Lent: Week 1, Day 1: The Call of Beauty

Imagine a world without beauty! It helps us endure and not despair. Even in our most difficult times, we can still experience beauty. It is in these times when we need it most. I am reminded of the Covid-19 lockdown when many people felt isolated; however, that's when the parks were used more than ever before. Many began bird watching, hiking and gardening. It is the call of beauty that brings delight, heals, and satisfies the desires of the soul. It draws us nearer to the heart of the Holy One.

Beauty is woven throughout each day, but it often goes unnoticed. Beautiful in Greek is to kalon which is related to the word kalein which infers 'call'. O'Donohue notes that, "when we experience beauty, we feel called. The beautiful stirs passion and urgency in us and calls forth from aloneness into the warmth of wonder of an eternal embrace. It unites us again with the neglected and forgotten grandeur of life. We respond with joy to the call of beauty because in an instant it can awaken under the layers of the heart a forgotten brightness."

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth

find reserves of strength that will endure

as long as life lasts.” ~Rachel Carson, Silent Spring.

Prayer: Prayer of Blessings by John Philip Newell

May the angels of light

glisten for us this day.

May the sparks of God's beauty

dance in the eyes of those we love.

May the universe

be on fire with Presence for us this day.

May the new sun's rising

grace us with gratitude.

Let earth's greeness shine

and its waters breathe with Spirit.

Let heaven's winds stir the soil of our soul

and fresh awakenings rise within us.

May the mighty angels of light

glisten in all things this day.

May they summon us to reverence,

may they call us to life.

Song: For the Beauty of the Earth, John Rutter, Kings College Choir - Cambridge

Reflection:

1. How does beauty call you this week?

2. How did you feel embraced by beauty this week?

3. Spiritual Practice - use all your senses as you are attentive to all that is beautiful this week. In response, take a photograph, write a poem, journal, listen to music, do a piece of artwork, etc.

Resources:

Newell, J. (2011). Chapter 1, Praying with the Earth. Norwich: Canterbury Press

O'Donohue, J. (2003) The Invisible Embrace: Beauty. New York: Harper Perennial.