Notice the signs in yourself and in your communities of what God is helping to bud with you.

Consider a God’s eye view of yourself, or your family, or our society, or our world. What fruits of the spirit needs to grow for you, or for someone you care about, for our society, for our world? What potential for life and truth and love and goodness do you deeply hope for, yearn for, that’s deeply needed, especially to help you, to help us, to help others near and far live more fully into who God has created us to be?

How can your faith in the deep well of the Living God nourish and bless and sustain what needs to grow for you, and the courage and conviction it will take?

Pray that hope into the ribbon, dip it into our sacred fount, to be nourished by the living waters of God, and put it on the branch of a tree, overwintering, knowing it is beginning to stir out of dormancy, and in a few months will begin to bud.

I’ll tell you what it is for me in these times, what I feel God is causing to growing in me that will help me live more fully into who God has created me to be:

Growing in courage to do what is right, in a good way, with moral clarity, especially the courage to stand up to bullies and to help protect people who are being bullied.