What harvest is God inviting you to bring forth? Through Anna Archer’s Harvesters and the words of Meister Eckhart, we reflect on how prayer cultivates the divine seed within us. As that seed grows, it bears fruit in loving action—the true harvest of the soul.

Matthew 9:36-38

Use this guide for prayer and contemplation. Read slowly, pausing as needed for silence and reflection.

Opening

Settle into a comfortable position. Let your shoulders soften. Unclench your jaw. Rest your hands.

Take a slow, deep breath in. And gently breathe out.

Stay here a moment.

As we come to prayer with the intention of drawing near to God, let our whole being become ready for the loving work of God.

Reflection on Contemplative Prayer

Contemplative prayer helps us become more fruitful laborers in God’s fields. Meister Eckhart writes: “What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action.”

As you draw near to God, notice what in you longs to do the work of God. The harvest is not only something at the end of time. It is also the cultivating of divine love within you—the seed of God planted deep within.

When that seed has a wise and patient cultivator, it grows toward God, inclining toward the nature of God—just as a pear seed grows into a pear tree, and a hazel seed into a hazel tree. Through contemplation, we nurture that divine seed. As we unite more closely with the divine, our hearts incline toward goodness—and that goodness naturally flows into our actions. The harvest of our lives.

As we begin, let us turn our attention to the harvest we long to bring forth in our service of God.

Scripture

Matthew 9:36–38 (The Inclusive Bible)

At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus said to the disciples, “The harvest is bountiful, but the laborers are few. Beg the overseer of the harvest to send laborers out to bring in the crops.”

Holy Spirit, come near. As you hold these words in your heart, let them meet the places in your life that feel distressed and dejected, and the places where a harvest is waiting.

Artwork for Prayerful Reflection

Harvesters — Anna Archer

As you gaze at this painting, let it become a doorway into prayer.

Though the scene is grounded in an ordinary task, it touches deep human truths: life and death, effort and reward, and what it means to bear fruit.

Notice the fertility of the field—the culmination of a season of growth—the full heads of grain meant to feed the hungry and to become next year’s seed.

And notice the contrast: the man with the scythe, long a symbol of the Grim Reaper and death. Even a fruitful season comes to an end; there is a measuring of growth.

Following are two women—one with a rake and one empty-handed—ready to gather what has been cut.

Reflection Questions

As you look at Harvesters, what details draw your attention first?

What do those details stir in you—memories, hopes, gratitude, or grief?

Where do you notice abundance in your life right now, and where do you feel scarcity?

When you hear, “The harvest is bountiful, but the laborers are few,” what rises in you—compassion, weariness, urgency, resistance?

As you imagine Jesus looking on the crowds with pity, where in your world do you see people “like sheep without a shepherd”?

What harvest do you sense God inviting you to help bring in during this season of your life?

How do your deepest desires and God’s hopes seem to be guiding the direction of your life right now?

What do you notice in your body as you hold all of this before God—tension, softness, restlessness, calm?

If God feels quiet, what kind of hint or sign might you ask for in the next few days, so you can recognize God’s leading?

Closing

God of the harvest, nurture the divine seed planted deep within us. Fill our souls, and the souls of those around us, with all that is good. Lead us from contemplation into loving action, that the harvest of our lives may serve your healing in the world. Amen.