We have a “Green” Pope! However, Francis is not the first pope to call us to an ecological conversion. In, Laudato Si, he quotes the previous four popes who speak of the ethical and spiritual roots of the environmental problems and challenge us, as Thomas Berry said, to “reinvent the human” 1. This is a call to explore and live into, become again, one with a universe that is alive.
Listening for the Heartbeat of God in the World
Written by Sr Mary Rowell on behalf of Sr Nicole Aubé
In his beautiful book, “Listening to the Heartbeat of God”, J. Philip Newell says, “To listen to God is to listen deep within ourselves, including deep within the collective life and consciousness of the world.” In childhood, this listening to the “beat of God’s heart” in our surroundings often arises spontaneously. Most of us have memories of experiencing the “music” of a running stream, the “magic” of new shoots in Spring, the magnificent colours of Fall and the “silence of snow”. Such experiences commonly gifted us with our first sense of Sacred Presence, the call of God to both intimacy and service. Yet, as Philip Newell says such experiences will not have been affirmed generally in our religious tradition.
Despite early Christian tradition, found especially in the Celtic Church, that taught that God is revealed in both the Book of Scripture and the Book of Nature a dichotomy between the two, historically occurred. A dominant Roman tradition emphasizing a spirituality in which God is to be “found” only within the context of the Church, its rituals and formal teachings eclipsed the earlier perspective in which as the Celtic theologian, John Scotus Eriugena, claimed, “all things, visible and invisible can be called a theophany” (a revelation of God).
The Celtic vision was inspired by a devotion to St. John, the beloved disciple, who leaned against “the heart” of Jesus at the Last Supper. This spirituality, as newell says, lent itself easily to “a listening for God at the heart of all life”, an understanding of a world of wonder and mystery in which the Holy Spirit affirms God’s continual presence in creation.
We discover this in the beautiful prayers and blessings of the Western Isles of Scotland handed down for centuries in the oral tradition and which in the nineteenth century were recorded by Alexander Carmichael in the beautiful texts of the Carmina Gadelica. Here we read blessings of “the ordinary things of life”, praises of God in nature such as “Behold the Lightner of the stars on the crests of clouds.” In a Christmas carol is written, “this night is the eve of the Great Nativity, the souls of His feet have reached the Earth” and in response, “Earth and Ocean illumined Him, mountains and plains glowed to Him, the voice of the waves with the song of the strand announced to us that Christ is born.”
This all speaks of a deep sense of incarnation and of a spirituality that perceives elements of the Earth as expressions of God’s grace calling us to a prayer of contemplative listening for the heart-beat of God in all creation, in all people as well as in the Church and to see the whole of life as sacramental. We are called by this listening, as Newell says, in new directions, “social and political as well as ecological” by “the conviction that God is the life of the world and not merely some religious aspect of it.” As Pope Francis reminds us in his recent and compelling Encyclical, Laudato Si’, “In the heart of the world, the Lord of Life, who loves us so much, is always present. [He] does not abandon us, [He] does not leave us alone, for [He] has united [Himself] definitively to our earth, and [His] love constantly impels us to find new ways forward!” Together we live in the pulsating rhythm of God’s heart in all life – let us listen anew.
(It has been my privilege to write this reflection first suggested by Sister Nicole Aubé and which I am sure had she been able to write at this time would have been so much more inspired, steeped as she is in this beautiful spirituality. Thank you Nicole for all the grace and wisdom you have brought to your work for the Ecology Committee and more generally for showing us how to live in every place and moment listening to the heartbeat of God.)
From Lent to Easter and Winter to Spring
As I write this short piece for the “Green Window” we are nearing the beginning of Holy Week and looking forward to the joy of Easter and Spring with all the hope that accompanies the liturgical season and the natural season – both times during which we celebrate resurrection and new life. The Paschal Mystery celebrated in our churches and reflected so clearly in the “nature of things” – of all created life, reminds us of continuity and wholeness: cross AND resurrection, winter AND spring.
This Lent I have been reflecting on (and trying to practice) some ways in which our traditional Lenten practices have been “greened” in churches. Four years ago, for example, parts of the Anglican Church proposed that rather than fasting from usual things like chocolate or other favourite food items, members consider participating in a carbon fast. Examples included carpooling or taking public transport or being more careful with the use of electricity, shopping for local produce and resisting items from far away requiring long-distance transportation to our supermarkets. All of these practices were recommended in light of the urgent call to Christians to respond to the devastating consequences of climate change
The following Lent, the Roman Catholic bishops of England and Wales recommended a return to Friday fast and abstinence. This was not solely about the externals of a former “Catholic identity” but was closely linked to current environmental considerations. In particular, the conference of bishops suggested that abstinence from meat at least one day each week during Lent as well as being a “spiritual discipline” reminds us that the over-consumption, especially in wealthier countries, of red meat leads to environmentally problematic farming practices and a reduction in grain so necessary to feed the hungry worldwide.
What was of special interest in the Catholic bishops’ recommendations was the proposal that the practice of Friday fast and abstinence be continued beyond Lent. The Lenten practices were about forming new habits spiritually, or conversion, that could be linked closely to ongoing contributions to wellbeing in the world. So rather than putting a “damper” on our Easter celebrations perhaps some reflection on traditional Lenten practices might lead us to a “green conversion” that will truly allow us and the world to rejoice in new life. What if my prayer became a contemplative prayer of thanksgiving and rejoicing in the gift creation? What if my lifestyle were such that my “fasting” from some things becomes “almsgiving” for the wellbeing of the environment and my poorer neighbours? This truly would be a celebration of resurrection: Lent into Easter, winter into spring, love for life!
