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<p>You are welcome to attend Saturday Craic <br>
</p>
<p><img src="cid:part1.DYR96jNw.NtCHdB0v@integralshift.ca" alt=""
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width="346" height="424" align="right">Topic: Virtual Craic<br>
Time: 10:30 EDT Saturday's <br>
<br>
Join Zoom Meeting<br>
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<p class="MsoTitle">Also<br>
</p>
<p class="MsoTitle">From time to time I do a reflection for my
Eucharistic community, This is the full version of my
reflection for this Sunday. <br>
</p>
<p class="MsoTitle">Art<br>
</p>
<h1 class="MsoTitle"><br>
</h1>
<h1 class="MsoTitle"><font color="#0080ff">Beauty and Integral
Ecology in Laudato Si </font></h1>
<font color="#0080ff"> </font>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:right" align="right"><font
color="#0080ff">By Arthur Blomme </font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Pope Francis in Laudato Si lays out a
spiritual path that he calls Integral Ecology.<span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>By integral, Francis means
integrating all aspects of being.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Proponents of integral theory speak of this
all-encompassing nature using the initials AQAL (All Quadrants
All Levels).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>These
quadrants form one of the basic insights of Integral theory. As
it was explained to me the quadrants are four realities that
make up the cosmos.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Three of the quadrants have their origin in
Plato.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He spoke about
the big three forms. They were beauty, truth and goodness.<span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thomas Aquinas later referred to these forms
as transcendentals.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They
are three realms where humanity transcends their animal nature.
<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Much can be gained by
spirituality that integrates truth, beauty and goodness.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Given this background I would like to focus
on one of these transcendentals, beauty.<span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Beauty corresponds to the
reality of our subjective experience just as truth corresponds
to the reality of our Objective experience. <span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="#0080ff">Beauty is an important
element of Laudato Si and <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>integral
ecology.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Beauty
inspires a higher state of consciousness of awe and wonder,
the child like state that maximizes personal growth. </font></p>
<font color="#0080ff"> </font>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="#0080ff">There are 29 references
to beauty in Laudato si.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I
have included several below for your contemplation. <span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I hope that pope Francis’s
words will inspire in you awe and wonder for the beauty of
creation. </font></p>
<font color="#0080ff"> </font>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="#0080ff"> </font></p>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p class="MsoIntenseQuote"><i><font color="#0080ff">11. ... .
If we approach nature and the environment without this
openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the
language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship
with the world, our attitude will be that of masters,
consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on
their immediate needs.</font></i></p>
<p class="MsoIntenseQuote"><i>12. What is more, Saint Francis,
faithful to Scripture, invites us to see nature as a
magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a
glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness. “Through the
greatness and the beauty of creatures one comes to know by
analogy their maker” ( Wis 13:5); indeed, “his eternal
power and divinity have been made known through his works
since the creation of the world” ( Rom 1:20). For this
reason, Francis asked that part of the friary garden
always be left untouched, so that wild flowers and herbs
could grow there, and those who saw them could raise their
minds to God, the Creator of such beauty. 21 Rather than a
problem to be solved, the world is a joyful mystery to be
contemplated with gladness and praise.</i></p>
<p class="MsoIntenseQuote"><i><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></i><i>34.
... But a sober look at our world shows that the degree of
human intervention, often in the service of business
interests and consumerism, is actually making our earth
less rich and beautiful, ever more limited and grey, even
as technological advances and consumer goods continue to
abound limitlessly. We seem to think that we can
substitute an irreplaceable and irretrievable beauty with
something which we have created ourselves.</i></p>
<p class="MsoIntenseQuote"><i>53. Yet we are called to be
instruments of God our Father, so that our planet might be
what he desired when he created it and correspond with his
plan for peace, beauty and fullness.</i></p>
<p class="MsoIntenseQuote"><i><font color="#0080ff"><span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>97. The Lord was able
to invite others to be attentive to the beauty that
there is in the world because he himself was in constant
touch with nature, lending it an attention full of
fondness and wonder. As he made his way throughout the
land, he often stopped to contemplate the beauty sown by
his Father, and invited his disciples to perceive a
divine message in things: “Lift up your eyes, and see
how the fields are already white for harvest” (Jn 4:35).
“The kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard seed
which a man took and sowed in his field; it is the
smallest of all seeds, but once it has grown, it is the
greatest of plants” (Mt 13:31–32).</font></i></p>
<p class="MsoIntenseQuote"><i>112. Yet we can once more
broaden our vision. We have the freedom needed to limit
and direct technology; we can put it at the service of
another type of progress, one which is healthier, more
human, more social, more integral. Liberation from the
dominant technocratic paradigm does in fact happen
sometimes, for example, ... when the desire to create and
contemplate beauty manages to overcome reductionism
through a kind of salvation which occurs in beauty and in
those who behold it. An authentic humanity, calling for a
new synthesis, seems to dwell in the midst of our
technological culture, almost unnoticed, like a mist
seeping gently beneath a closed door. </i><i><span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></i><i>…</i></p>
<p class="MsoIntenseQuote"><i><font color="#0080ff">215. In
this regard, “the relationship between a good aesthetic
education and the maintenance of a healthy environment
cannot be overlooked.” By learning to see and appreciate
beauty, we learn to reject self-interested pragmatism.
If someone has not learned to stop and admire something
beautiful, we should not be surprised if he or she
treats everything as an object to be used and abused
without scruple. If we want to bring about deep change,
we need to realize that certain mindsets really do
influence our behaviour. Our efforts at education will
be inadequate and ineffectual unless we strive to
promote a new way of thinking about human beings, life,
society and our relationship with nature</font></i></p>
<p class="MsoIntenseQuote"><i>235. God does not mean fleeing
from this world or turning our back on nature. This is
especially clear in the spirituality of the Christian
East. “Beauty, which in the East is one of the best loved
names expressing the divine harmony and the model of
humanity transfigured, appears everywhere: in the shape of
a church, in the sounds, in the colours, in the lights, in
the scents.”</i></p>
<p class="MsoIntenseQuote"><i><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><br>
</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoIntenseQuote"><i><font color="#0080ff">Triune
Lord, wondrous community of infinite love , teach us to
contemplate you in the beauty of the universe , for all
things speak of you . Awaken our praise and thankfulness
for every being that you have made . Give us the grace
to feel profoundly joined to everything that is .(A
CHRISTIAN PRAYER IN UNION WITH CREATION)<br>
<br>
</font></i></p>
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