‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few’
As Autumn draws on, we witness in the formation of seeds, the gathering of the forces that will endure, enabling the next cycle of growing, fruiting and harvest. And in the ripening fruit we receive the gift of nature, which sustains our life.
The ancient cultures of the world had this in common: they knew that the higher worlds depend on us for a harvest. It may seem strange to us when we read the stories of the Greek heroes, who left a portion of the sacrifice for the gods to eat, or when we hear that the Lord desires the pleasing fragrance of the offerings in the Hebrew Bible. This reflects our abstract thinking: if spiritual beings belong to a wholly different realm, how could they be nourished by anything from ours?
In the Offering in the Act of Consecration of Man we are reminded that all the forces of our souls can become a pleasing fragrance, a draught of health for the angelic world. What we experience for moments in the service wants to become the reality of our daily life: that we give ourselves wholeheartedly to our lives and the fullness of their experiences, always ready to relinquish them in openness for the blessings that stream towards us from the Spirit.
Every experience, every encounter can become an offering – a harvest that nourishes the spiritual world. Such a way of living means that we are preparing seeds that endure beyond the present moment into future cycles of time.
– Tom Ravetz