{"id":329318,"date":"2017-07-01T00:10:55","date_gmt":"2017-06-30T22:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/the-splendour-of-nature\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T15:07:45","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T13:07:45","slug":"the-splendour-of-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/the-splendour-of-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"The splendour of nature"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u201cContemplating the immensity of the universe<\/strong>, the extraordinary beauty and power of nature, my mind rose spontaneously to the Creator of it all, to a new sort of understanding of the immensity of God. It made a new and strong impression on me; I felt like falling on my knees to adore, praise, and glorify God. I felt a great need of this, as if it were my actual vocation. It was as if my eyes had been opened, to understand as never before who it is that we have chosen as our ideal; or rather, who has chosen us.<\/strong> I saw that he is so great, so great, so great, that it seemed impossible that he thinks of us. This impression of God’s immensity stayed in my heart for several days. Now, saying, “Hallowed be thy name,” or “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,” is different for me: it has become a need of the heart. (Rocca di Papa, 22.1.87) \u201c\u2026 Contemplating perhaps an endless stretch of sea,<\/strong> a high mountain range, an impressive glacier or the night sky dotted with stars. What majesty! The immen\u00adsity of it! And through the dazzling splendour of nature, we would find our way to its author: God, the King of the universe, the Lord of the galaxies, the Infinite. \u2026 He is everywhere: beneath the sparkle of a glittering stream, within the blossoming of a flower, in a bright dawn or a red sunset, on a snow-covered peak. Nature is rarely preserved <\/strong>in our concrete cities, built by human hands in the midst of the noise of the world. Yet, if we want, a glimpse of blue sky between the skyscrap\u00ader peaks is enough to remind us of God; a ray of sunlight, which does not fail to pierce even through the bars of a prison, is enough; a flower is enough, a meadow, a child’s face. \u2026 This will help us go back into the midst of humanity<\/strong>, which is where we belong, strengthened, as Jesus certainly was when having prayed all night to the Father on the mountainside under the starry sky, he went back among people to do good.\u00a0 (Mollens, 22.9.88)   From Chiara Lubich<\/a> \u2013 \u201cCercando le cose di lass\u00f9<\/a>\u201d [Seeking the things that are above]\u2013 Citt\u00e0 Nuova Editrice, Roma 1992, pagg. 5 – 111,112.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The holiday period is starting now in the northern hemisphere. Some of Chiara Lubich\u2019s thoughts can help us discover God\u2019s imprint in creation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-329318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}