Letters from Seminary: Hartnedy

Just like mango jelly, transformation with God takes time

Published: October 9, 2021

By John Paul Hartnedy
Diocesan Seminarian

I knew something was amiss when the mango jelly I was making looked suspiciously like a freshly opened jar of baby food. For many years, baking and cooking have been creative pastimes for me, and so recently, I tried my hand at jelly making. I figured it couldn’t be too hard, and I’d soon have a tasty way to make sandwiches and share with the other seminarians.

Hours later, I was nursing a few burns and staring down at the steaming yellow mass, wondering what went wrong. Was it the extra time on the stovetop? Or maybe I should have soaked the mangos first? What about the water to sugar ratio?

Then it hit me: I had forced the juice through the strainer because I was in a rush, so the resulting concoction had lots of pulp instead of working with pure liquid. I wasn’t willing to wait a few hours for the juice to strain naturally, but I tried to hurry the process along, impatient for results.

I’ve found a similar reality of being true in my relationship with God. One of the blessings of my time in seminary is that it has provided me with the time and space to slow down, be patient and get to know God and his people over time: six years so far and two to come. That’s a long straining process.

The temptation is to become impatient, to force formation and demand results. However, as the mango jelly incident just reminded me, holiness is a process of God’s action in our lives. It is an ongoing transformation that he works within us, often in silence, without evidence of immediate results. When I seem alone in prayer, when assignments from school threaten to bury me, when worries of the world crash down, it’s tempting to reach for the strainer and try to force something to happen.

More often than not, though, I end up with a few burns and nothing to show except baby food. Whether it’s in the kitchen, the chapel or wherever we are, it takes hope to remain in the process of transformation. Hope enables holiness. It allows us to stay open to God’s quiet and steady working in our lives when, for all the world, it seems like he’s asleep in the boat in the middle of a storm.

This hope isn’t an irrational optimism or a stoic resignation. Rather, it flows from a gentle certainty of who God is and how he acts in our lives. Hope reminds us that God keeps his promises, is present with us and personally invested in our lives. After all, he sent his Son out of love for us.

From this confidence flows the patience to wait, surrender in the silence, and abandon ourselves to divine providence. It readies our hearts to respond to him when he acts, even in unexpected ways. My first attempt at making jelly was humbling for sure. But it reminded me of the sacredness of time: that holiness is a process, and so is straining mangos.

John Paul Hartnedy, a member of St. Edward Church in Little Rock, is a diocesan seminarian attending Assumption Seminary in San Antonio, Texas. This article was originally published in Arkansas Catholic. Copyright Diocese of Little Rock. All rights reserved. This article may be copied or redistributed with acknowledgement and permission of the publisher.