Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Everything is a caress of God (Pope Francis)

  Our insistence that each human being is an image of God should not make us overlook the fact that 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 (84).

  The universe unfolds in God, who fills it completely.  Hence, there is a mystical meaning to be found in a leaf, in a mountain trail, in a dewdrop, in a poor person's face.  The ideal is not only to pass from the exterior to the interior to discover the action of God in the soul, but also to discover God in all things.  Saint Bonaventure teaches us that contemplation deepens the more we feel the working of God's grace within our hearts, and the better we learn to encounter God in creatures outside ourselves (223).

(To download Pope Francis' Laudato Si, click here.)

Quotation source:  Laudato Si

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