THE GREENING OF THE WORLD AND OF OUR LIVES>

HOW ARE WE CONNECTED TO

 GOD?

We are connected in the same way that plants are connected to the sun. He makes our  existence possible. He gives us growth and change. He  helps us to reach our true fullness and maturity.

These are all  big and strong

 connections,  and they  continue 

whether we acknowledge them or not.

God's Love brought us into existence

             and sustains that existence.

Throughout the ages, mystics have kept alive the

 awareness of our union with God and

 thus with everything. 

What some now call creation

 spirituality or the holistic Gospel was

 voiced long ago by

 the Desert Fathers and Mothers in

 Africa, some Eastern Orthodox

 Fathers, ancient  Celts, 

many of the Rhineland mystics,

 and of course Francis of Assisi

 I am sorry to say that many women mystics were

 not even noticed. Julian of Norwich (c. 1343–c.

 1416) and Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) would

 be two major exceptions, though even they have

 often been overlooked.

Hildegard wrote in her famous

 book Scivias: “You understand so

 little of what is around

 you because you do not use what is

 within you.” 

 This is key to understanding

 Hildegard. 

Without using the word, Hildegard recognized that the human person is

 a microcosm with a natural affinity for or resonance with the macrocosm, which many

 of us would call God. We are each “whole” and yet part of a larger Whole

Our little world reflects the big world.

 Resonance is the key word here, 

and contemplation is the key practice. Contemplation is the end of all loneliness because

 it erases the separateness between the observer and the observed, allowing us

 to resonate with what is right in front of us.

Hildegard spoke often of viriditas,

 the greening of things from within,

 analogous to what we now call

 photosynthesis.

 She saw that there was a readiness in plants to receive the sun and to transform its light

 and warmth into energy and life.

 She recognized that there is an inherent connection between the Divine Presence and

 the physical world. 

THERE IS A CREATOR TO CREATED

 CONNECTION.

This Creator-to-created connection translates into inner energy that is the soul and seed

 of every thing, an inner voice calling us to “become who you are; become all that you

 are.” This is our life wish or “whole-making instinct.”

In her holistic understanding of the universe, the inner shows itself in the outer, and the

 outer reflects the inner. The individual reflects the cosmos, and the cosmos reflects the

 individual. 

Hildegard sings, “O Holy Spirit, . . .

you are the mighty way in which every

 thing that is

 in the heavens, on the earth, and

 under the earth, is penetrated with

 connectedness, is

 penetrated with relatedness.”  

I do not pretend to know what those

 words mean exactly.

They seem profound and maybe if I

 contemplate them long enough, they

 will reveal their reality to me.