July 02, 2019
By Mary Morrell
When my children were young one of our favorite vacation haunts was Wildwood, NJ. My husband and sons loved staying for a week in the motel, spending hours in the motel pool and exciting times on the boardwalk rides.
I loved being able to see the ocean every day, walk to the beach, find a quiet spot away from the crowds and think undisturbed. This was God’s creation and I could feel the divine presence in it all. So I completely understood when my friend, Chris, a uniquely funny and upbeat person, one day told me that she needed to go the beach at Wildwood to talk to God and get answers to some issues in her life.
When another friend replied that she didn’t understand Chris’ need to go to the ocean to talk to God, Chris replied, “You don’t speak wave.”
Chris, like so many of God’s children, feels close to God in the heart of his creation. Who hasn’t felt the presence of God when walking along a serene path in the woods, watching the unfolding colors of sunset on the bay or being entranced by the eternal motion of ocean waves rolling across the shore, continually molding it into something new?
For me, those times and places offer the blessing of a sanctuary, where I can renew my soul in peace.
Pope Saint John Paul II, who spoke often of the sacredness of nature, taught that “the aesthetic value of creation cannot be overlooked. Our very contact with nature has a deep restorative power; contemplation of its magnificence imparts peace and serenity. The Bible speaks again and again of the goodness and beauty of creation, which is called to glorify God” (1990 World Day of Peace message, no. 14).
I believe our pope of blessed memory would have appreciated Chris’ small patch of peace and serenity. It was he who wrote that “nature becomes a Gospel that speaks to us of God: 'For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator' (Wis 13:5)” (General Audience on January 26, 2000).
He reminded us of Paul’s teaching that “‘Ever since the creation of the world his (God's) eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made' (Rom 1:20). But this capacity for contemplation and knowledge, this discovery of a transcendent presence in creation, must also lead us also to rediscover our fraternity with the earth, to which we have been linked since creation” (cf. Genesis 2:7) (General Audience on January 26, 2000).
Mary Regina Morrell is a Catholic journalist, author, and syndicated columnist who has served the dioceses of Metuchen and Trenton, New Jersey, and RENEW International in the areas of catechesis and communication.