[caption id="attachment_5911" align="alignright" width="144"] Blog by Shirley Bodisch, OP[/caption]
Long before we (humans) came on the scene as a new earthly species, holiness flourished. It is not just about humans but very much about the planetary and cosmic contexts in which humans evolve, grow, and develop. (Diarmuid O’Murchu – Incarnation, pg. 44.)
I quote O’Murchu because after digesting his latest book entitled Incarnation: A New Evolutionary Threshold I had to run across the room to gather my socks, you see he had knocked them off!
Seriously, I have come to understand that what I have been musing on for some time now concerning Earth, the cosmos, we humans, God and the web of life has not been too far off the mark. When I first saw that awesome iconic photo of Earth taken from the space station, I felt deeply that she truly is a living thing. Earth is the womb from which we were born. And this inner vision has been with me ever since. I have struggled to put into words my feelings about this wonderful planet from which we draw our lives.
Earth is unique. She is a self-regulating, breathing, nourishing, flourishing producer of life; and not just plants, bugs and animals and such, but life which is self-aware. You see, we humans are not really the top of a pyramid of life. No, we are part of the evolving of Life which is still emerging from this incredible planet. The first life form, bacteria, we contain it. Then there came life forms with protective coatings and a nucleus, we contain that. Later eukaryotes which invented sexuality and communal living, well we contain that too. Gills extracting oxygen, lungs taking in and giving out, fins, arms, legs, teeth, brains, all belong to our early beginnings. We could not exist without Earth creating, experimenting with her earliest life forms while she provided just the right elements for life to flourish. So you see Earth’s wisdom is being realized in us and she is not nearly finished.
The self-awareness with which we are blessed, our reflections over the mystery of the cosmos, our wonderings about God, creation, indwelling, all these are part of the universe reflecting upon itself. Or, is it really the Holy Spirit, that Wonderful Animator, the One who brings order out of chaos, who sparks our minds and hearts and who lures us forward toward the Heart of the One whose Love is manifest in all that is? Let us give honor and praise to Earth, the embodiment of the Divine Spark of Love and Life revealed in matter and energy. Yes, praise her, protect her, save her from the destructive forces of which we humans are capable. For in honoring her we honor the Beloved whose Spirit animates her and all who draw life from her.
Each blade of grass has its spot on Earth whence it draws its life, its strength; and so is man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together with his life. –Joseph Conrad
Blog by Shirley Bodisch, OP[/caption]
Long before we (humans) came on the scene as a new earthly species, holiness flourished. It is not just about humans but very much about the planetary and cosmic contexts in which humans evolve, grow, and develop. (Diarmuid O’Murchu – Incarnation, pg. 44.)
I quote O’Murchu because after digesting his latest book entitled Incarnation: A New Evolutionary Threshold I had to run across the room to gather my socks, you see he had knocked them off!
Seriously, I have come to understand that what I have been musing on for some time now concerning Earth, the cosmos, we humans, God and the web of life has not been too far off the mark. When I first saw that awesome iconic photo of Earth taken from the space station, I felt deeply that she truly is a living thing. Earth is the womb from which we were born. And this inner vision has been with me ever since. I have struggled to put into words my feelings about this wonderful planet from which we draw our lives.
Earth is unique. She is a self-regulating, breathing, nourishing, flourishing producer of life; and not just plants, bugs and animals and such, but life which is self-aware. You see, we humans are not really the top of a pyramid of life. No, we are part of the evolving of Life which is still emerging from this incredible planet. The first life form, bacteria, we contain it. Then there came life forms with protective coatings and a nucleus, we contain that. Later eukaryotes which invented sexuality and communal living, well we contain that too. Gills extracting oxygen, lungs taking in and giving out, fins, arms, legs, teeth, brains, all belong to our early beginnings. We could not exist without Earth creating, experimenting with her earliest life forms while she provided just the right elements for life to flourish. So you see Earth’s wisdom is being realized in us and she is not nearly finished.
The self-awareness with which we are blessed, our reflections over the mystery of the cosmos, our wonderings about God, creation, indwelling, all these are part of the universe reflecting upon itself. Or, is it really the Holy Spirit, that Wonderful Animator, the One who brings order out of chaos, who sparks our minds and hearts and who lures us forward toward the Heart of the One whose Love is manifest in all that is? Let us give honor and praise to Earth, the embodiment of the Divine Spark of Love and Life revealed in matter and energy. Yes, praise her, protect her, save her from the destructive forces of which we humans are capable. For in honoring her we honor the Beloved whose Spirit animates her and all who draw life from her.
Each blade of grass has its spot on Earth whence it draws its life, its strength; and so is man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together with his life. –Joseph Conrad