Each morning, I take the same route from my cell in the cloister to my choir stall in the chapel. The priory at that early hour is quiet and still, the darkness slowly retreats as the sun begins to peek through the windows. I am greeted with the smell of old incense, wood polish, and burning candles when I open the chapel door and find my choir stall. And then it happens … BAM!
A beam of light straight to the face. My eyes, blinded by the light of the rising sun. It turns out that the combination of a new choir stall and the early summer sunrise equal a friendly wake up call from nature, and even though one would think that I would come to expect it each morning, I haven’t yet. It gets me every time.
After I was sure that this was neither an ecstatic or mystical moment (and after laying my head back and groaning in misery), I began to fathom this problem and find the wisdom in this providential moment.
Is not God perpetually calling out to us through the beauty of creation, the ordering of providence, and the movements of our intellects and hearts? And yet we move through our daily routines without noticing, focused on the next thing to get done or the particular end we are trying to meet. From time to time, we wonder where God is without understanding that he is right there calling out to us, reminding us that he is close, and enveloping us in his divine love.
God’s glory shines through creation, just as it shines through a stained glass window. His is the glory that illuminates every sunrise, his is the order that makes the patterns of the stars intelligible, his is the love that draws us to himself in true friendship.
The heavens do indeed proclaim the glory of God, and the work of his hands are evident when we look around us. If the world were a stage, then we could reach out and push the backdrop over. There we would find the unfettered, unfiltered glory of God, so high beyond our understanding. The world around us is fragile and flimsy compared to the power that keeps it in being, like the stained glass window illuminated by the sun. God is hidden just behind it.
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Photo by Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission).
