{"id":20630,"date":"2021-10-12T09:50:40","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T13:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20630"},"modified":"2021-10-12T10:00:57","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T14:00:57","slug":"sensing-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20630","title":{"rendered":"Sensing Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lunFIc-8r8o\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Fr. Richard explores how a creation-centered spirituality offers a natural openness to the type of sensing that comes from contemplation:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Creation spirituality reveals our human arrogance, and\nmaybe that\u2019s why we are afraid of it. Maybe that\u2019s why we\u2019re afraid to believe\nthat God has spoken to us primarily in <em>what is<\/em>. Francis of Assisi was\nbasically a hermit. He lived in the middle of nature. And if we want nature to\ncome to life for us, we have to live in the middle of it for a while. When we\nget away from the voices of human beings, then we really start hearing the\nvoices of animals and trees. They start talking to us, as it were. And we start\ntalking back. Foundational faith, I would call it, the grounding for personal\nand biblical faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have been blessed to spend several Lents living as a\nhermit in nature. When we get rid of our watches and all the usual reference\npoints, it is amazing how real and compelling light and darkness become. It\u2019s\namazing how real animals become. And it\u2019s amazing how much we notice about\nwhat\u2019s happening in a tree each day. It\u2019s almost as if we weren\u2019t seeing it all\nbefore, and we wonder if we have ever seen at all. I don\u2019t think that Western\ncivilization realizes what a high price we pay for separating ourselves from\nthe natural world. One of the prices is certainly a lack of a sort of natural\ncontemplation, a natural seeing. My times in the hermitage re-situated me in\nGod\u2019s universe, in God\u2019s providence and plan. I had a feeling of being\nrealigned with <em>what is<\/em>. I <em>belonged <\/em>and was thereby saved! Think\nabout it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, creation spirituality is, first of all, the natural\nspirituality of people who have learned how to see. I am beginning to think\nthat much of institutional religion is rather useless if it is not grounded in\nnatural seeing and nature religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We probably don\u2019t communicate with something unless we\nhave already experienced its communications to us. I know by the third week I\nwas talking to lizards on my porch at the hermitage, and I have no doubt that\nsomehow some communion was happening. I don\u2019t know how to explain it beyond\nthat. I was reattached, and they were reattached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we are at peace, when we are not fighting it, when\nwe are not fixing and controlling this world, when we are not filled with\nanger, all we can do is start loving and forgiving. Nothing else makes sense\nwhen we are alone with God. All we can do is let go; there\u2019s nothing worth\nholding on to, because there is nothing else we need. It is in that free space,\nI think, that realignment happens. Francis lived out of such realignment. And I\nthink it is the realignment that he announced to the world in the form of\nworship and adoration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Young \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BEWARE OF SEEING YOURSELF through other people\u2019s eyes. There\nare several dangers to this practice. First of all, it is nearly impossible to\ndiscern what others actually think of you. Moreover, their views of you are\nvariable: subject to each viewer\u2019s spiritual, emotional, and physical\ncondition. The major problem with letting others define you is that it borders\non idolatry. Your concern to please others dampens your desire to please Me,\nyour Creator. It is much more real to see yourself through My eyes. My gaze\nupon you is steady and sure, untainted by sin. Through My eyes you can see\nyourself as one who is deeply, eternally loved. Rest in My loving gaze, and you\nwill receive deep Peace. Respond to My loving Presence by worshiping Me in\nspirit and in truth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>HEBREWS 11:6; And without faith it is impossible to please\nGod, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he\nrewards those who earnestly seek him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ROMANS 5:5; And hope does not put us to shame, because God&#8217;s\nlove has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been\ngiven to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>JOHN 4:23\u201324; Yet a time is coming and has now come when the\ntrue worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they\nare the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. \u00b2\u2074God is spirit, and his\nworshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fr. Richard explores how a creation-centered spirituality offers a natural openness to the type of sensing that comes from contemplation: Creation spirituality reveals our human arrogance, and maybe that\u2019s why we are afraid of it. Maybe that\u2019s why we\u2019re afraid to believe that God has spoken to us primarily in what is. Francis of Assisi [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20630"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20630"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20634,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20630\/revisions\/20634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}