May

3

From the Pastor

May 3, 2008 |

Appreciating Nature As A Way to Connect With God

“If you have an eye for it, the world itself is a sacrament.”
-  St. Augustine

Presently, I am reading a book called When the Rain Speaks by Sr. Melanie Svoboda. (Sr. gave some evenings of reflections in our parish a couple of year ago). Reading the book should increase our appreciation of nature considerably. The following are a few snippets from the book. The quotes from the book are in italics.

Sr. speaks about a special Ash Tre on her farm where she grew up in Ohio. “The tree was our special set of monkey bars, providing us with numerous limbs to crawl up and dangle from. It was our hiding place when Mom was cooking up more chores for us to do. Day after day it welcomed us into its branches or under its shade with no questions asked.” Trees are a beautiful part of God’s creation. Outside the front door of my last church in Cocoa Beach, there was a beautiful tree which kids loved to climb. Also it was a favorite place for newlyweeds and others to have a photograph taken. Reflection question: Have trees ever moved you to prayer?

Sr. Melanie speaks about her love of horses. She thinks the horse is one of the “pinnacles of God’s creation.” She writes, “Everything about a horse is beautiful: The line of its back, the sake of its mane, the flare of its nostrils, the glint in its large deep eyes, the curve of its flanks, the sheen of its coat. No matter what a horse is doing, it’s beautiful, whether it’s bending over to nibble some grass, trotting over to get a drink of water, running full speed down a track, or just standing there.”

I agree totally, I especially love looking at race horses. I cannot wait for the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont.

Sr. Melanie has a chapter on The Sun. She opens the chapter with this quote by Thomas Merton, she writes:

I saw the red flame of the kingly sun glaring through the black trees, not like dawn but like a forest fire. Then the sun became distinguished as a person and he shone silently and with solemn power through the branches, and the whole world was silent and clam. Taking time to behold sunrises or sunsets as well as the moon and the stars is a lovely way to appreciate God’s gift of creation.

In a chapter on snowflakes, Melanie opens with this quote by Henry David Thoreau: “Nature is full of genius, full of divinityso that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.” How beautiful.

In her chapter on Flowers, Melanie opens with this quote by Gerhardt Torsteegen: “Make room for that which is capable of rejoicing, enlarging, or calming the heart.”

The chapter on Mountains, opens with a quote by Thomas Merton: “They are sacred and majestic mountains, ominous, enormous,  noble stirring. You want to attend to them. I could not keep my eyes off them.” John Muir “saw nature not merely as a practical benefit for humankind - trees to give us lumber, mountains to give us coal. He also appreciated nature as something valuable for its own sake. He also appreciated nature for the spiritual qualities it possessed. Seeing Yosemite for the first time, he wrote: “No temple made by hands can compare with this.”

A mountain climb in Glacier National Park, Machu Picchu (Peru) and a visit to Yosemite are three of my top nature experiences.

Sister speaks about the Art of beholding. Quoting St. Felix, she writes: “Every creature in the world will raise our hearts to God if we look upon it with a good eye.” Jesus tells us to “behold the lilies of the field.” English mystic Evelyn Underhill once said: “For lack of attention, a thousand forms of loveliness elude us every day.” The psalmist urges us to behold the works of the Lord (46:8 ).

So this month take time to smell the roses, gaze at the sunrises and sunsets, enjoy animals and take time to notice and behold the million other gifts of creation. Help your children to grow in their appreciation of creation and remember to connect it all with God, the Creator.

In Christ,

Fr. Eamon

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