{"id":23072,"date":"2023-10-29T21:51:17","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T01:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23072"},"modified":"2023-10-30T09:51:37","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T13:51:37","slug":"23072","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23072","title":{"rendered":"Loving What Is before Us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How Majestic is Your Name MVL roncobb1\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Nig-WNo0YE8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a>Praise the&nbsp;Lord&nbsp;from the earth,<br>You sea monsters and all&nbsp;deeps;<br>Fire and hail,&nbsp;snow and&nbsp;clouds,<br>Stormy wind,&nbsp;fulfilling God\u2019s word;<br>Mountains and all hills,<br>Fruit&nbsp;trees and all cedars;<br>Beasts and all cattle;<br>Creeping things and winged fowl&#8230;<\/a><br>Let them praise the name of the Lord,<br>For God\u2019s&nbsp;name alone is exalted;<br>God\u2019s&nbsp;glory is above earth and heaven.<br>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;\u2014Psalm 148: 7\u201310, 13<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>God was known and praised in the natural world long before the advent of the written Scriptures. Father Richard writes:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a>Jewish and Christian traditions of creation<\/a>&nbsp;spirituality have their origins in Hebrew Scriptures such as Psalms 104 and 148. It is a <strong>spirituality that is rooted, first of all, in nature, in experience, and in the world as it is.<\/strong> This rich Hebrew spirituality formed the mind, heart, and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe we don\u2019t feel the impact of that until we realize how many people think religion has to do with ideas and concepts and formulas from books. That\u2019s how clergy and theologians were trained for years. We <strong>went away, not into a world of nature and silence and primal relationships, but into a world of books. <\/strong>Well, that\u2019s not biblical spirituality, and that\u2019s not where religion begins. It begins in observing \u201cwhat is.\u201d Paul says, \u201cEver since the creation of the world, the invisible essence of God and God\u2019s everlasting power have <strong>been clearly seen by the mind\u2019s understanding of created things\u201d<\/strong> (Romans 1:20).<strong> We know God through the things that God has made. The first foundation of any true religious seeing is, quite simply,&nbsp;<em>learning how to see and love what is<\/em><\/strong><em>.<\/em>&nbsp;Contemplation is meeting reality in its most simple and direct form unjudged, unexplained, and uncontrolled!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we don\u2019t know how to love what\u2019s right in front of us, then we don\u2019t know how to see what is. So, we must start with a stone! We move from the stone to the plant world and learn how to appreciate growing things and see God in them. In all of the natural world, we see the&nbsp;<em>vestigia Dei,<\/em>&nbsp;which means the fingerprints or footprints of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Per<strong>haps once we can see God in plants and animals, we might learn to see God in our neighbors. And then we might learn to love the world. And then, when all of that loving has taken place, when all of that seeing has happened, when such people come to me and tell me they love Jesus, I\u2019ll believe it! They\u2019re capable of loving Jesus. <\/strong>The soul is prepared. The soul is freed, and it\u2019s learned how to see and how to receive and how to move in and how to move out from itself. Such individuals might well understand how to love God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Praying with Nature<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Richard Rohr recalls his first experiences with the prayer of the Pueblo people in New Mexico:&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1969 when I was a young deacon in Acoma Pueblo, one of my jobs was to take the census. Because it was summer and hot, I would start early in the morning, driving my little orange truck to each residence. Invariably at sunrise, I would see a mother outside the door of her home, with her children standing beside her. She and the children would be reaching out with both hands uplifted to \u201cscoop\u201d up the new day and then \u201cpour\u201d it over their heads and bodies&nbsp;in blessing. I would sit in my truck until they were finished, thinking how silly it was of us Franciscans to think&nbsp;<em>we&nbsp;<\/em>brought religion to New Mexico four hundred years ago! [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though I have no family links to Indigenous religions, I have great respect for their wisdom. My early experience at Acoma Pueblo has inspired me to continue to learn about the Pueblo, Din\u00e9 (Navajo), and Apache peoples here in New Mexico. But I only know enough to know that I don\u2019t know much at all. <strong>Indigenous spirituality is not intended for non-Native use. When we try to interpret or apply these teachings in our own context, we run the risk of \u201csevere reinterpretation\u201d [2] according to our own cultural lens and preferences, and without enough regard for&nbsp;<a>their<\/a>&nbsp;traditional origins.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I also don\u2019t want to romanticize Native spirituality. <strong>As in every religion, there are times, places, and people who \u201cget it\u201d\u2014the mystery of divine\/human union\u2014more than others. <\/strong>There are different stages and states of consciousness, and all are part of the journey. Western models of development <strong>usually focus on the rational mind, which offers one way of knowing reality, but in fact, there are many other ways of perceiving and expressing human experience. <\/strong>[3]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a><em>Choctaw<\/em><\/a>&nbsp;<em>elder and retired Episcopal bishop Steven Charleston offers a meditation honoring different ways of knowing that have fed his soul:&nbsp;<\/em><em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For all the great thoughts I have read<br>For all the deep books I have studied<br>None has brought me nearer to Spirit<br>Than a walk beneath shimmering leaves<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Golden red with the fire of autumn<br>When the air is crisp<br>And the sun a pale eye, watching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am a scholar of the senses<br>A theologian of the tangible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spirit touches me and I touch Spirit<br>Each time I lift a leaf from my path<br>A thin flake of fire golden red<br>Still warm from the breath that made it. [4]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-12-500x383.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23074\" width=\"789\" height=\"604\" srcset=\"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-12-500x383.png 500w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-12-300x230.png 300w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-12-768x588.png 768w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-12.png 1052w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 789px) 100vw, 789px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Praise the&nbsp;Lord&nbsp;from the earth,You sea monsters and all&nbsp;deeps;Fire and hail,&nbsp;snow and&nbsp;clouds,Stormy wind,&nbsp;fulfilling God\u2019s word;Mountains and all hills,Fruit&nbsp;trees and all cedars;Beasts and all cattle;Creeping things and winged fowl&#8230;Let them praise the name of the Lord,For God\u2019s&nbsp;name alone is exalted;God\u2019s&nbsp;glory is above earth and heaven.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;\u2014Psalm 148: 7\u201310, 13 God was known and praised in [&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\/23072"}],"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=23072"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23081,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23072\/revisions\/23081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}