Bishop Barron (Wednesday July 23, 2025 Daily Reflection) paraphrases the parable: “The sower sows far and wide, some of the seed landing on the path, where the birds eat it up; some falling on rocky ground, where it is scorched in the sun; some sown among thorns, where life is choked off; and some sown on rich soil, where it bears thirty, sixty or a hundred fold”.

Being a product of a Midwest farming family and community, this parable always speaks to me, reminding me of my roots of my faith and my family. I can see and smell the dark rich soil my father planted the corn and beans in and the wonderful rich soil where we as a family planted the HUGE garden….. I mean really big and it held a lot of weeds. But it provided all of our vegetables and some of our fruits for a whole year, until the next year’s harvest. Of course, that meant freezing and canning. Summer fun!!

The analogy to this is what we plant in the soil of our soul. If we have planted roots of our faith in the Lord and continue to nourish that faith with prayer and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, the produce of our lives will be good and sustainable. No, not perfect, but definitely good and sustainable. On the other hand, if we only sometimes pray, pick and choose which commandments to follow, or stray from Mass or church services, we will be overcome by the weeds of life and the trends of today’s culture: the biggest weed being sin itself. Smothered by this weed, our faith cannot grow and flourish. It has no roots of rich soil of consistent prayer, reading of scripture, and reception of the sacraments. Then we have the seed that is planted on rocky ground and cannot grow. These are the times that yes we hear about prayer, sacraments, and the Lord’s teachings, scripture readings; but we CHOSE to do nothing about what we hear and see. We don’t practice; thus, faith cannot grow and it will die eventually.

It’s up to each of us individually to decide, to chose, to act on how rich we can make the soil of our soul. Furthermore, soil that is rich enough and has grown deep faith roots, an explosion of fire within us, so that we can pass that faith on to our family and friends.

Blessings for the richness of faith in our lives.

PJP