As one who spent years working on a farm, this parable of the sower and the seeds conjures up a clear picture for me of a field bordered on two sides by dirt roads, on another by a stone row, and on the last side by wild brambles that grow wherever the soil is not cultivated.  

At planting time, we wouldn't dream of spreading costly seed on the hard-packed dirt of the road or among the rocks or prickly brambles.  No.  We spread seed in rich soil turned over by a plow and smoothed by a disk harrow and formed into neat beds by a bedder in which a straight row was marked by a row-marker.  A good deal of work went into preparing the soil to receive the seed and nurture it.

The way I see it, we have an important role in being ready to receive the word of God, in preparing a place for it to take root and grow in us.  Prayer and humility (from the same root word as "humus:" soil) open us; love and compassion soften us; longing for God makes us receptive.  Here are ways for us to prepare the soil of our souls to receive and nourish the seeds of God's wisdom and love so that we might bear the fruit of God's Holy Spirit in us.  

Joan Chittester, O.S.B. writes about this process of spiritual formation thus:  "You can't get the spiritual life by waiting for it.  You have to reach for it.  Read things that gild your soul.  Turn your mind to prayer, to a conscious response to the God present here and now.  Remember who you are."  (The Rule of Benedict, p. 63)