Watering the fruits of the Holy Spirit

     My dear friend Wes, came up to me with a beautiful red tomato. He said it was one of his first from his garden. I said, " oh! You lucky duck! I'm still waiting on mine! ". He said, " well! You have to water them! " I smiled and replied, " Yes! You are right! ". With the "dog days of Summer" and the heat that it brings, I have opted on staying  inside where it's nice and cool, telling myself, I'll water later. Making it a hard road for growth for those tomatoes needing water. I started thinking about " Grace ", and the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. How I needed to water those fruits. The Holy Spirit is the Holy Water that nourishes His gifts. Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Generosity, Gentleness, Faithfulness, Modesty, Self-control and Chastity. A garden full of wonderful fruits. Visible signs of growth in Spirituality. It is said, that when we stay close to Jesus in Prayer and the Sacraments, the Spirit cultivates a new way of being in us. Fruits that are like God. The Garden of our Souls always needs cultivating, tilling, weeding, and most importantly, watering. The Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of God are all planted deep within our Souls at birth. As we grow, they can grow. But they need daily watering to bring their fruits alive. These are the treasures we bring at the harvest of our lives. The riches we have built up in our race to Heaven 

     So let us remember, that just as the seeds we have planted in the garden, so too, our Souls need the watering needed to reap the rich rewards, "for a good harvest". There, sustaining both nourishment for our bodies, along with our Souls.