Nature

Goldfinches and God Arrive

Steve · June 10, 2018 · 12 Comments

IMG_8991 copy copy — A Lesser Goldfinch, photographed a few years ago in Jerome, Arizona. SJG photo.

“Beauty is the harvest of presence.” David Whyte

I have been up early the last few mornings enjoying the cooler early day before the heat and humidity of St. Louis summer kicks in. You have to grab the cool while you can get it these days.

Bird-watching and listening from my screened porch (where I seem like the one in the cage and the birds are free to fly) are especially fruitful in the morning, for the birds know what I know about the cool of the day. About a week ago I put up a new feeder just outside my backdoor for the American Goldfinches (Spinus tristis) that I occasionally see in the neighborhood. I hung it where it can be easily viewed from where I sit to read and pray and write, a place where I wait for God to show up just as I now awaited the arrival of my first visitors. Sure enough, yesterday morning I caught sight of my first pair of goldfinches.

Pondering as Prayer and an Act of Faith

Steve · June 2, 2018 · 4 Comments

Givens - Inspired by Spring — Waiting to Burst Open to the World. Newfields Museum, Indianapolis. SJG photo.

“The most fortunate are those who have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy.” – Abraham Maslow

A bright red male cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) just came to rest on a post outside the porch where I sit praying and writing this. It immediately grabs my attention, of course, because of its radiance and beautiful angular lines. I know its trilled, two-part call, for it’s a prayer of its own, a hymn of praise to the new day: cheer-cheer-cheer-purty-purty-purty. (Translation: Yay! It’s a beautiful new day!)

Within This Holy Quiet

Steve · February 25, 2018 · 10 Comments

leaf — Leaf in the Meramec River. SJG photo.

Sometimes, the quiet we seek is not mere silence. Rather, it is silence enough to hear a whisper, the voice of God calling out to us in the sounds of the earth. For this sunny, warming Sunday morning, I offer a poem about what we can hear if we dare silence ourselves.

Within this holy quiet
I hear your word in the wind
blowing through trees
in the caw caw caw of crows
(always three times, it seems)
in the rat-a-tat-tat of a singular distant woodpecker
in the slap of water against a mid-stream rock
at the bottom of the hill.

Choosing Joy Over the Facts

Steve · February 11, 2018 · 12 Comments

Sue — Choosing the joy of a hike on a warmer day. SJG photo.

“Be joyful, though you have considered all the facts.” Wendell Berry

This powerful idea of Wendell Berry, a Kentucky novelist, poet, cultural critic and farmer, can be a tough idea to get our heads around. For it requires openness on our part, a willingness to accept what life hands us with an attitude of joy and gratitude for what we have already received. It is an inclination to see the beautiful despite the ugly and an invitation to see the dignity of human life despite those who would have us denigrate everything we don’t agree with or understand. It is a chance to find the very best in others when all the cultural mores and signs direct us to find their faults and take advantage of them.

So with that in mind, I am deciding to “be joyful” today, even though the facts — the words and the images swirling around me — can be a bit disheartening. I am deciding that only I get to choose what creates my state of mind and my attitude toward the world.

Notes from a Lecture: The Two Francises, by Fr. Michael Perry, OFM

Steve · January 31, 2018 · 2 Comments

Last night I had the good fortune to attend a lecture at Washington University (where I work) by Father Michael Perry, the American Franciscan friar who is the minister general of the Order of Friars Minor. Sponsored by the John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics, Fr. Perry spoke on this theme: “What Do Francis of Assisi and Francis of Buenos Aires Have in Common? A ‘Franciscan’ Perspective on the Common Good.” My write-up here is by no means exhaustive of his roughly one-hour presentation but rather represents what most resonated with me and what I was able to capture in my little notebook…

A little background on Fr. Perry, just to give you an idea of his breadth of experience and education. He spoke from a deep, humble and well-educated place. Born into an Irish household in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1954, Fr. Perry entered the Franciscan seminary at Quincy University in Illinois where he studied philosophy and history. While still a theology student, he went to the Democratic Republic of Congo (ex-Zaire) where he served as pastor, researcher, and professor of mission and cultural studies. He completed his doctorate in social anthropology (religious anthropology) at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. and went on to serve as a foreign policy adviser to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and later as an adviser on African religion and social policy at Franciscans International, U.N./New York. He also served as a policy and programs adviser at Catholic Relief Services. From 2009-13, Fr. Perry served as the Vicar General of the Order of Friars Minor in Rome. Since 2013, he has served as the Minister General (leader) of the Order. He maintains an active interest and engagement in the promotion of peace and reconciliation in Africa, and in the promotion of inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue.