Preach to every creature

Speaking to the Soul Preach to every creature --

Francis led a life of exceedingly great joy and a life of constant praise of God, a life of blessedness in the midst of the fecund goodness of God’s creation, celebrated most forthrightly by his “Canticle of the Creatures.” As a citizen of the peaceable kingdom, transported there by his vision and his prayers, Francis could thereafter call every human, however different or distant, and each of the creatures of nature,however alien to human sensibilities, his brother or his sister. He could be a troubadour of a higher order, constantly rejoicing with friends and foes alike, and with birds and oxen and even wolves and worms. The mandate of Christ had claimed Francis’s soul profoundly: to preach the Gospel to every creature. This he made remarkable efforts to do, in deed most often and in word whenever necessary.*

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*From “The Spirituality of Nature and the Poor: Revisiting the Historic Vision of St. Francis” by H. Paul Santmire, Ph.D., in Tending the Holy: Spiritual Direction Across Traditions, edited by Norvene Vest. Copyright © 2003

Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost

God within creation from Speaking to the Soul:

The feature of Celtic spirituality that is probably most widely recognized, both within and outside the Church, is its creation emphasis. Like most children, I had grown up with a sense of awe at creation. Our earliest memories are generally of wonder in relation to the elements. Connected to these moments will be recollections of experiencing at the deepest levels a type of communion with God in nature, but there will usually have been very little in our religious traditions to encourage us to do much more than simply thank God for creation. The preconception behind this is that God is separate from creation. How many of us were taught actually to look for God within creation and to recognize the world as the place of revelation and the whole of life as sacramental? Were we not for the most part led to think that spirituality is about looking away from life, so that the Church is distanced from the world and spirit is almost entirely divorced from the matter of our bodies, our lives and the world? More...

Here are the readings (Proper 16, Year C, RCL) appointed for use on the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost.

Tuning into the deep secrets of creation

Only connect....
- E. M. Forster, A Passage to India

On the evening of Thursday, June 21, I truly experienced my own Mysterium Tremendum.

Approximately 40 people gathered at the Burlington Earth Clock for a Summer Solstice celebration. I live just a three-minute walk from its location at Blanchard Beach and headed over with my friends around 7 o'clock for the pot luck supper. Friends of the Earth Clock brought salads, soups, casseroles, and fruit to share. I had made a delicious fruit salad with poppy seed dressing. While people gathered to eat, others carried pails of lake water up the embankment to nourish the plants at the site. At 8 p.m., we assembled in a circle while Jessie lead us in the spiritual part of the celebration. Actually, the meal was a spiritual offering - placed on a flat rock apart from the stone circle - for breaking bread together. These kinds of rituals in common have deep meaning for me. We started by sitting in a small circle just outside the larger circle of rocks. People introduced themselves and, passing around a stone which Jessie had brought, said a prayer - one word or a phrase - about their hopes, dreams or praise and connection with spirit, God - as each person understood her - creation, the universe, the sun, the people and animals who came before us. Several participants drummed out rhythmic beats with sticks on stones, played simple wooden recorders as we all got up barefoot and danced inside the rocks, the 'circle of peace.' As the sun lowered over the summer solstice rock, the group became quiet for a moment and then, holding hands in a people-circle, shouted what sounded to me like garlic in Spanish - a loud Ajo! - but I think the sound is meant more an exclaimation of awe and wonder.

The participants were spiritually a pretty eclectic bunch. There were Buddhists, Jews, Druids, Wiccans, Deists, Christians - all sorts and conditions, to use a phrase from the BCP.

One of the organisers of the Earth Circle explained the importance of the placement of the rocks. One pointed to St Anne's Shrine on Isle La Motte, which is an Abenaki sacred ground; another rock pointed south to the deepest part of Lake Champlain; there is a rock for the Winter Solstice and another for the Spring and Fall Equinox.

Today, at 2:30 p.m., the Earth Circle group will gather for another celebration.

Green Jay

For obv reasons, I delighted in this post over at left i on the news - Eli's been down at South Padre Island, Texas; check out other recent
Texas Gulf Coast bird photos here, here, and here that he's taken this week and posted for our enjoyment. Joy!


The Green Jay is one of those tropical species whose range in the United States only extends to the extreme southern tip of Texas. This one was photographed at Laguna . And this picture, as striking as it is, doesn't even do justice to the richness of color, since it was photographed in the shade (I could never get a good shot of one in sunshine).

Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge