Session 4: A symphony of all creatures with humanity
Ask for the Grace “To sense each creature singing the hymn of its existence is to live joyfully in God’s love and hope”.
We will now hear two short extracts from numbers 84 and 85 of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’:
… each human being is an image of God, [but] … each creature has its own purpose. None is superfluous. The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God. The history of our friendship with God is always linked to particular places which take on an intensely personal meaning; we all remember places, and revisiting those memories does us much good. Anyone who has grown up in the hills or used to sit by the spring to drink, or played outdoors in the neighbourhood square; going back to these places is a chance to recover something of their true selves.
… “From panoramic vistas to the tiniest living form, nature is a constant source of wonder and awe. It is also a continuing revelation of the divine”.
[55] The bishops of Japan, for their part, made a thought-provoking observation: “To sense each creature singing the hymn of its existence is to live joyfully in God’s love and hope”.
[56] This contemplation of creation allows us to discover in each thing a teaching which God wishes to hand on to us, since “for the believer, to contemplate creation is to hear a message, to listen to a paradoxical and silent voice”.
[57] …
- What voices did you hear anew during lockdown, when the noise of human activity was quietened, and we could hear more clearly the other voices in the choir of every creature of God singing the divine glory and telling of his love?
- What are the places or memories which highlight God’s friendship for you and for every creature?
- What aspects of your true self does the creator call you to recover?
Speak now with your Creator of what you are invited to notice, remember and love in the creation which is our common home.