Earth Month Series
Earth Signs
Reflection
There is a profound Mystery at work in the natural world. The living, pulsing community of this living planet is constantly speaking its message. If we pause, and look, and listen, the Sacred is being revealed always and everywhere. No cathedral of stone has the same ability to reflect Holy Mystery. No choir sings God’s praise like the sounds of Earth. This is holy ground. The signs are everywhere.
Prayer
May I always respect Earth as holy ground.
Action
Attune yourself to notice and listen to Earth. Try to find some quiet space where you can reflect. Let yourself experience what it means to be a part of our natural world. Be part of the community of those who work to save our planet.
Visit – https://www.earthday.org/
Suggested Reading
How varied are your works, O God!!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
Psalm 104:24
But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being.
Job 12:7-10
The world is charged with the grandeur of God
It will flame like shining from shook foil.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Nature is the art of God.
Dante Alghieri
There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.
Wendell Berry
In every walk in with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
John Muir
The most beautiful gift of nature is that it gives one pleasure to look around and try to comprehend what we see.
Albert Einstein
Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.
Rachel Carson
The earth has music for those who listen.
William Shakespeare
The earth laughs in flowers.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Go outside. Don’t tell anyone and don’t bring your phone. Start walking and keep walking until you no longer know the road like the palm of your hand, because we walk the same roads day in and day out, to the bus and back home and we cease to see.
Charlotte Eriksson
Video: The Signs Are Everywhere
Note:
The motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph includes 212 acres of land acquired more than 100 years ago within the bioregion of Long Island. The Sisters of St. Joseph are keeping the land as a sacred place of respect and healing for Earth and the local community.
To make our Brentwood grounds more sustainable Sisters of St. Joseph replaced lawns with rain gardens, native grass meadows, and native plants. These drought-tolerant natural areas offer habitat for wildlife, attract insects and pollinators and increase overall biodiversity while also maintaining an aesthetically pleasing campus.
We also created a three-acre native grass meadow in a section of the large lawn area in front of the main buildings. The purpose of the native grass meadow is to restore ecosystems to provide wildlife habitat for species likely to be found in the Long Island bioregion, attract insects and pollinators, and to restore native plant communities.