What prompts Joe's journey to Montreal in the novel, Wheat That Springeth Green?

Joe’s journey to Montreal at the height of his midlife crisis is a quest to realign his spiritual priorities. He gives up drinking. He attends Mass rather than says Mass. He refuses to wear his priest collar. He works in a neighborhood charity shelter. He confides his spiritual concerns with a fellow priest. In short, he returns to the spiritual life of humility, compassion, service, and charity. Ironically, he comes back to his spiritual life in a city still in winter. Much like the French hymn that gives the novel its title, in the forbidding chill of Montreal Joe signals his return to spiritual invigoration.