The sermon preached by the flowers, the trees, and the whole world
Listening to the other of Christ's 'two shoes', in what the world around us is already saying.
Pre-order Passio Magazine #13 in print here
Hello to our fellow travellers, and new subscribers!
We’ll be sharing slightly more regular reflections in the coming months, to welcome the arrival of Passio Magazine #13. We’ll also be joined by our friend David Benjamin Blower who will be helping us dig into St Paul of the Cross for the 21st Century. (You might remember David from the Common Era podcast—he also writes an excellent newsletter on Messianism, anarchy & ecology).
As usual, we’ll still feature monthly events around ecology, social justice and meditation, particularly direct action as we hear about it. If you’re involved in any of these and would like your event to be featured in Passio, send us an email at hello@passiozine.com. See below for more.
Listening to the sermon of the flowers
I hardly dare say it, but it looks like a long-awaited spring has caught up with us. Spring has long been tied to the renewing power of nature: that yearly rite of passage where God brings things out of death and into new life.
Of course, not all nations have the same seasonal rhythm; many don’t have a ‘spring’ as such, but the cycles of life and death are still present in agriculture wherever you are — God’s methodology writ large into the very systems that sustain us.
“Christ wears ‘two shoes’ in the world: Scripture and nature,” the Irish philosopher John Scotus Eruigena wrote in the 9th Century. “At no stage can creation be seen as a separation of things from God.” Much later, our own St Paul of the Cross encouraged us to “listen to the sermon preached by the flowers, the trees, the shrubs, the sky, and the whole world.”
What does spring say to you? Among other things, I hear a reminder of the constant, overflowing vitality and dignity that the Creator has imbued in all things—including people—which we can’t replicate, or destroy (despite our efforts). So I try, in my better moments, to really pay attention; to be interrupted by those on the margins; and to quite literally stop and smell the roses.
They are, as Passionist priest Thomas Berry said, “the larger sacred community, to which we all belong… the time has come to begin, quite humbly, to follow the guidance of the larger community on which all life depends.”
Chris Donald is part of the Passio Media team. @chris.makes.things
This month: May 2024
This Saturday (11th May), our friends at Pax Christi will be joining CND for a national day of action, protesting US nuclear weapons being brought to Britain. Look through the different regions taking part here.
On Tuesday 14th May, join our friends at Christian Climate Action online for the launch of Paul Kunert’s new publication, Jesus Died to Save the Planet.
Pax Christi are also involved with protests for Palestine, principally (but not exclusively) in Coventry. If you’re looking for ways to take part, contact them for information.
Our Partners, Green Christian, welcome radical economist and author Paul Standing for an online talk on his new book, The Politics of Time, on 15th May.
