Why I love Jean Vanier
"One of the dangers of our time is that information is reaching saturation point and we only register our superficial knowledge. It is good to train our intelligence onto a tiny fragment of this huge body of knowledge which reflects the hugeness of the universe of things visible and invisible. If we look more deeply at a particular aspect - whether this is the growth cycle of the potato or the meaning of a single word of the Bible - we can touch the mystery through it. When we train our intelligence onto a single subject, we enter the world of wonder and contemplation. Our whole being is renewed when we touch the light of God hidden at the heart of things."
( Jean Vanier, Communty and Growth, 1979 edition, p. 133)
Then there is Psalm 19 which also speaks of the light of God, and the praise of God "hidden at the heart of things:
1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
On a journey home from Montrose I stopped "to train my intelligence" on an early rising moon, and "entered the world of wonder and contemplation". I take photos for pleasure, and fun, and memories, and love, and curiosity and many other reasons - but also sometimes out of sheer wonder, and the sense of the moment when we glimpse "the light of God hidden at the heart of things. This photo was taken at a time when life was overclouded by anxieties - it is a favourite picture, looked at now and then to remind me I'm not the centre of the universe, God is.
Many wise words here. The closer look, or the closer seek.
Photography as worship, photography as praise...I like that too.
Posted by: Poetreehugger | March 21, 2015 at 03:13 PM