By Sister Doreen, SSJD
The Anglican Church Calendar quote for April is from Psalm 104: 1-2:
“Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honour and majesty, wrapped in light as with a garment.”“O my soul, bless God! God, my God, how great you are, beautifully, gloriously robed, dressed up in sunshine; and all heaven stretched out for your tent.” (The Message translation).
Pondering this psalm each time we pray it during morning or evening prayer here at the Convent, I always find myself thinking how magnificent and powerful a picture we are given of a vision of the whole cosmos together in a harmonious relationship. It paints a picture for me of this world, this cosmos, as a home, a dwelling place where everything is included and nothing is excluded. It is a place where everything, humankind, the natural world, the universe and the whole created order is meant to live in oneness together. It awakens in my heart that longing for “the Creator of the universe, from whom all things come, to whom all things return, to give your people such unity of heart and mind, that the world may grow …” (Psalm Prayer p.191 BAS).
Hildegard of Bingen is one of my role models, and she inspires in me a longing for a deeper recovery of a creation centred spirituality. Her’s is a theology that emphasizes our inherent original goodness and our belonging to a cosmic Christ whose words inspire a feeling of being at home in the natural world. She talks about all of us having a green and juicy spirituality, comfortable in our oneness with each other and with all of creation. It’s what we long for, a spirituality that is alive, expressed, desirable, and useful – one that creates a voice that serves God. She talks about a green spirituality and combines it with the greening power of justice. She holds out a truth-gift for us when she says, “We are a spark of God – a humanity clothed and wrapped in God”.
Pondering these thoughts creates a song that rises in my heart, this deep sense of belonging – clothed and wrapped – and also gives me a voice to give back to God not only my own praise and song, but I hear also the whole cosmos giving back to God praise and song. There are many examples of just how that song comes into being from the psalms for me. Psalm 104 is one example. It has a powerful opening to a hymn of creation, exalting God as the magnificent and majestic Creator clothed in light who spreads the heavens like a tent, inviting us, each of us, to bless the greatness of the Lord. It introduces God’s glorious presence and creative power, setting the stage for the rest of the psalm, which elaborates on God’s work in the cosmos and care for all life. The glory of God is the earth fully alive. We are invited, indeed we are given the task of learning to live within our humble place as part of our living planet, to participate in the diversity of life through our connectedness – our interconnectedness – with each other, and with all creation. This “You God are great” is the chant that can and will see that the glory of God is the earth fully alive.
This is a song that we must sing during a growing awareness of the horrendous damage we are inflicting on the earth and on each other. Creation, ourselves and the natural world and cosmos is good, and God has loved it to perfection by entering it, taking on human flesh and dwelling with us as the risen Christ. How do we proclaim the alleluia – the greatness of God in song – while the garment of our natural world is being torn apart, our world torn apart by war and violence, people without homes and food? As I pondered this question, I thought that the real art of listening – ear and eye of the heart listening – and reading, understanding and pondering, of the Word of God, of the Word in each other, of the Word around us in nature and the cosmos – it brings us back to the creation of everything as that great surprise of God – everything is God speaking to us. To sing amid the world’s brokenness – ‘You God are great, clothed with majesty and honour and robed in light’ – keeps alive God’s overflowing love as we listen to the whole created order (including ourselves) speaking to us, sometimes in a deep crying lament and sometimes in a deep joy. It is a challenge to turn to the earth and creatively engage with the needs of the world. It is a challenge to begin to think with the heart, to see all of creation as the mirror of God, even during the environmental crisis and the seemingly unending wars and violence we find ourselves in today. We are called to engage, to keep alive God’s overflowing love – out of lament and out of joy ‘You God are great’. Only by this journey of personal and communal transformation can abundance of life flourish, for us, for the earth, and for the cosmos.
It is so important today to be open to the blessings of being in relationship with the whole of creation, to develop a greater awareness of the choices we make that might harm the earth and all living things, including ourselves! O bless the Lord oh my soul, as I seek to live as a co-creator, as I bear the pain of the world in my heart, clothed and wrapped in God, as I do my part, my own little part to live in harmony and creativity with all of creation. It leads me to a hymn from Common Praise, Anglican Church of Canada #424, text by John Bell & Graham Maule:
“Sing praise to God on mountain tops and in earth’s lowest places
From blue lagoon to polar waste, from ocean to oasis.
No random rock produced this world, but God’s own will and wonder.
Thus, hills rejoice and valleys sing and clouds concur with thunder.Sing praise to God where grasses grow and flowers display their beauty
Where nature weaves her myriad web through love as much as duty.
The seasons in their cycle speak of earth’s complete provision
Let nothing mock inherent good, nor treat it with derision.Sing praise to God where fishes swim and birds fly in formation
Where animals of every kind diversify creation.
All life that finds its home on earth is meant to be respected.
Let nothing threaten, for base ends, what God through grace perfected.Sing praise to God where humankind its majesty embraces
Where different races, creeds, and tongues distinguish different faces
God’s image in each child of earth shall never pale nor perish
So treat with love each human soul, and thus God’s goodness cherish”.
Yes! Yes! “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you” Isaiah 60:1.