radicalgrace

a publication of the center for action and contemplation

Creation as the Body of God

April - June 2010 vol. 23 no. 2

 The Center for
Action and
Contemplation A collision of opposites forms the cross of Christ. One leads downward preferring the
truth of the humble. The other moves leftward against the grain. But all are wrapped
Integrating a contemplative lifestyle safely inside a hidden harmony: one world, God’s cosmos, a benevolent universe.
and compassionate action
The CAC supports a new reformation—
from the inside: Inside rg
• In the spirit of the Gospels
• Confirming peoples’ deeper spiritual intuitions
• Encouraging actions of justice rooted in prayer 3 CREATION AS THE BODY OF GOD
• With a new appreciation for, and cooperation with, By Richard Rohr, ofm
other denominations, religions, and cultures
4 TEILHARD DE CHARDIN:
Mission Statement: We are a center ACTION, CONTEMPLATION, AND THE COSMOS
for experiential education, encouraging the By John F. Haught
transformation of human consciousness through
contemplation, equipping people to be instruments 6 LOVE GOD, LOVE CREATION
of peaceful change in the world. By Mary Jo Picha
Radical Grace, the quarterly publication of the Center for Action and 8 AWAKENING TO THE SACRED
Contemplation, is an ongoing means of relationship and communication By Paula Gonzalez, sc
with the CAC community. Friends making a suggested donation
of $35.00, receive a year’s worth (4 hard copy issues, or the more
sustainable online, downloadable, full color PDF version for $25.00) 10 SOUL: YOUR PLACE IN NATURE
of Radical Grace. Australia and UK friends (only) please visit By Bill Plotkin
www.cacradicalgrace.org to subscribe to Radical Grace.
12 CREATION AS THE BODY OF CHRIST
Editor By Ilia Delio, osf
Vanessa Guerin
Editorial Team 14 CREATION, INCARNATION,
Janet Lear, Joni Thompson, Judy Traeger EUCHARIST: THE ONE BODY OF GOD
Proofreader By Daniel O’Leary
Shirin McArthur
Design / Layout 16 RETRIEVING ST. FRANCIS:
Monique Estrada RADICAL WITNESS FOR AN ECOLOGICAL AGE
Artwork By Keith Douglass Warner, ofm
COVER and page 12, The Flammarion woodcut is an enigmatic wood
engraving by an unknown artist that first appeared in Camille Flammarion’s 18 THE ETERNAL ROSE
L’atmosphère: météorologie populaire (1888).The image depicts a man
peering through the Earth’s atmosphere as if it were a curtain to look By Avideh Shashani
at the inner workings of the universe, comprising the classical “Seven
Heavens” of diverse tradition and literature. 19 IN TANDEM, THE MAN AND THE TREE
Page 5, Jesus, the Icon of And, detail from painting By John Hartigan
by Sr. Nancy, Earle, smic, 2008.
Page 6, Detail from Madonna Enthroned with the Child, St Francis and 20 THE ALLIANCE OF
Four Angels, fresco by Cimabue, 1278-80. WORLD RELIGIONS AND ECOLOGY
Page 8, Rotating Triangles, sculpture by John Searles, © 2003, By Mary Evelyn Tucker
www.searlesart.com. Used with permission.
Photography
Page 15, Creek, photographic detail, © Shirin McArthur.
Page 19, Great Spirit, photograph by Thomas Vorce,
EDITOR’S NOTE
thomasvorce.zenfolio.com. Used with permission.

Page 7, “The Opening of Eyes” by David Whyte,

from Songs for Coming Home ©1984 Many Rivers Press.
Poetry
Center for Action and Contemplation
PO Box 12464 • Albuquerque, NM 87195
Telephone: (505) 242-9588 Fax: (505) 242-9518
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Radical Grace (USPS 023-275)
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POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: RADICAL GRACE:
P.O. Box 12464, Albuquerque, NM 87195
I n “Creation as the Body of God” (page 3), Richard Rohr states that
“the incarnation actually happened 14.5 billion years ago with a
moment that we now call “The Big Bang.” John Haught, in his article
(page 4), expands on this idea: “Theologically speaking, the evolving
universe is the extended and still developing body of Christ.”
These concepts are part of an historical ecological tradition
carried through the centuries by some of the great mystics,
including Francis, Bonaventure, Scotus and Aquinas.
I invite you to read this issue in the light of this tradition, and
reflect upon your participation in creation, the body of Christ.
~Vanessa Guerin

No outside advertising is used to support this publication, which For information on and to register for the CAC-sponsored summer 2010
is printed on 100% recycled, post-consumer, chlorine-free paper conference, Creation as the Body of God with Fr. Richard Rohr and Sr. Ilia
at the Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, NM. Delio, please visit www.cacradicalgrace.org.
 CREATION AS THE BODY OF GOD
“Creation is the primary and most
perfect revelation of the Divine.”
~ Thomas Aquinas
“God remains in immediate
sustaining attentiveness to everything
that exists, precisely in its ‘thisness.’”
~John Duns Scotus
T
he Incarnation of God did not happen in
Bethlehem 2000 years ago. That is just when we
started taking it seriously. The incarnation actually
happened 14.5 billion years ago with a moment that we
now call “The Big Bang.” That is when God actually
decided to materialize and to self expose.
Two thousand years ago was the human incarnation
of God in Jesus, but before that there was the first and
original incarnation through light, water, land, sun,
moon, stars, plants, trees, fruit, birds, serpents, cattle, fish,
and “every kind of wild beast” according to our own
creation story (Genesis 1:3-25). This was the “Cosmic
Christ” through which God has “let us know the mystery
of his purpose, the hidden plan he so kindly made from
the beginning in Christ” (Ephesians 1:9). Christ is not
Jesus’ last name, but the title for his life’s purpose.
Jesus is the very concrete truth revealing and standing
in for the universal truth. As Colossians puts it “he is the
image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation”
(1:15), he is the one glorious part that names and reveals
the even more glorious whole. “The fullness is founded
in him… everything in heaven and everything on earth”
(Colossians1:19-20). Christ, for John Duns Scotus
(1265/66-1308) was the very first idea in the mind of God,
and God has never stopped thinking, dreaming, and creating
the Christ. “The immense diversity and pluriformity of
this creation more perfectly represents God than any one
creature alone or by itself,” adds Thomas Aquinas (1224-
1274) in his Summa Theologica (47:1).
For most of us, this is a significant shaking of our
foundational image of the universe and of our religion.
Yet if any group should have come to this quite simply
and naturally, it should have been the three groups of
believers that call themselves “monotheists”: Jews,
Christians, and Muslims all believe that the world was
created by one God. It would seem to follow therefore
that everything, everything without exception, would
By Richard Rohr, ofm
bear the clear imprint and likeness of the one Creator.
Doesn’t that seem to follow? How could we miss that?
After all, we believed that One God created everything
out of nothing.
We must realize what a muddle we have got ourselves
into by not taking incarnation and the body of God
seriously. It is our only Christian trump card, and we
have yet to actually play it! As Sally McFague states so
powerfully, “salvation is the direction of all of creation,
and creation is the very place of salvation” (The Body of
God, p. 287). All is God’s place, which is our place, which
is the only place and every place.
In the 4th century St. Augustine said that “the church
consists in the state of communion of the whole world”
(Ecclesiam in totius orbis communione consistere). Wherever
we are connected, in right relationship, you might
say “in love,” there is the Christ, the Body of God,
and there is the church. But we whittled that Great
Mystery down into something small, exclusive, and
manageable. The church became a Catholic, Orthodox,
or Protestant private club, and not necessarily with
people who were “in communion” with anything else,
usually not with the natural world, animals, with non-
Christians, or even with other Christians outside their
own denomination. It became a very tiny salvation,
hardly worthy of the name. God was not very victorious
at all.
Our very suffering now, our condensed presence on
this common nest that we have fouled, will soon be the
ONE thing that we finally share in common. It might
well be the one thing that will bring us together. The
earth and its life systems on which we all entirely depend
(just like God!) might soon become the very thing that
will convert us to a simple Gospel lifestyle, to necessary
community, and to an inherent and universal sense of
the holy.
I know it is no longer words, doctrines, and mental
belief systems that can or will reveal the fullness of this
Cosmic Christ. This earth indeed is the very Body of
God, and it is from this body that we are born, live, suffer,
and resurrect to eternal life. Either all is God’s Great
Project, or we may rightly wonder whether anything is
God’s Great Project. One wonders if we humans will be
the last to accept this.
RADICAL GRACE   3
“From the beginning until now, the entire creation has been
groaning in one great act of giving birth, and not only creation,
but all of us who possess the first fruits of the  page 22
 TEILHARD DE CHARDIN:
ACTION, CONTEMPLATION, AND THE COSMOS
By John F. Haught

I
t is hard for me think about action and contemplation
without calling to mind the scientist and religious
thinker Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955). This great
French Jesuit is most famous for trying to show how our
new scientific understanding can make a considerable
difference when it comes to exploring what we should
be doing spiritually with our lives.
Right contemplation and right
action, at least in the context
of an unfinished universe, will
nurture a radical openness to a
fresh future of ongoing creation.
the Vatican and Teilhard’s religious superiors forbade its
publication. It appeared in print only after his death in
New York in 1955.
Snubbed by his own church during his lifetime, this great
scientist and spiritual visionary has arguably turned out to
be the most important Christian thinker of the past century.
For those interested in the relationship of contemplation
to action, I doubt that few writers have more to offer even
today. Only time will assign Teilhard his proper place in
the history of ideas, but to those of us who believe that
Christianity—for the sake of its intellectual credibility and
even its survival—must eventually come to grips with
science, especially evolution, Teilhard will forever shine
forth as a model of honesty, openness, and courage.
What then are Teilhard’s most important ideas? I shall
sum them up, all too succinctly, in four points that tie into
the general theme of the present issue of Radical Grace.

1. The whole universe is still coming into being.

For example, as Teilhard argued, evolution is not an
Teilhard has the distinction of being one of the first
obstacle to faith, as many contemporary Christians
scientists in the 20th century to have realized that the
still claim, but the key within which all theology
entire cosmos is a momentous drama. The universe is
and spirituality must now be set. Biology, geology,
not just a large stage where human beings are being
paleontology, astronomy, astrophysics, and many other
tested so as to demonstrate their worthiness to inherit
sciences have contributed to a startlingly new picture of
a heavenly reward. We now realize, thanks to science,
the cosmos as a work in progress. It is within the picture
that our species is part of a much larger and fascinating
of a universe still coming into being that we must now
set of happenings than we had ever known about until
situate human life and our spiritual aspirations as well.
quite recently. We are products of an immensely long
What then does our own existence before God mean, and
and extravagantly creative cosmic process. After giving
what is our religious destiny? What should we be longing for,
birth to the spheres of matter and life, the universe
and how should we be shaping our desires, if our existence is
has recently exploded into “thought” by virtue of the
inseparable from a cosmos still being created?
evolution of human brains complex enough to be self-
The connection of a scientifically informed cosmic
conscious. What then are we to do with our lives, and
awareness to the spiritual life was Teilhard’s main
for what should we pray, once we fully appreciate that
preoccupation throughout his adult life. Ordained a priest
we are part of a still unfinished creation?
in 1911, he became a stretcher-bearer during World War
2. The cosmic story has a direction. The general
I and received awards for his courage in battle. It was
cosmic drift takes the form of an increase in
during his life in the trenches that much of Teilhard’s
organized physical complexity over immense spans
spiritual vision began to take shape. After the war and the
of time. The cosmos seems to be converging toward
completion of his studies in Paris, he journeyed to China
Something or Someone “up ahead,” perhaps toward
where he became one of the most authoritative geologists
what we have traditionally thought of as “God.”
4 april- june 2010

in the Far East. It was there that he began to compose his

The cosmic movement toward “Omega Point” is
great synthesis of science and faith, Le Phénomène Humain
not predetermined or forced, and it allows for the
(1955; recently retranslated into English by Sarah-Appleton
play of chance and blindly operating physical laws.
Weber as The Human Phenomenon, 1999). However, both
Nevertheless, the universe has undeniably made
 “progress” toward higher degrees of complexity over This is no more than a snippet of Teilhard’s extremely
the course of deep time. It has already gone through rich synthesis of science and spirituality.To those interested
pre-atomic, atomic, molecular, unicellular, multi- in pursuing his ideas, my own recommendation is to
cellular, vertebrate, primate, and human stages of start with a collection of his essays, such as The Future of
increasing complexity over the course of billions of Man or Human Energy, instead of plunging immediately
years. Now, in human beings, with their extremely into the much more difficult, though indispensable, The
elaborate nervous systems and brains, matter has Human Phenomenon. Most important for those interested
attained a higher degree of complexity than ever. in action and contemplation is The Divine Milieu, an
Simultaneously, the universe has exploded into interpretation of spirituality framed by an evolutionary
“thought.” sense of the world. For a blunt presentation of his critique
3. The cosmic impulse to maximize complexity— of the limitations of pre-scientific theology for spirituality
and consciousness—is still going on. Notice today, see Teilhard’s book Christianity and Evolution.
the tendency toward increasing complexity now
gathering momentum on a planetary scale as a result of John F. Haught, Phd, Senior Fellow, Science & Religion,Woodstock Theological
developments in technology, education, economics, and Center, Georgetown University, was formerly Professor (1970-2005) and
Chair (1990-95) in the Department of Theology at Georgetown University. 
global politics (not to mention the Internet). Even in the
His area of specialization is systematic theology, with a particular interest in
face of forces of destruction, despair, evil, and death, the issues pertaining to science, cosmology, evolution, ecology, and religion. He is the
earth is now becoming more complex, clothing itself author of numerous books, articles, and reviews including his most recent book,
in something analogous to a brain. A wider dimension Making Sense of Evolution: Darwin, God, and the Drama of Life.
of consciousness, corresponding to the increase
in planetary complexity, is in the early stages
of formation. Teilhard refers to this emergent
phenomenon as the “noosphere.” He adds,
however, that the ongoing creation of such an
outcome requires an appropriate
unifying force. It is here that
he locates the attracting power
of God and the evolutionary
role of Christ. Theologically
speaking, the evolving universe is
the extended and still developing
body of Christ. What this means is
that Christian devotion to the cosmic
Christ provides an incentive to “build the
earth” and not just wait passively for heaven.
Humans have an everlasting destiny in God, of course,
but our own destiny is inseparable from the universe
that has given birth to us. Salvation, as St. Paul had
already anticipated (Rom. 8), means the fulfillment of
an entire cosmos and not the harvesting of souls from
“here below.”
4. The ongoing creation of the universe, at least
from a terrestrial perspective, requires on our
part the fervent and persistent practice of faith,
hope, and love. One of the objectives of a cosmically
informed spirituality is to contemplate how the
practice of virtue might contribute to the ongoing
creation of the universe. Right contemplation and
right action, at least in the context of an unfinished
universe, will nurture a radical openness to a fresh
future of ongoing creation. The cosmically sensitive
Christian contemplative will pray for the wisdom
and grace to distinguish those human actions that can
contribute to the ongoing creation of the universe
from those that lead only to destruction. Obviously,
today this would include special attention to justice
and environmental responsibility.
 LOVE GOD, LOVE CREATION
By Mary Jo Picha

O
n some level of consciousness, we all know that the planet and
all life on it are in crisis. The reports of pollution in the air, the
water, the soil, the unprecedented (in human history) rates of
extinction of animals and plants have almost become daily news. It isn’t
that we aren’t aware of these realities; it is just that we are somehow numb
to them. We are caught it seems in an intellectual debate about it, and as
a result the import of these realties is not reaching our hearts.
The work of the Center for Action and Contemplation is built upon
the life and inspiration of St. Francis of Assisi (1181/82 – 1226). Among
his other roles, Francis, a Christian mystic, is deemed the patron saint of
those who promote ecology, an icon of the emerging church movement
and, most pertinent, a lover of God in all creation. So what does this
mean?
For a moment, allow me to remove this sentimental view of Francis. 
What I find is a prophet who foresaw the coming destruction of the earth,
who forewarned us that human behavior was the root of this destruction,
and who showed us through his life the way to metanoia, or the necessary
change of mind and heart needed to return to God in love through
loving his creation.
With so much evidence, with prophets and mystics who modeled a
better way, why are so many of us still on the fence about this? Why
are we moving so slowly toward the necessary change? Those who are
leading the faith-based effort toward a large scale awakening on this issue
say it is because we have not truly, like Francis, fallen in love with God
in creation. As Thomas Berry says, we still see nature as a collection of
objects, rather than as our brothers and sisters whom we are to embrace
in a true communion of subjects (The Great Work, Harmony/Bell Tower,
2000). Only love is strong enough to move us toward the change that is
necessary to turn things around.
I feel we must explore the relationships between St. Francis, the global
ecological crisis, our faith and our numbness (or acedia) in the hopes that
we can intentionally clear some of the obstacles to our own love affair
with God in creation.
Jungian analyst Robert Johnson says it is not generally the solution
that is difficult; it is just that our resistance is strong. He says if we begin
addressing any challenging situation by coming to the table with the
truth, then what to do will become very clear (The Golden World [CD],
Sounds True, 2008). Regardless of whether we choose to side with those
who say Global Warming is real or with those who say it is unproven,
there are other facts to consider. Just take 10 minutes to do your own
research to see what has happened to our air, our water, our soil and the
rest of life that depends upon these basic elements of this planet we call
home.
In terms of following Christ, Francis stands out as one of the most
6 april- june 2010

sincere of followers. Often credited to Francis is the line, “Preach the

gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” His life reflects for us
a deep, passionate love that inspires us and also calls into question our own
relationship with the Divine. Is it really possible for us to love God in
creation as Francis did? Do we even desire to love God
in this way? Are we willing to receive a call to simplify
our lives and to know the implications for our daily lives
of loving God in creation? It seems Francis, the mystics,
and Christ whom they followed all are inviting us into
this love affair with God and all are showing us the way.
Are we ready to follow?
For many of us, this growing awareness of the global
ecological crisis is distressing, not only because of what
we are learning is happening to our planet, but also
because many of the patterns of our daily way of life
are implicated as contributing to the earth’s destruction.
Many of us are waking up to our complicity and it is
frightening. This isn’t what we intended in trying to
pursue a good life.
What if the urging by others to recognize our
complicity is not an accusation? What if we could admit
that we have neglected our relationship with God in
creation and that the voices that are urging us to wake up
to our acedia are those of the prophets of our time calling
us to return to God? This is one of the great patterns of
those who have gone before us and it is our pattern—to
keep awakening to what we allow to separate us from
the love of God.
Thomas Berry has said that it isn’t a question of
whether or not nature will heal itself; the question is
whether or not humanity will be around to participate
in the healing (The Great Work). Let us choose life, not
only for ourselves but for all that God has created. It is
a time for honesty, a time for making amends, and a time
to fall more deeply in love with God in creation.
RADICAL GRACE   7
Excerpted and edited from Falling in Love with Creation: Week One:
Creation and Francis: A Love Affair, a CAC-produced 2010 Lenten Series.
Mary Jo Picha, on staff at the CAC, is currently on sabbatical.
 AWAKENING TO THE SACRED
By Paula Gonzalez, sc

For those who know how to see, nothing is profane. to be closer to God. Today we are conscious that God is
Everything is sacred. ~Teilhard de Chardin calling us to be co-creators of a world which has never
before existed—a world of harmony throughout the

T
hese words from Teilhard de Chardin can furnish planet. In Renewing the Earth our bishops stated: “The
profound guidance as we ponder the Sacred Christian vision of a sacramental universe—a world that
Web of Creation. Our times call us to develop discloses the Creator’s presence by visible and tangible
a broadened perspective on all the relationships which signs—can contribute to making the earth a home for
make up this magnificent web—those to God, to one the human family once again.” What if Jesus had chosen
another, and to the rest of the created universe. An to come at this time? What kind of earthling would he
exciting way to view living in this time of crisis is be? What would his “spiritual life” be like? How would
provided by Thomas Berry: “Shocked by the devastation he relate to “the God within” and the God whom (since
we have caused, we are awakening to the wonder
of a universe never before seen in quite the
same manner.” We who were born in the 20th If we look at how the living
world is designed we can
century have been given several wonderful
lenses which can teach us “to see” wonders
which no generation before us has seen! An
insightful quotation from Karen Armstrong have a better notion of
reminds us what scientific discoveries—
seen through the eyes of faith—can do: the mystery of the
“Cosmologists and physicists today can
lead us to that attitude of silent awe of
which the great contemplatives speak.”
Trinity and a better
The “new cosmology” helps us see that
Creation is a long story which the
understanding
Eternal Creator has been “telling” for
nearly 14 billion years. And we are
of the Paschal
integral parts of that story today!
This calls us to an integrative,
Mystery.
contemplative spirituality.
How might such a spirituality
develop if seen through the
lenses of humility, simplicity
and charity? Since the
word humility comes from
the Latin word humus, it
immediately reminds us
that we are “earthlings.”
For a long time there
has been an inaccurate
notion that all of
“nature” is inferior
to humanity and
8 april- june 2010

that we should
strive to become
as “spiritual” as
possible in order

CAC 9-DAY INTERNSHIP
our catechism days) we have said is everywhere”? What
would the natural world around him reveal about Divine
Mystery—our God?
The dictionary entry for “simplicity” is defined as
“the state of being simple.” The first word given in
the dictionary for “simple” is “single.” Thus, I believe
simplicity could mean single-mindedness. For Sisters of
Charity, virtue can be found in the prayer which each
of us recites daily: “Thy will be done on Earth, as it is
in heaven.” For all of us, doing this is surely the aim of
our vowed commitment. But how do we know how it
is “done in heaven”? I believe it means “according to
God’s plan.” The Eternal Creator’s original plan is clear
if we look deeply at the magnificence of creation. As
Meister Eckhart stated, “Every single creature is full of
God—is a book about God.” And St. Thomas Aquinas’
reminder may be unexpected: “If we don’t understand
creation correctly, we can’t hope to understand God
correctly.” If we look at how the living world is designed
we can have a better notion of the mystery of the Trinity
and a better understanding of the Paschal Mystery. Every
living creature is part of an ecosystem, which consists
of three different communities: green plants, which
capture sunshine and turn it into “food”; animals, which
completely depend on the plants; and “decomposers,”
which return all the “raw materials” to the green plants
to keep the cycle going. Life cannot continue for any
length of time unless these relationships are in balance.
Our task today is to restore this balance where it has been
disturbed. In a talk to the World Council of Churches,
Klaus Toepfer, head of the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) stated: “We have entered a new
age—an age where all of us will have to make a new
compact with our environment...and enter into the
larger community of all living beings. A new sense of
communion with planet Earth must enter our minds.”
“The charity of Christ urges us.” In pondering
this for our times, we might consider another line from
the prayer Jesus left us: “Thy kingdom come.” What
might this mean today, especially when contemplating
the Sacred Web of Creation? Thomas Berry speaks of
Through the practice
2010 Dates
of contemplative
prayer and active April 23-May 2
(full)
engagement with
June 4-13
challenging issues and
marginalized people, October 8-17
you can become
contemplative in your actions.
Application process is required. Download an
application form on www.cacradicalgrace.org.
belonging to the “sacred Earth community”—which
includes everything in the created universe. Perhaps
our reality today calls us to drop the “g” in kingdom
and beg God to help us understand that everything is
interconnected—everything is related to everything
else. All of God’s creatures together, living and non-
living, make up the “kin-dom” of God—and we are
living in it right now! What might happen if we realized
that everything is “holy ground”? What if our catechism
answer that “God is everywhere” became reality in our
lives? Would this not call us to live in a constant attitude
of reverence? Can St. Paul’s admonition to “pray always”
actually be realized through “praying all ways”? Can
every action we perform to advance the arrival of the
“kin-dom” be seen as a “spiritual practice”?
It is becoming increasingly clear to many across
the globe that the planetary ecological situation and
the extreme inequities in today’s global societies are
two sides of a single coin—all related to the current
economic crisis. Humanity is at a dangerous crossroad, as
the opening words of the Earth Charter proclaim: “We
stand at a critical time in Earth’s history, a time when
humanity must choose its future... a time of both great
peril and great promise.” If we want the values of Jesus
to be included in this rapidly emerging future, we must
be actively involved in addressing this unprecedented
challenge. When pondering the times in which we
are privileged to live, how do you react to these words
of Walter Brueggeman: “It is the task of prophetic
imagination to bring people to engage the promise of
newness that is at work in our history with God”? Let
us be increasingly aware that God needs us and calls us to
be co-creators of a new tomorrow!
Edited from a talk given by Paula González, sc, and used with permission.
Sr. Paula González, sc, phd, a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, is a futurist
and environmentalist. Sr. Paula presented with Fr. Richard Rohr at the 2007
Great Chain of Being conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and will
RADICAL GRACE   9
be the pre-conference workshop presenter for Creation as the Body of God,
the CAC-sponsored summer 2010 conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Please visit www.cacradicalgrace.org for conference information and to register.

YOUR PLACE IN NATURE
N
ature—the outer nature we call “the wild”—
has always been the essential element and the
primary setting of the journey to soul. The soul,
after all, is our inner wilderness, the intrapsychic terrain
we know the least and that holds our individual mysteries.
When we truly enter the outer wild—fully opened to its
enigmatic and feral powers—the soul responds with its
own cries and cravings. These passions might frighten
us at first because they threaten to upset the carefully
assembled applecart of our conventional lives. Perhaps this
is why many people regard their souls in much the same
way they view deserts, jungles, oceans, wild mountains,
and dark forests—as dangerous and forbidding places.
Our society is forever erecting barriers between its
citizens and the inner/outer wilderness. On the outer
side, we have our air-conditioned houses and automobiles,
You can count on wild nature to reflect your soul
because soul is your most wild and natural dimension.
gated communities and indoor malls, fences and animal-
control officers, dams and virtual realities. On the inner
side, we’re offered prescribed “mood enhancers,” alcohol,
and street drugs; consumerism and dozens of other soul-
numbing addictions;fundamentalisms,transcendentalisms,
and other escapisms; rigid belief systems as to what is
“good” and what is “bad”; and teachings that a paternal
God will watch over us and protect our delicate lives.
But when we escape beyond these artificial barriers,
we discover something astonishing: nature and soul not
only depend on one another but long for one another,
are, in the end, of the same substance, like twins or trees
sharing the same roots. The individual soul is the core of
our human nature, the reason for which we were born,
the essence of our specific life purpose, and ours alone.
Yet our true nature is at first a mystery to our everyday
mind. To recover our inmost secrets, we must venture
into the inner/outer wilderness, where we shall find our
essential nature waiting for us.
10 april- june 2010
Our soul is our true nature, but soul can also be
thought of as our true place in nature. Each of us was
born to occupy a particular place within the community
that ecophilosopher David Abram calls the more-than-
human world. We each have a unique ecological role, the
SOUL:
By Bill Plotkin
way we are meant to serve and nurture the web of life,
directly or through our role in society. At the level of
soul, we each have a specific way of belonging to the
biosphere, as unique as any maple, moose, or mountain.
You can reclaim your membership as a natural being in
a natural world.The easiest and most direct way to begin
is to simply spend time outdoors, quietly, observantly, and
gratefully. By innocently immersing yourself in nature,
you will discover, in time, that nature reflects your soul,
revealing your particular place in the more-than-human
world.
You can count on wild nature to reflect your soul
because soul is your most wild and natural dimension.
Nature gives birth to your soul—and that of all other
animals and plants on the planet.Your ego, on the other
hand, is not born directly from nature, but rather from
the matrix of culture-language-family. Soul initiation
is often described as a death and a second birth. Like
entering a cocoon, your first ego dies and later a soul-
rooted ego is birthed, not from culture this time but from
the womb of nature.
Wild nature contains all the terrestrial patterns of
belonging. Every niche of the world is filled with a life-
form that perfectly fits there because it was born to do
just that.The wilder the environment, the more complex
and diverse it is, and the more likely it contains patterns
of belonging that resonate with your destiny. No matter
who you are, no matter what possibilities you contain,
there are forms and forces in wild nature that will reflect
the numinous nuances of your soul.
Mary Oliver, for example, writes:
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.¹
Your soul is both of you and of the world. Creation

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cannot be full until you become fully yourself. Your soul
corresponds to a niche, a distinctive place in nature, like a
vibrant space of shimmering potential waiting to be discovered,
claimed…occupied. Your soul is in and of the world, like a
whirlpool in a river, a wave in the ocean, or a branch of flame
in a fire. As the anthropologist-biologist-ecologist Gregory
Bateson shows in his work, psyche is not separate from nature,
it is part of nature.²
Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry (the mathematical
cosmologist and the cultural historian, respectively) propose in
their book The Universe Story that everybody and everything
not only has a unique place in the world but is a unique
place: Walt Whitman did not invent his sentience, nor was he
wholly responsible for the form of feelings he experienced.
Rather, his sentience is an intricate creation of the Milky
Way, and his feelings are an evocation of being, an evocation
involving thunderstorms, sunlight, grass, history, and death.
Walt Whitman is a space the Milky Way fashioned to feel its
own grandeur.³ The essence of the human soul cannot be
separated from the wildness of nature.This is why an adequate
psychology must be an eco-depth psychology. It’s no surprise,
even in the contemporary world, that profound encounters
with soul often occur during solitary wilderness sojourns, just
as they did for the founders of the major religions: Moses on
Mount Sinai, Jesus in the desert for forty days, Muhammad
in a cave outside Mecca, Buddha under the bodhi tree. For
inspiration and vision, we, too, must learn to search outside the
customary world of the village, to wander again in the inner
and outer wilderness.
Adapted by Bill Plotkin from Soulcraft: Crossing Into the Mysteries of Nature and
Psyche by Bill Plotkin, Ph.D., New World Library, 2003.
Bill Plotkin, PhD, is an eco-depth psychologist, wilderness-based soul guide, and the founder of
Colorado’s Animas Valley Institute. He is the author of Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries
of Nature and Psyche and Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and
Community in a Fragmented World.Visit him online at www.animas.org.
¹ Mary Oliver, from “Wild Geese,” in Dream Work (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986), p.14.
² See Gregory Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry,Evolution, and
Epistemology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000) and Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (New
York: Bantam, 1980).
³ Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic
Era—A Celebration of the Unfolding of the Cosmos (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), p. 40.
Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary
wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of
the mystic, the source of all true art....It is
a privilege to be alive in this time when we
can choose to take part in the self-healing
RADICAL GRACE   11
of our world. ~ Joanna Macy
 CREATION AS THE BODY OF CHRIST
W
henever I teach a course on Francis of Assisi, I
like to begin with the question, “where do you
find God?” Most students hesitate to answer
because they want to point upward (and some do point
in this direction) while the real answer is downward.
“No,” they protest. “This answer cannot be correct.” To
which I respond, “Really? Then you do not believe in
the God of Jesus Christ because this God bends low in
love. This God is the wind beneath our wings.” Thomas
12 april- june 2010
“A medieval missionary tells that he has found the point where heaven and Earth meet...”
By Ilia Delio, osf
Merton once wrote, “We cannot go to God because we
do not know where God lives but God comes to us to
be God with us.” Francis of Assisi knew the God who
bends low in love. He met this God in the broken down
Church of San Damiano and in the brokenness of his
own life as well. Aiming to be a victorious knight in
shining armor, he wandered into the dilapidated Church
of San Damiano shortly after being wounded in the
Battle at Collastrada. His dream of victory, power and
glory had been shattered. As Francis prayed before the Cross, he experienced the depth of God’s compassionate love
for him and he wept at his own brokenness and failure to love beyond his ego-centric self. But this bending-low
God of outpouring love would not let Francis shrivel up and die in his misery; rather he embraced him so closely
that Francis could not help but surrender to this divine power of love visibly expressed in the surrender of Christ
on the cross. As the Lover called to the Beloved, Francis surrendered to the Love of God and this surrender was the
beginning of his conversion.
When Love takes hold of us, we begin to let go of the things we hold on to for security, the things we use to control
our lives. We yield to Love and we let Love direct our lives—not blindly or foolishly—but, like a searcher of fine pearls
,we search for those places where Love hides so that we may be where Love is. Such was the life of Francis. As Love
took hold of his heart, it opened his eyes to see the world with new vision. In the poor he saw an icon of Christ himself,
in the leper he tasted the goodness of God, in tiny earthworms he saw the humility of God, and in the birds he saw the
dignity of being a creature of God. Bonaventure described the world of Francis as an embrace of God. All of creation
became for Francis the Body of Christ, a Eucharistic earth, with each creature expressing divine beauty in a unique
and irreproducible way. Bonaventure wrote: “In beautiful things, Francis saw Beauty itself and through his vestiges
imprinted on creation he followed his Beloved everywhere, making from all things a ladder by which he could climb up
and embrace him who is utterly desirable” (Leg maj. 9.1). Francis followed the Beloved everywhere, every person, tree and
flower, every rabbit, bird, wolf and falcon, every creature and all the elements, sun, moon, stars, wind
and fire, everything bore the seal of God’s love. He reverenced each and every creature as the very
presence of Christ and he embraced each one passionately, returning love for love.
Bonaventure reflected deeply on the path of Francis and he grasped the saint’s inner spirit as
one of incarnational truth: this world is holy because God has embraced it in love. The very life
of God is a communion in love, a Trinity of persons dancing in love, a vibrant energy of love that
flows out of the mouth of God as an eternal YES to creation. This YES swells up in the self-gift of
love expressed in Jesus Christ. Bonaventure and John Duns Scotus held that Christ is first in God’s
intention to love; the whole creation is made for Christ. Creation is not mere physical matter;
rather, it expresses God’s infinite love. God “speaks” the depths of his heart in the rich diversity of
creation. Earth is holy, a sacrament of God.

The wise person sees that the wild and

unpredictable earth reflects the wild,
unpredictable God. This is the lesson of Francis.
But how do we come to know the sacredness of this creation? How do we come to feel this Body
of God so rich in diversity yet simple in unity? Bonaventure claimed the more deeply we come
to know Christ at the center of our lives, the more deeply we come to know Christ at the heart
of creation. His spiritual path rooted in poverty and humility is a stripping away and a clinging to
God, a path that ultimately leads to the crucified Christ. In union with Christ Crucified, one is free
to love and to give oneself away in love.The poor person is not insulated by layers of material things
or systems of power and control; rather, the poor person sees all creation as gift. Poverty gives birth
to wisdom when the stripping of intellectual power gives way to compassionate love. Wisdom is
the inner eye of love that searches the depths of being to reveal what is lasting and true. As the eye
of the heart is opened to truth, the wise person travels the earth slowly, taking nothing for granted,
allowing each step to bring a new discovery of wonder and awe. The wise person sees that the wild
and unpredictable earth reflects the wild, unpredictable God. This is the lesson of Francis. Only
when we allow the pain of the world to touch us can we see this earth as the Body of God. Only
then do we fall into the arms of love.
RADICAL GRACE   13

Ilia Delio, osf is a Senior Fellow of the Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University, concentrating in the area of science and religion.
Prior to joining Woodstock, she taught at Washington Theological Union in the Department of Spirituality Studies. She is the author of Christ
in Evolution,The Humility of God and co-author of Care for Creation: A Franciscan Spirituality of the Earth which won two Catholic
Press Association Awards. Sr. Ilia will be presenting together with Fr. Richard Rohr at the CAC-sponsored summer conference, Creation as the
Body of God, Summer 2010. For more conference information and to register, please visit www.cacradicalgrace.org.
 CREATION, INCARNATION, EUCHARIST:
THE ONE BODY OF GOD
By Daniel O’Leary

A
ny consideration of orthodox liturgy must always and names for the universe, some of the deepest
be true to the Incarnation. It needs to avoid all dimensions of its miraculous growth. It reflects back
strains of a dualism that keeps church worship to creation the exciting revelations about its origins, its
and creation apart. A truly traditional theology of liturgy history, and its final destiny. For the Christian, in light of
insists that our ritual acts of worship should never be Incarnation, this is the central and stunning revelation
seen as isolated interventions of grace into our otherwise that is celebrated in the Eucharistic drama.
‘merely’ secular lives and world. Rather are they the In the words of Dr. John McQuarrie, this vision is
symbolic expressions of the holiness of creation itself. revealed, clarified, purified, and celebrated at every true
The Eucharist carries sublime significance when Eucharistic gathering “with a directness and an intensity
understood as a celebration
of life, the deepest symbol of
the hidden meaning already The Eucharist carries sublime significance
burning in the core of creation.
It is the liturgical expression when understood as a celebration of
of the living river of love that
erupted at the beginning and
now flows everywhere. That
life, the deepest symbol of the hidden
love sustains the cosmos of
our hearts and the heart of our
meaning already burning in the core of
cosmos. In time and space,
in bread and wine, the first
creation. It is the liturgical expression of
divine love we call God, always
incarnate in creation, is given
the living river of love that erupted at the
new self-expression.
An astonishing God, already
beginning and now flows everywhere.
incarnate in creation, had
waited for billions of years to achieve self-consciousness, like that of the Incarnation itself.” In one ordinary
had waited for her universal Presence to unfold from sacramental moment, in a piece of daily bread and cup
within, becoming flesh in the human heart and mind. of wine, the mighty mystery of creation is encapsulated.
Once this breakthrough was accomplished, creation “Yes, cosmic!” John Paul II exclaims in Ecclesia
then needed to celebrate its incredible life-story with its de Eucharistia, “because even when the Eucharist is
mysterious beginning, its hazardous evolution, its split- celebrated on the humble altar of a country church, it is
second timing, its relentless becoming. With the advent always, in some way, celebrated on the altar of the world.
of humanity—its first and unique heart and mind—this It unites heaven and earth. It embraces, permeates and
became possible. And the Eucharist is one of its rich celebrates all creation.” In his Feast of Faith, he explains
expressions, encapsulating the cosmic love-story forever. why “Christian liturgy must be cosmic liturgy, why it
In the sacramental mode, with bread and wine, the must, as it were, orchestrate the mystery of Christ with
world is acknowledging its very being as flowing from all the voices of creation.”
the womb of God at the beginning of time and in each In the dynamic presence of the bread and wine on the
passing moment. Through the human voices, gestures, table, the Christian symbolises just about everything that
and symbolic elements and actions of its human children, can be predicated of humanity, the earth and everything
14 april- june 2010

the universe is in worship before its Creator, offering on and in it, the universe and the cosmos itself—the past
itself to its incomprehensible lover-God in the ecstasy of ,present, and future of all creation. These rich and simple
its joys and the bitterness of its sorrows. elements gather up the intense agony and ecstasy of the
The Eucharist brings to self-consciousness, identifies world, its darkness and light, its failures and possibilities,
its strivings and its hopes, its indomitable creativity, its
universal becoming.
The eternal words of disclosure are spoken: “This
is my Body.” They sound around the earth, and
they echo among the stars. They were whispered
by our loving Mother when the terrible beauty of
the fiery atoms shattered the infinite darkness with
unimaginable flame and light.
“This is my Body.” It is God-become-atom,become-
galaxy, become-star, become-universe, become-earth,
become-human that speaks these words to her own
human body in a human voice. It is a remembering,
a reminding, and a confirming that the divine and the
human, that nature and grace exist only in each other,
that all are God’s one body by virtue of creation,
first in time and hidden, but revealed later in the
Incarnation, as God’s most beautiful desire from the
very beginning.
When we eat the bread and drink the wine, we are
identifying with the cosmos and with the Love that
created and continues to create it. Theologian Sally
McFague puts it this way: “In the metaphor of the
world as the body of God, the resurrection becomes a
worldly, present, inclusive reality, for this body is now
offered to all: This is my Body.”
The Eucharist holds open the door to eternity. It
is the same door to a human community of justice
and peace, of environmental awareness, of respect and
honour for every aspect of creation. “The only real
fall of humanity,” wrote Alexander Shmemann, “is its
non-eucharistic life in a non-eucharistic world.”
In one sense we are at the beginning now. There is
another mission to be accomplished—a world to win,
a universe to save, a cosmos to be at home in, a God to
become one with.To live the Ritual. To be the Myth.
To see and experience creation as the Body of God.
Something astonishing happens then. We sense a
radiant energy coursing through the universe and
through us—and all those powers are seamlessly
one. Something beautiful is drawing us to the divine
depths of things.
And wonder of wonders, we ourselves are fashioned
so as to give expression to that radiance. We, in our
limitedness, complete that limitless, invisible, ever-
present beauty. We do it in the only way we can—by
our faithfulness to the vision, by our daily integration
of it and our often unaware expression of it. In our
smile, our word, our touch, our new way of seeing
and of being present, something in us starts to shine.

Daniel O’Leary, an Anglican priest of the Diocese of Leeds, England, is

an author and teacher. Award-winning author of 12 books, he is a regular
contributor to the Tablet and the Irish Furrow. His current project is
RADICAL GRACE   15

about the recovery of what is called the sacramental imagination in all

our spiritual endeavours—both our inner spiritual work and our many
pastoral, educational ministries. Begin with the Heart, book and DVD,
is published by Columba Press, 2008.
 RETRIEVING ST. FRANCIS:
RADICAL WITNESS FOR AN ECOLOGICAL AGE
By Keith Douglass Warner, ofm
S
t. Francis of Assisi is widely acclaimed as the pre-
eminent example of Christian care for creation. His
radical Christian discipleship and passionate love
of creation represent an important example of religious
ecological consciousness. By ecological consciousness
I mean an awareness of our inescapable ecological
interdependent relationship with the Earth, its elements
and living organisms.2 Francis’ ecological consciousness
influenced his religious imagination, his vision for moral
living, his prayer and his preaching. His life gives witness
to an ecological wisdom, to how we should live a good life
in relationship to the Earth. His witness can inspire in us a
vocational response. By vocation I mean responding with
one’s whole life to God’s love and the needs of the world.
Francis’ care for creation is but one expression of his
vocation, which was rooted in his passionate love of Jesus
Christ. Francis was foremost a follower of Jesus, but
in him there was no tension between loving God and
loving all creatures of God. His life inspires faith in Jesus
Christ and care for creation.
To make Francis’ witness meaningful in our
contemporary culture, we have to undertake a retrieval
process. Religious retrieval is a broad set of activities
taking place across all faiths to select the most appropriate
beliefs, human values, and ritual practices to re-present a
religious identity to the modern world.3 The selective
retrieval of traditions is a fundamental task in the
Greening of Religions, because this is the chief feature
that distinguishes religious environmentalism from other
expressions of environmental concern.4
Francis’ relationship with creation should be understood
within the broader context of his religious journey: its
essential themes of passionate love for Jesus Christ, the
desire to follow him, contemplative prayer, on-going
conversion of life, and a spirituality of brotherhood with
everyone and everything. Since the Second Vatican
Council, scholars have emphasized Francis’ own writings
because they convey his voice to us.5
Some of this new scholarship has addressed his
relationship with the Earth, highlighting his love of
animals and the elements. The most famous story is
that of him preaching to the birds, but contemporary
popularization of this in the form of “Francis-as-a-
garden-statue” completely fails to recognize the radical
significance of this encounter.6 The true significance
of this story is that Francis awoke to the communion
of life he shared with the birds, not that he preached
to them. This encounter prompted Francis to further
integrate his love of creation with his religious identity
and responsibilities. Just as his storied encounter with
a leper furthered his religious conversion, so did that
with the birds. In ethical terms, non-human creatures
facilitated an expansion of Francis’ moral imagination,
because they indicated to him the next set of tasks in his
religious journey.7
Francis spent between one-third and one-half of each
year praying with a few brothers in the wilderness.8
The early friars practiced contemplative prayer: the
practice of responding to love by opening one’s heart
and by deepening our awareness of God’s love for us.
The Canticle of the creatures is a fruit of sustained
contemplative spiritual practice, celebrating God’s love
for us as expressed in the materiality of our embodied
humanity. It cannot be properly understood apart from
Francis’ love of Jesus Christ, as expressed through his
devotion to the Incarnation and Passion, as experienced
through his senses when praying in the wilderness. The
Canticle discloses Francis’ recognition of creation as an
expression of God’s generous love, and that creation has
inherent value because it is created by God, not because
of its material value to humans. This is true ecological
wisdom.
The example of St. Francis can inspire us to respond
to the cry of the Earth with love, compassion and
generosity. We cannot mimic him, but we can draw
from his example to live out a vocation animated by
ecological consciousness. A contemporary vocational
response can draw from Francis’ example, but will have
to synthesize something new by combining inspiration,
a contemporary moral vision, and the best scientific
information. This is how we can best transit our tradition
in an age of ecological crisis.
Excerpted from Keith DouglassWarner, ofm,“Retrieving St. Francis:Tradition
and Innovation for Our Ecological Vocation,” in Green Discipleship:
Catholic Theological Ethics and the Environment, ed. Tobias Winright
(Winona, MN: Anselm Academic, forthcoming 2011).
Keith Douglass Warner, ofm is a Franciscan Friar, a lecturer in the Religious
Studies Department, and the Assistant Director for Education at the Center
for Science, Technology & Society at Santa Clara University. He has
taught classes on the interface between religious studies and environmental
studies at SCU since 2004. His full teaching and research webpage is
www.scu.edu/kwarner.
1. All texts of the writings by and about St. Francis are taken from Regis Armstrong
OFM Capuchin, Wayne Hellman OFM Conventual, and William Short OFM, eds.,
Francis of Assisi: Early Documents,Volume I:The Saint (New York: New City Press, 1999).
Subsequently referred to as FA: ED. The Canticle is on page 113-114.
2. Christopher Uhl, Developing Ecological Consciousness: Paths to a Sustainable World
(Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004).
3. Jose Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago: University of Chicago,
1994).
4. Roger S. Gottlieb, A Greener Faith: Religious Environmentalism and Our Planet’s Future
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
5. Roger D. Sorrell, St. Francis of Assisi and Nature (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1988). This is still the most definitive analysis of this subject. Subsequent work
includes a fine collection of essays in Dawn M. Nothwehr, OSF, Franciscan Theology of the
Environment: An Introductory Reader (Quincy Illinois: Franciscan Press, 2003).
6. Keith Douglass Warner, OFM, “Get Him out of the Birdbath!,” in Franciscan Theology
of the Environment, ed. Dawn M. Nothwehr, OSF (Quincy, Illinois: Franciscan Press,
2002).
RADICAL GRACE   17
7. Thomas Nairn, OFM, “St. Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Creatures as an Exercise
of the Moral Imagination,” in Franciscan Theology of the Environment, ed. Dawn M.
Nothwehr, OSF (Quincy, IL: Franciscan Press, 2002). Nairn describes the Canticle as
Francis exercising his moral imagination, meaning that he used his creativity to dream
of how the elements could be related, and we can extend this to relationships he had
with animals as well.
8. William J. Short, OFM, “Recovering Lost Traditions in Spirituality: Franciscans,
Camaldolese and the Hermitage,” Spiritus 3 (2003).
 THE ETERNAL ROSE
By Avideh Shashani

O
nce upon a time, God said,“I will create the most beautiful and fragrant flower that ever existed.” So, God thought
and thought and, petal by petal, the ninety nine names of God unfolded into the most beautiful bloom. God
looked at it and said, “How magnificent is my creation!” and gave of His own breath into the heart of our flower.
“You are the jewel of all flowers,” He said, and then withdrew.
The tale of our flower was heard from shore to shore, and all creatures decided to travel from far and wide to see for
themselves this wonder of all creation. It didn’t take long before our flower was exposed to all the hazards of the world.
Our flower missed her Beloved ever so much. Her laments spread through the stillness of the night and awakened
the stars from the slumber of the sky. The dewdrops from her sighs flowed and flowed until rivers formed through the
mountains, valleys, and desert lands. Flowers began to bloom through all the places that these rivers ran. Butterflies
and bees became the regular visitors of these beautiful lands. Birds decided to flock and take part of the abundance
that had sprung from the earth and sky.

She began to hum and hum and in a drunken ecstasy she swayed
to and fro until slumber enveloped all her pains away.
Pretty soon, our flower—so innocent and sublime—became the envy of all creatures in sight. Day after day,
everyone’s burdens piled up on her fragile, slender, and tender silhouette.
Day and night she talked in her heart to her Beloved. She’d say,
“My God, you made me so beautiful and fragrant. From innocence and splendor you’ve shaped my every petal, and
your breath that brought me to life intoxicates every passerby. The hue of love that penetrates each heart-shaped
petal bedazzles all eyes that behold my beauty, ever unsurpassed. My head is turned to the heavens and in Your
remembrance I spend all the moments of every day. But, I have no peace. I have no protection. I’m exposed to all
the hazards of the world. I am so far away from my home. Help me, my Beloved, help me to endure the world!”
Our beautiful flower began to look more frail with each passing day. But, she stood tall and kept lamenting of the
world to her beloved God. She knew she had to be patient, for God had said, “I answer the call of whoever calls Me
from the heart.”
The days went by and the nights stood still until one day our flower saw a luminous figure approaching from far in
the distance. His steps were steady and his gaze was fixed and before she knew it, he stood by her side. He looked at
her with his penetrating eyes and asked,“What is it that brings so much lament from your heart my dearest one?” Our
beautiful flower sighed the deepest sigh and began to tell, word for word, the tale of her life. When she had finished
telling of her sorrow, he asked, “If you could make any wish, what would it be?” “I’ve always had only one wish,” she
declared and one by one all ninety nine petals began to unfold, laying bare the wish that had been branded in the core
of her heart. She saw the figure come closer and closer and whisper the highest secret in her heart. When he had
finished, he kissed the petal that cradled her heart.
In moments our flower felt a deep peace move through every petal that surrounded her heart. She began to hum
and hum and in a drunken ecstasy she swayed to and fro until slumber enveloped all her pains away. When she
opened her eyes, to her surprise, she saw that her slim body had acquired some new growth—they were thorns! She
wondered why. She spent many days reflecting about the visit, the thorns, and the deep peace that now embraced her
soul. Then she remembered the highest secret that had been whispered in her heart—it was the hundredth name of
God. Who else but God knows the secret of the Rose and the mystery of the thorns!
18 april- june 2010

© 2009 by Avideh Shashaani, July 12, 2009.

Avideh Shashaani, phd is the founder and president of the Fund for the Future of our Children (FFC), a non-profit organization based in
Washington, DC dedicated to developing innovative educational and multicultural programs that encourage and empower children and youth to be
agents of peace in local and global environments.  She promotes intercultural and interfaith understanding through lectures, workshops, and publications.
She is the author of three books, Promised Paradise (poetic prose), Remember Me (poetry), and Tell Me Where to Be Born (poetry). 
 IN TANDEM, THE MAN AND THE TREE
By John Hartigan

D
awn’s morning mist, trained so well by the early sun, departed Moncks Corner with a hush and a final
kiss. And there framed in a statuesque symmetry were a Mepkin man and a towering tree. They stood
there motionlessly…in contemplation…staring at each other…and listening too to one another. But neither
breathed a word.
The old tree had survived more than a century of wear and tear, attacked by hurricanes and the vagaries of unfriendly
elements. Its trunk gnarled and snarled, wore the scars and wrappings of a barking old age. Its limbs were looped and
stooped by their propensity to grow and fulfill their call to stretch ever more beyond their yesterdays. Unquestionably,
its roots ran deep and sure to tap the inner spring that fed it by day and by night. The old tree solemnly held high its
head.
In attentive rapture stood the lean Mepkin man, nodding to the towering tree with a respect due his elders. Bent
a bit from waist on up, garbed in tunic and cowl of the Trappist monk, the Mepkin man acknowledged his friend of
thirty odd years. A most striking calm mien marked his face silhouetted by a silvery beard. His roots were formed
in study, prayer and work by day and by night. The Mepkin man stood mighty still.
As they listened to each other in an unusual quiet dialogue shared by man and tree, the wonder of it all ascended
to greet the sun, sky and all living creatures within their sight. They heard in the background of their quietude the
symphonic songs of love that God sings for all His creatures wherever they are. They moved not a foot for a long,
long time.

John Hartigan is a retired Vice President for Finance and Business at the University at Albany. He has used a passion to write to help non-profit organizations
and to create children’s’ fantasy books including Kendal the Baker Bee (Castle Keep Press, 2007). Please visit www.johnhartigan.com for more information.

RADICAL GRACE   19

Great Spirit, by Thomas Vorce

 THE ALLIANCE OF
WORLD RELIGIONS AND ECOLOGY
Introduction
T
he world’s major religions are often regarded as
preservers of traditional views and behaviors,
and thus conservative in their outlooks. What
should not be overlooked, however, is that religions can
also be liberating, and thus capable of provoking social
change. Although religions have initially been slow to
respond and do not immediately spring to mind as
catalysts for environmental action, the moral authority
and institutional power of the world’s religions make
them well-situated to help effect a change in attitudes,
practices, and public policies in respect to sustainability.
Clearly religions have a central role in the formulation
of worldviews that orient humans to the natural world
and the articulation of rituals and ethics that guide human
behavior. In addition, they have institutional capacity to
affect millions of people around the world. Religions
of the world, however, cannot act alone with regard
to new attitudes toward environmental protection and
sustainability. The size and complexity of the problems
we face require collaborative efforts both among the
religions and in dialogue with other key domains of
human endeavor, such as science, economics, and public
policy. Religions are late in coming to environmental
issues and thus need to work in conjunction with
scientists and policy makers.
The nature of religion
Religion is more than simply a belief in a transcendent
deity or a means to an afterlife. It is, also, an orientation
to the cosmos and our role in it. Religion thus refers
to cosmological stories, symbol systems, ritual practices,
ethical norms, historical processes, and institutional
structures that transmit a view of the human as embedded
in a world of meaning and responsibility, transformation
and celebration. Religion connects humans with a divine
or numinous presence, with the human community, and
with the broader Earth community. Religion thus situates
humans in relation to both the natural and human worlds
with regard to meaning and responsibility.
20 april- june 2010
Religions have been significant catalysts in coping
with change and transcending suffering while at the
same time grounding humans in nature’s rhythms. The
creative tensions between humans seeking to transcend
this world and yearning to be embedded in it are part of
By Mary Evelyn Tucker
the dynamics of religions.
This realization leads to a more balanced understanding
of the possibilities and limitations of religions regarding
environmental concerns. Many religions retain
otherworldly orientations toward personal salvation
outside this world; at the same time they have fostered
commitments to social justice, peace and ecological
integrity in the world. There are new alliances emerging
now that are joining social justice with environmental
justice. Concern for how poor communities are being
adversely affected by climate change has given rise to
intense discussions regarding “climate justice.”
The Academic Field of
Religion and Ecology
From 1996-1998, an international conference series
took place at Harvard University’s Center for the Study
of World Religions (CSWR). The goal was to examine
the varied ways in which human-Earth relations have
been conceived in the world’s religions. The project
was launched to provide a broad survey that would
help to ground a new field of study in religion and
ecology. Acknowledging the gap between ancient texts
and traditions and modern environmental challenges, it
drew on a broad method of retrieval, reevaluation, and
reconstruction.
The Harvard conferences were also designed to foster
interdisciplinary conversations that drew on the synergy
of historians, theologians, ethicists, and scientists as well
as on the work of grassroots environmentalists. A spirit
of collaborative scholarship rather than individualistic
research emerged naturally in the conferences. Individual
traditions, scholars, and projects were seen as part of
larger and long-term efforts for the flourishing of life on
the planet for future generations. This research project
assumed that religions could contribute toward a more
sustainable future, but that multidisciplinary approaches
were needed.
The edited papers from these conferences have been
published in ten volumes by CSWR and distributed by
Harvard University Press (www.hup.harvard.edu).
The Forum on Religion and Ecology arose from these
conferences and was formed at a culminating conference
at the United Nations in 1998. The Forum is now based
at Yale University where it maintains a comprehensive
 website and sends out a monthly newsletter (www.yale.edu/
religionandecology). In addition, there is now a master’s program
in religion and ecology at Yale between the School of Forestry
and Environmental Studies and Yale Divinity School. The Forum
continues to work within and outside academia to encourage the
development of religious environmentalism.

Conclusion
Within the last 15 years, the relationship between religion and
ecology has emerged as both an academic field as well as an engaged
force in environmental issues. No doubt it will continue to grow as
interest is increasing among students, clergy, and lay people.
The common values that most of the world’s religions hold in
relation to the natural world might be summarized as reverence,
respect, restraint, redistribution, responsibility, and renewal. While
there are clearly variations of interpretation within and between
religions regarding these principles, it may be said that religions are
moving toward an expanded understanding of their cosmological
orientations and ethical obligations. Although these principles have
been previously understood primarily with regard to relations
toward other humans, the challenge now is to extend them to the
natural world. As this shift occurs—and there are signs it is already
happening—religions can advocate reverence for the earth and its
profound cosmological processes, respect for the earth’s myriad
species, an extension of ethics to include all life forms, restraint in
the use of natural resources combined with support for effective
alternative technologies, equitable redistribution of wealth, the
acknowledgement of human responsibility in regard to the
continuity of life and the ecosystems that support life, and renewal
of the energies of hope for the transformative work to be done.

Edited article used with permission of the author.

Mary Evelyn Tucker, phd, is a Senior Lecturer and Senior Scholar at Yale University where
she has appointments in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies as well as
the Divinity School and the Department of Religious Studies. Dr. Tucker is the author
of Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase, Moral and Spiritual
• Engage in a spiritual Cultivation in Japanese Neo-Confucianism and The Philosophy of Qi. She edited
formation program rooted in several of Thomas Berry’s books, including Evening Thoughts, The Sacred Universe, and
the integration of action and Christian Future and the Fate of Earth. For more information on the work of Dr.Tucker,
contemplation. please visit www.yale.edu/religionandecology.
• Work to support the mission
of the CAC.
• Live in a communal
environment with other
work interns.
Radical Grace
Unit Dates App. Due Goes Green
05/30/11 — 08/12/11 Jan 3, 2011
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receive it online!
RADICAL GRACE   21

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 Apr 8 (Thu)
RICHARD ON THE ROAD and CAC Sponsored Events
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Emerging Christianity creation as the . . .
Pre-Conference Workshop Continued from page 3
Shane Claiborne and Richard Rohr
Spirit, we also groan inwardly, as we wait for our bodies to
Apr 9-11 (Fri-Sat) be set free” (Romans 8:22-23). It seems that St. Paul is
Albuquerque, New Mexico saying here that we human ones might be the last ones to
Emerging Christianity Conference jump aboard God’s great plan. There is the groaning of
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Cynthia Bourgeault, Diana Butler

Bass, Brian McLaren, Richard Rohr
May 1-2 (Sat-Sun)
Cape Town, South Africa
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Cape Town, South Africa
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Restoring Male Spirituality
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growing in all of creation, and the groaning of resisting
and “waiting” in us humans.
All of creation, it seems, has been obedient to its destiny,
“each mortal thing does one thing and the same. . .myself
it speaks and spells, crying ‘What I do is me, for that I
came’” (Gerard Manley Hopkins, When Kingfishers Catch
Fire). Wouldn’t it be our last and greatest humiliation,
surely the “first being last” (Matt. 20:16), if we one day
realized that all other creatures have obeyed their destiny
unblinkingly and with trustful surrender. Watch the
plants and animals!
It is only humans who have resisted “the one great act
of giving birth,” and in fact have frequently chosen death
for themselves and for so many others.
Fr. Richard Rohr, the Founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation
in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is the author of numerous books including The
Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See (Crossroad 2009).
He is a regular contributor to Radical Grace.

June 9 (Thu)
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Christian Awakening and
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Transformations Spirituality Center

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22 april- june 2010

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Great Chain of Being

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religious and moral issues with global and
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A New Cosmology:
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This program is an excerpt from a 2009 retreat
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and What IS
Richard shows the crucial importance for
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transformative space of suffering
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prophetic voices to bring about the
renewal of the face of the Earth
through compassionate action
• Live from the soul-centric rather
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