Sister Doreen’s Reflections
The August Anglican Church of Canada Calendar scripture reflection
“The Heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1)
I found myself thinking about De Chardin’s book “A Hymn to the Universe”, a poetic and spiritual celebration of God at the centre of the universe and at the heart of matter. Much like Psalm 19 it is a cosmic sweep or vision of a vast universe, alive and full of God’s presence. God is alive and speaking to us in and through the universe, teaching us. It is a psalm that both encourages us and affirms in us that life-experience is where we begin to understand the living mind or word of God which fills all things and instructs those whose hearts and minds are open to it. God is quietly speaking through all things, and inviting us, calling us to open ourselves inwardly to grow in wisdom to see this truth. What can be our response to this but glory, glory, glory!
I often find myself asking ‘How can you witness the awesome wonder of it all and not be changed?’ I know that I am definitely a ‘stop-and-smell-the-roses’ person. In walking around our own grounds, or driving through the Don Vallely extension, or sitting on the bench at Cherry Beach in Toronto, I really believe that the beauty of creation was placed there for me to see and enjoy by the Maker of the Universe, and there is something within me that makes sure that I stop and take advantage of it!
It is sometimes difficult to be silent and still long enough to hear the subtleties of this quiet yet pervasive form of instruction, to see through outward things to find inner meanings. I took this picture of the sky after pondering the vastness of the sky, the cloud formations, and the shifting of the forms as I watched it. It drew me into it, it spoke of life in all of its vastness, its experiences, its forever changingness. This psalm goes back and forth between the revelation of God in nature and the revelation of God in Word. There are the outward signs all around us in nature and there are the inward meanings of the Word (the message of God’s love story for us and how we are to live) in the scripture, in life around us, in people who cross our path, in the news and the world in which we live.
Part of psalm 19 (Message Translation) highlighted these things for me in a new way:
“That’s how God’s Word vaults across the skies from sunrise to sunset,
melting ice, scorching deserts, warming hearts to faith.
The revelation of God is whole and pulls our lives together.
The signposts of God are clear and point out the right road.
The life-maps of God are right, showing the way to joy.
The directions of God are plain and easy on the eyes.
God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold, with a lifetime guarantee.
The decisions of God are accurate down to the nth degree.
If we take the time to listen, to be silent and still, the psalm goes on to say:
“God’s Word is better than a diamond, better than a diamond set between two emeralds. You’ll like it better than strawberries in the spring, better than red, ripe strawberries … there’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger and directs us to hidden treasure: otherwise, how will we find our way?”
What can be our response to this but glory, glory, glory! The Glory of God! It challenges us to ask ourselves do we see the revelation of God around us and within us as sweeter than strawberries and more valuable than gold? I know that it is what I long for, to treasure God in my life as more precious than gold and as sweeter than honey. I want God of unmatchable worth to search me out, to forgive me, to enlighten my thoughts and my words.
Often our homilies begin with the homilist using the words of this psalm from the New Revised Translation of scripture … words that I have taken my own as whispers and prayers “may these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight”. They are words of longing and of desire to surrender to God, to live in the glory of God, to know ever more deeply that my Beloved is mine and I am God’s beloved.
Gorden Light wrote a wonderful hymn, in the Common Praise Hymn book of the Anglican Church of Canada #86:
More than we can ask or imagine, more than we can ever dare to dream
We are children of heaven’s creation, God’s own beloved, each called by name.
And we cry Glory! Glory! Glory to God who calls us by name!
(Glory! Glory! Glory to God! Glory, we sing!) refrain
More than we will ever imagine, more than we will every understand;
We are sent to walk with compassion, to live out God’s love by heart and by hand.
And we cry Glory! Glory! Glory to God who presses us on! (refrain)
More than we can ask or imagine, more than we could ever desire;
Out of the dust God’s building a kingdom, like wine from the press, like bread from the fire.
And we cry, Glory! Glory! Glory to God! Glory on high! (refrain)
Perhaps a fitting way to end this reflection is a prayer that I found on the internet:
“Our prayer: Lord, grant us eyes to see and ears to hear. When it seems You are far off and nowhere to be found, reveal Yourself to us in new ways. Open the eyes of our hearts so that we may see you. Reveal Yourself to us in not just the holy, sacred things, but in the simple things, as well. Do not let creation cry out while we are silent. Let us sing of the beauty of Your majesty, grace, and love. May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.”
Peter C. Craigie, Word Biblical Commentary: Psalm 1-50, Volume 19, 2nd Ed. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004),
