Reflection
The world is not a problem to be solved; it is a living being to which we belong. The world is part of our own self and we are a part of its suffering wholeness. Until we go to the root of our image of separateness, there can be no healing. And the deepest part of our separateness from creation lies in our forgetfulness of its sacred nature which is also our own sacred nature. When our Western monotheistic culture suppressed the many gods and goddesses of creation, cut down the sacred groves and banished God to heaven, we began a cycle that has left the world destitute of the sacred in a way unthinkable to any indigenous people. ..Our separation from the natural world may have given us the fruits of technology and science, but it has left us bereft of any instinctual connection to the spiritual dimension of life–the connection between our soul and the souls of the world, the knowing that we are all part of one, living spiritual being.
Llwellyn Vaughn Lee
Prayer
In God’s hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all humankind.
Job 12:10
Action
What do you see in our society that makes the case that we have “banished God to heaven”? How can you increase your awareness of the sacred in your own life? Try this: view every single thing you see as sacred. See what happens.
Suggested Reading
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 3:1
I exhort everyone to see the world through the eyes of God the Creator: the earth is an environment to be safeguarded, a garden to be cultivated. The relationship of mankind with nature must not be conducted with greed, manipulation and exploitation, but it must conserve the divine harmony that exists between creatures and Creation within the logic of respect and care, so it can be put to the service of our brothers and sisters, also of future generations.
Pope Francis
Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures!
Francis of Assisi
The universe is the primary revelation of the divine, the primary scripture, the primary locus of divine-human communication.
Thomas Berry
All living creatures are sparks from the radiation of God’s brilliance, emerging from God like the rays of the sun.
Hildegard of Bingen
Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God.
George Washington Carver
Nature is my manifestation of God. I go to nature every day for inspiration in the day’s work. I follow in building the principles which nature has used in its domain.
Frank Llyod Wright
Our task must be to free ourselves… by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.
Albert Einstein
All over the sky a sacred voice is calling your name.
Black Elk