OPreach
Dominican Preaching through Word and Image
A Month of Rachel Carson – Week Three
Those who contemplate the beauty of the Earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.
– Rachel Carson
A Month of Rachel Carson – Week Two
If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life.
– Rachel Carson
A Month of Rachel Carson – Week One
The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us,
the less taste we shall have for destruction.
– Rachel Carson
Most of us are aware of Earth Day, April 22nd. (Just think Earth supplies feeds and clothes us every day of our lives, and we give her one day!) Last Sunday was World Environment Day. I knew about it, but failed to plan! Fortunately Earth continues providing for me whether I plan or not!!!
So, wanting to be a bit more mindful of this wonderful environment that surrounds us, OPreach will have a month of Rachel Carson. If you go to the website dedicated to her work, this is what you will find:
Perhaps the finest nature writer of the Twentieth Century, Rachel Carson (1907-1964) is remembered more today as the woman who challenged the notion that humans could obtain mastery over nature by chemicals, bombs and space travel than for her studies of ocean life. Her sensational book Silent Spring (1962) warned of the dangers to all natural systems from the misuse of chemical pesticides such as DDT, and questioned the scope and direction of modern science, initiated the contemporary environmental movement.
Opening Doors
When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
– Helen Keller
Wonder in a Drop of Water
Mountains and oceans have whole worlds of innumerable wondrous features. We should understand that it is not only our distant surroundings that are like this, but even what is right here, even a single drop of water.
excerpt from Genjokoan, trans. by Paul Jaffe
Wise Advice from Etty Hillesum
Even if I should be locked up in a narrow cell and a cloud should drift past my small barred window, then I shall bring you that cloud, Oh God, while there is still the strength in me to do so.
An Interrupted Life
True Miracles
If we could see the miracle of a single flower, our whole life would change.
Where Does Prayer Begin?
Prayer begins at the edge of emptiness.
Listening to the Quiet
In the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper of the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair.
Turning to Earth
It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility.– Rachel Carson
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