Each year when March comes, I anticipate that somehow the arrival of the spring equinox will coincide with the arrival of warmer weather. Maybe, just maybe, I can start to plant some early spring seeds. I am continually disappointed in the lack of a match between my ideas about the calendar and the reality of the world, as we continue to get snow through March and sometimes even into April. (I write these columns in advance, and even as I write, I think, But maybe this year will be different!)
Our prayer lives can also at times feel frozen or out of sync with the liturgical season. Perhaps we find that prayer is dry and expect that if we just pray a little harder, somehow things will be different. Or I might expect to feel joy at Easter, but the world around me still feels as though it is back at Ash Wednesday when I see a world in need of healing and redemption. I desire to get my feelings to align with the calendar or with my own expectations about how God will be with me in prayer. If a particular psalm has been consoling in the past, I
