![]() ![]() ![]() He began by going out every day and walking the earth in a sacred manner-meaning reverently, with his whole being open to the feel of the earth underneath him and of the air around him. How can we use nature to cultivate an awareness of God? How do we enter a space of reverence, where there are no walls and no ceilings and yet where we find a room we share with Creator Spirit? Merton had pondered this as well that first day walking in the forest: “And I thought: if we only knew how to use this space and this area of sky and these free woods.” Ĭonsidering his reflections on that pivotal day and then how he lived and wrote afterward, I think the answer to this cultivation question comes in three pieces. Since my baptism in 2011 in the Episcopal Church, I’ve often thought about that oneness and about what belonging to Christ means. It looks like a complete oneness with all of creation. I’m not sure there are even proper words for what I’m trying to describe. about an awareness, perhaps even a fine tuning. Merton found somehow beneath the branches, on the sides of the hills, in all of nature a sense of transcendence. ![]() Here she contemplates what we can learn from Merton’s deep connection to God, particularly through nature: ![]() Writer Sophfronia Scott has journeyed and “conversed” with the writings of Trappist monk Thomas Merton (1915–1968) for many years. ![]()
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