The Sermon of All Creation: Christians on Nature
The Sermon of all Creation: Christians on Nature, is a beautifully illustrated book of inspirational quotes taken from the writings and sayings of Christian sages of all denominations. It will be available in Spring/Summer 2005 by World Wisdom, and was edited and designed by Michael Fitzgerald and Judith Fitzgerald. This slideshow offers some samples of quotes and images from the book in the hope of providing some answers to how we should view the relationship between the Creator and creation as well as understanding how the divine activity permeates the entire universe. The following is excerpted from the foreword of the book by John Chryssavgis:
It may be tempting, though surely misleading, to imagine the current environmental crisis as a recent phenomenon. Human beings have from the outset ignored the “voice” of creation, selfishly shutting themselves off from the breadth and depth of the mystery of the universe that declares the wonder of God. Such is perhaps the root of our original sin: not a transgression against some invisible “principle,” but the rupture of the primal connection between ourselves, our world, and our God. How unfortunate it is that we have reduced the concept of sin to individual guilt, while overlooking the social and cosmological implications of sin, whereby division and brokenness are introduced into the world, barring us from discerning God in all things and all things in God.
…Yet, there is indeed something unique about our age inasmuch as, perhaps for the first time in human history, we are in a position to choose the direction of our world. Based on knowledge achieved and experience gained, we are able to embrace attitudes and espouse choices that will immediately affect and impact our world as well as the world that our children will inherit. The decisions and actions of former generations and eras were, at least to a degree, determined by nature or by culture…
Where we are personally challenged for change is where daily life translates into environmental ethics. It is where life, spirituality, and politics coincide. The voice of creation is eloquent and clear. The choice is ours.
You have then heaven and earth adorned, earth beautified, the sea peopled with its own creatures, the air filled with birds which scour in every direction. Studious listener, think of all these creations.… Think of all those which my narration has left out to avoid tediousness; recognize everywhere the wisdom of God; never cease to wonder, and through every creature, to glorify the Creator.
Basil the Great (329-379)
I seek acquaintance with nature—to know her moods and manners. Primitive nature is the most interesting to me. I take infinite pains to know all the phenomena of spring, for instance, thinking that I have here the entire poem, and then to my chagrin, I learn that it is but an imperfect copy that I possess and have read; that my ancestors have torn out many of the first leaves and grandest passages, and mutilated it in many places. I should not like to think that some demigod had come before me and picked out some of the best of the stars. I wish to know an entire heaven and an entire earth. All the great trees and beasts, fishes and fowls are gone. The streams, perchance, are somewhat shrunk.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
God is within all, over all, under all, is both above with His power and beneath with His support, exterior in respect to magnitude and interior in respect to subtlety, extending from the heights to the depths, encompassing the outside and penetrating the inside; but He is not in one part above, in another beneath, nor in one part exterior and in another interior. Rather, one and the same wholly and everywhere, He supports in presiding and presides in supporting, penetrates in encompassing and encompasses in penetrating.
Gregory the Great (540-604)
Throughout the entire creation, the manifest wisdom of God shines forth from Him and in Him, as in a mirror containing the beauty of all forms and lights and as in a book in which all things are written according to the deep secrets of God. O, if only I could find this book whose origin is eternal, whose essence is incorruptible, whose knowledge is life, whose script is indelible, whose study is desirable, whose teaching is easy, whose knowledge is sweet, whose depth is inscrutable, whose words are ineffable, yet all are a single Word! Truly, whoever finds this book will find life and will draw salvation from the Lord.
Bonaventure (1217-1274)
The very order, disposition, beauty, change, and motion of the world and of all visible things silently proclaim that it could only have been made by God, the ineffably and invisibly Great and the ineffably and invisibly Beautiful.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
Genesis 2:15
Through heaven and earth and sea, through wood and stone, through all creation visible and invisible, I offer veneration to the Creator and Master and Maker of all things. For the creation does not venerate the Maker directly and by itself, but it is through me that the heavens declare the glory of God, through me the moon worships God, through me the stars glorify Him, through me the waters and showers of rain, the dews and all creation, venerate God and give Him glory.
Leontios of Cyprus (556-634)
In this light my spirit suddenly saw through all, and in and by all the creatures, even in herbs and grass; it knew God, who He is and how He is and what His will is. And suddenly in that light my will was set on by a mighty impulse to describe the Being of God.
Jacob Boehme (1575-1624)
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man, that thou art mindful of him?
Psalm 8:3-4
God is not only to be known in His blessed and incomprehensible being, for this is something which is reserved for His saints in the age to come. He is also to be known from the grandeur and beauty of His creatures, from His providence which governs the world day by day, from His righteousness and from the wonders which He shows to His saints in each generation.… When we consider that He numbers the raindrops, the sand of the sea and the stars of heaven, we are amazed at the grandeur of His nature and His wisdom.
John Cassian (ca. 360-435)
And Nature, the old nurse, took
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
The child upon her knee,
Saying: “Here is a story-book
Thy Father has written for thee.”
“Come, wander with me,” she said,
“Into regions yet untrod;
And read what is still unread
In the manuscripts of God.”
We do not know God in His essence. We know Him rather from the grandeur of His creation and from His providential care for all creatures. By this means, as if using a mirror, we attain insight into His infinite goodness, wisdom and power.
Maximus the Confessor (580-662)
From the supreme God, whose beauty is unseen and ineffable, Providence reaches down even to these earthly things below: all of which things, so transitory and momentary, could not have their peculiar, richly assorted beauties, but from that intellectual and immutable Beauty forming them all.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
All that is sweet, delightful, and amiable in this world, in the serenity of the air, the fineness of seasons, the joy of light, the melody of sounds, the beauty of colors, the fragrancy of smells, the splendor of precious stones, is nothing else but Heaven breaking through the veil of this world, manifesting itself in such a degree and darting forth in such variety so much of its own nature.
William Law (1686-1761)
The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw, and knew I saw, all things in God and God in all things.
Mechthild of Magdeburg (1210-1297)
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Matthew 6:28-29
In every part of the world, in heaven and on earth, He has written and as it were engraven the glory of His power, goodness and eternity.… For all creatures, from the firmament even to the center of the earth, could be witnesses and messengers of His glory to all men, drawing them on to seek Him and, having found Him, to do Him service and honor according to the dignity of a Lord so good, so potent, so wise and everlasting.… For the little singing birds sang of God, the animals acclaimed Him, the elements feared and the mountains resounded with Him, the river and springs threw glances toward Him, the grasses and the flowers smiled.
John Calvin (1509-1564)
God showed me in my palm a little thing round as a ball about the size of a hazelnut. I looked at it with the eye of my understanding and asked myself: “What is this thing?” And I was answered: “It is everything that is created.” I wondered how it could survive since it seemed so little it could suddenly disintegrate into nothing. The answer came: “It endures and ever will endure, because God loves it.” And so everything has being because of God’s love.
Julian of Norwich (1342-1423)
Just as you see that a ray of light entering through a window is colored in different ways according to the different colors of the various parts, so the divine ray shines forth in each and every creature in different ways and in different properties.
Bonaventure (1217-1274)
How late I came to love you, O Beauty so ancient and so fresh, how late I came to love you! You were within me, yet I had gone outside to seek you. Unlovely myself, I rushed toward all those lovely things you had made. And always you were with me, I was not with you. All these beauties kept me far from you—although they would not have existed at all unless they had their being in you. You called, you cried, you shattered my deafness. You sparkled, you blazed, you drove away my blindness. You shed your fragrance, and I drew in my breath and I panted for you. I tasted and now I hunger and thirst. You touched me, and now I burn with longing for your peace.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
The plants give off the fragrance of their flowers. The precious stones reflect their brilliance to others. Every creature yearns for a loving embrace. The whole of nature serves humanity, and in this service offers all her bounty.
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
God’s providence embraces the whole universe.… By contemplating the beauty and use of each thing, (one who has acquired the habit of detachment) is filled with love for the Creator. He surveys all visible things: the sky, the sun, moon, stars and clouds, rain, snow and hail … thunder, lightning, the winds and breezes and the way they change, the seasons, the years…; the fourlegged animals, the wild beasts and animals and reptiles, all the birds, the springs and rivers, the many varieties of plants and herbs, both wild and cultivated. He sees in all things the order, the equilibrium, the proportion, the beauty, the rhythm, the union, the harmony, the usefulness, the variety, the motion, the colors, the shapes, the reversion of things to their source, permanence in the midst of corruption. Contemplating thus all created realities, he is filled with wonder.
Peter of Damascus (ca. 1027-1107)
If you were to look at every creature from the beginning of creation to the end of time, whether it were the most radiant angel or the tiniest worm, you would see in it signs of God’s goodness and His overflowing love.
Aelred of Rievaulx (1110-1167)
The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Anyone able to investigate these beautiful features of creation could find in them the marvelous light of the wisdom of God. Would that I could as subtly see them and as competently tell of them as I am able ardently to love them. For I am delighted because it is very sweet and pleasant frequently to deal with these topics in which the senses are educated by reason and love is roused by emulation.
Hugh of St. Victor (1096-1141)
Nature is school-mistress, the soul the pupil; and whatever one has taught or the other has learned has come from God—the Teacher of the teacher.
Tertullian (160-230)
All creatures are balanced upon the creative word of God, as if upon a bridge of diamond. Above them is the abyss of divine infinitude, while below them that of their own nothingness.
Philaret of Moscow (1652-1681)
Just as the sun shines simultaneously on the tall cedars and on each little flower as though it were alone on the earth, so our Lord is occupied with each soul as though there were no others like it. And just as in nature the seasons are arranged in such a way as to make the humblest daisy bloom on a set day, in the same way, everything works out for the good of each soul.
Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897)
Uncreate, without beginning, immortal, infinite, eternal, immaterial, good, creative, just, enlightening, immutable, passionless, uncircumscribed, immeasurable, unlimited, unseen, unthinkable, wanting in nothing, being His own rule and authority, all-ruling, life-giving, omnipotent, of infinite power, containing and maintaining the universe and making provision for all: all these and suchlike attributes the Deity possesses by nature, not having received them from elsewhere, but Himself imparting all good to His own creations according to the capacity of each.
John Damascene (675-749)
If God were to withdraw his hand, this building (the creation) would collapse.… The sun would not long return its position and shine in the heavens, no child would be born; no kernel, no blade of grass, nothing at all would grow on earth or reproduce itself if God did not work forever and ever.
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
God is an artist, and the universe is His work of art.
Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1225-1274)
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man, that thou art mindful of him?
Psalm 8:3-4
While observing that [the] gaze [of God] never leaves anyone, one may see that it takes such diligent care of each one as though it cared only for him, and for no other, and this to such a degree that one on whom it rests cannot even conceive that it takes care of any other. One will also see that it takes the same most diligent care of the least of creatures as of the greatest, and of the whole universe.
Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464)
The little birds singing are singing of God; the beasts cry unto Him; the elements are in awe of Him; the mountains echo His name; the waves and streams cast their glances at Him; the herbs and flowers praise Him. Nor do we need to labor or seek Him far off, since each one of us finds (God) within himself, inasmuch as we are all upheld and preserved by His power dwelling in us.
John Calvin (1509-1564)
It helped me to look at fields, or water, or flowers. In these things I found a remembrance of the Creator. I mean that they awakened and recollected me and served as a book and reminded me of my ingratitude and sins.
Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
If you want to understand the Creator, seek to understand created things.
Columba of Iona (521-597)
…Praised be my Lord for our mother the earth, which doth sustain us and keep us and bringeth forth divers fruits, and fl owers of many colors, and grass…
Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)
