Reflection
There can be nothing separating us from God. All creation is intimate with God. We must take off our shoes for it is only here on this earth that we can encounter God. All ground is holy to God who calls us to take the holy and expand it into our own lives, into the life of our homes, and into the life of our community and world. The barriers we have erected between ourselves and the holy are artificial. We encounter and experience God’s presence everywhere.
Prayer
The heavens proclaim the glory of God and the earth is God’s handiwork.
Psalm 19:1
Action
What barriers have we erected between God and ourselves? Do we have obsolete concepts that separate us from God?
Suggested Readings
Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground
Exodus 3:5
Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth.
Francis of Assisi
The universe unfolds in God, who fills it completely. Hence, there is a mystical meaning to be found in a leaf, in a mountain trail, in a dewdrop, in a poor person’s face.
Pope Francis
The natural world is the larger sacred community to which we belong.
Thomas Berry
Tread softly! All the earth is holy ground.
Christina Rossetti
Nothing is insignificant, and everything worthy of respect and care. Nothing is second-class. What God has made is of value.
Paula D’Arcy
The challenge of the saints of the twenty-first century is to begin again to comprehend the sacred in the ten thousand things of our world; to reverence what we have come to view as ordinary and devoid of spirit.
Edward Hays
Whenever you handle any equipment or any person, be reverent. Be full of care with everything entrusted to you. Everything you touch or see, everyone for whom you have responsibility, is to be viewed as something cherished by God, and thus to be cherished by you.
Norvene Vest