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That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Matthew 13:1

And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. Matthew 14:23

But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray. Luke 5:16

Jesus often left his disciples and the crowds to seek God alone in prayer in nature. The desert fathers have a long history of retreating to live alone with God in nature. I grew up in small towns surrounded by nature, attending church camps/retreats as a child and adult where we worshiped in a Chapel in the woods. Even now entering an outdoor chapel I feel that gentle pull to sit and pray, and simply be. Connected to God’s presence, Jesus’ presence in the embrace of nature. I have also gone on pilgrimages and retreats, walked laybrinthines, outdoors surrounded by nature. In all of this I feel at one with creation, with other creatures.

Nature can reveal so much about God.
In her book, What’s Your God Language? - Connecting with God through Your Unique Spiritual Temperament, Myra Perrine says of people who connect with God through nature, “Something inside their souls comes alive when they are surrounded by God’s splendor in nature, be it the mountains, the desert, the plains, or the beach. For Naturalists, just being outside can dramatically increase their awareness of God, since witnessing the Lord in nature comes easily. They might see a massive rock formation and be moved to reflect upon the rock-solid faithfulness of God, or they might see His gentleness as a breeze blows through the trees, or they might sense while hiking in the heat of the day that God is an oasis who restores our dry, dusty souls.”

Being in nature—by the seashore, in the mountains, next to a lake, in a park, or even in your own backyard, can be a wonderful invitation to pray. There is something inherently calming about nature, as if God is inviting you through the natural world to relax, to settle down, to compose yourself. Perhaps this is because in nature we come face to face with God’s creation. It’s not a movie or a painting or a church hymn, made by a human being, that is moving us, it’s something that God created.

Have you ever been somewhere that made you feel closer to God? Perhaps when you sit by the ocean or by a river, or when you stand on the top of a lookout over a beautiful vista, or standing in the forest? This experience of heightened awareness of God is found in the heart of Celtic Christian spirituality called “thin places.”

Contemporary Christian poet Sharlande Sledge writes that the thin places are those where

“Thin places,” the Celts call this space,
Both seen and unseen,
Where the door between the world
And the next is cracked open for a moment
And the light is not all on the other side.
God shaped space. Holy.


American Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote, “we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time.”
I am reminded again of Thomas Berry’s famous precept that the universe consists of a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects.

A morning prayer by John Philip Newel:

May the angels of light
glisten for us this day.
May the sparks of God’s beauty
dance in the eyes of those we love.
May the universe
be on fire with Presence for us this day.
May the new sun’s rising
grace us with gratitude.
Let earth’s greenness shine
and its waters breathe with Spirit.
Let heaven’s winds stir the soil of our soul
and fresh awakenings rise within us.
May the mighty angels of light
glisten in all things this day.
May they summon us to reverence,
may they call us to life.
(from Praying with the Earth: A Prayerbook for Peace, 2011)

 

Photo by Dale Nibbe on Unsplash