{"id":16521,"date":"2018-03-12T09:51:24","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T13:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16521"},"modified":"2018-03-12T09:51:24","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T13:51:24","slug":"nature-as-a-mirror-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16521","title":{"rendered":"Nature as a Mirror of God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JExqXDsTjEU\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Nature as a Mirror of God<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nMonday, March 12, 2018<\/p>\n<p>Long ago, St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), named a Doctor of the Church in 2012, communicated creation spirituality through music, art, poetry, medicine, gardening, and reflections on nature. She wrote in her famous book, Scivias:<br \/>\nYou understand so little of what is around you because you do not use what is within you. [1]<\/p>\n<p>This is key to understanding Hildegard and is very similar to Teresa of \u00c1vila\u2019s understanding of the soul. Without using the word, Hildegard recognized that the human person is a microcosm with a natural affinity for or resonance with its macrocosm, which many call God. Our little world reflects the big world. The key word here is resonance. Contemplative prayer allows your mind to resonate with what is visible and right in front of you. Contemplation erases the separateness between the seer and the seen.<br \/>\nHildegard often used the word viriditas, the greening of things from within, similar to what we now call photosynthesis. She recognized a readiness in plants to receive the sun and to transform it into energy and life. She also saw an inherent connection between the physical world and the divine Presence. This connection translates into energy that is the soul and seed of everything, an inner voice calling you to \u201cBecome who you are; become all that you are.\u201d This is our \u201clife wish\u201d or what Carl Jung called the \u201cwhole-making spirit.\u201d<br \/>\nHildegard is a wonderful example of someone who lives safely inside an entire cosmology, a universe where the inner shows itself in the outer, and the outer reflects the inner, where the individual reflects the cosmos, and the cosmos reflects the individual. Hildegard said, \u201cO Holy Spirit, you are the mighty way in which every thing that is in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth, is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness.\u201d [2] It is truly a Trinitarian universe, with all things whirling toward one another: from orbits, to gravity, to ecosystems, to sexuality.<br \/>\nIn another place, Hildegard has God saying:<br \/>\nI have created mirrors in which I consider all the wonders of my originality which will never cease. [3]<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, for Hildegard nature was a mirror for the soul and for God. This mirroring changes how we see and experience reality. Later, Bonaventure (1217-1274) wrote: \u201cIn the soul\u2019s journey to God we must present to ourselves the whole material world as the first mirror through which we may pass over to the Supreme [Artisan].\u201d [4] The Dominican Meister Eckhart (1260-1327) said the same: \u201cIf humankind could have known God without the world, God would never have created the world.\u201d [5]<br \/>\nNature is not a mere scenic backdrop so humans can take over the stage. Creation is in fact a full participant in human transformation, since the outer world is absolutely needed to mirror the true inner world. There are not just two sacraments, or even seven; the whole world is a sacrament!<\/p>\n<p>=======================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Total Surrender<\/strong><br \/>\nBy Oswald Chambers<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Peter began to say to Him, &#8220;See, we have left all and followed You.&#8221; \u2014Mark 10:28<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Our Lord replies to this statement of Peter by saying that this surrender is \u201cfor My sake and the gospel\u2019s\u201d (Mark 10:29). It was not for the purpose of what the disciples themselves would get out of it. Beware of surrender that is motivated by personal benefits that may result. For example, \u201cI\u2019m going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy.\u201d Being delivered from sin and being made holy are the result of being right with God, but surrender resulting from this kind of thinking is certainly not the true nature of Christianity. Our motive for surrender should not be for any personal gain at all. We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him, and not for God Himself. It is like saying, \u201cNo, Lord, I don\u2019t want you; I want myself. But I do want You to clean me and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I want to be on display in Your showcase so I can say, \u2018This is what God has done for me.\u2019 \u201d Gaining heaven, being delivered from sin, and being made useful to God are things that should never even be a consideration in real surrender. Genuine total surrender is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.<br \/>\nWhere does Jesus Christ figure in when we have a concern about our natural relationships? Most of us will desert Him with this excuse\u2014 \u201cYes, Lord, I heard you call me, but my family needs me and I have my own interests. I just can\u2019t go any further\u201d (see Luke 9:57-62). \u201cThen,\u201d Jesus says, \u201cyou \u2018cannot be My disciple\u2019 \u201d (see Luke 14:26-33).<br \/>\nTrue surrender will always go beyond natural devotion. If we will only give up, God will surrender Himself to embrace all those around us and will meet their needs, which were created by our surrender. Beware of stopping anywhere short of total surrender to God. Most of us have only a vision of what this really means, but have never truly experienced it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nature as a Mirror of God Monday, March 12, 2018 Long ago, St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), named a Doctor of the Church in 2012, communicated creation spirituality through music, art, poetry, medicine, gardening, and reflections on nature. She wrote in her famous book, Scivias: You understand so little of what is around you because [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16521"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16522,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16521\/revisions\/16522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}