Leonardo da Vinci knew that God helps those who help themselves and that this could be hard work. The labor that brings us all good things is more than just our effort in the outer world — it is a reflection of our inner work and ethical awareness. Leonardo's prayer illustrated this: "Thou, O God, dost sell unto us all good things at the price of labor."
There must come a winter for every seed. There must come that which protects and shields the seed toward spring, that which indeed gives its life and absorbs the hatred of winter for life, that mysterious essence which is the sacrificial aspect of life. It made the seed possible. It keeps the seed growing in the hidden ways of winter. It takes upon its heart the pangs of Christ-birth, the furor of all the Herods who represent that part of the race which bitterly had died, which had become death incarnate. She understood. He did not speak of such things. They must not be spoken within the seed. But every particle of it must know from within, in the silence.
