Below is the weekly chaplain's newsletter called 'Table Talk' that I write for the Lower School division of Holy Innocents' Episcopal School.
“And God saw all that he
made, and it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31)
Goodness and
creation are inseparable. The divine goodness of created things is the
overarching theme of the first creation story in the Bible. After each act of
creation—night and day, water and land, plants and animals, women and men—the
narrator repeats the line, “God saw how good it was.”
The story invites
us to train our eyes to see the universe, the earth, and ourselves as divinely
good. Just as each piece of art reflects the artist who made it, all creation
reflects the infinite goodness of the Creator. Seeing God’s goodness shining in and through life is what it means to pray with your eyes.
Many people falsely
assume that prayer is limited to words or thoughts and that the proper posture
for prayer involves bowing your head and closing your eyes. The first story of
creation reminds us that using our eyes to see God’s goodness is as essential
as using our lips to name that goodness.
During class,
we’ve been practicing seeing God’s goodness reflected in the beauty of created
things. We look for it shining in the beautiful pieces of art located at Holy
Innocents’, in the blueness of the sky, in the flickering of a candle flame, in
the glow of the stained-glassed windows, in the symmetry of the church’s architecture,
in the bloom of the flowers kept throughout the chapel, in the rustling of
leaves…the list of visual goodness goes on.
Most of all, we
looked for God’s goodness shining in the faces of our neighbors and in our own
reflections. Thursday’s Chapel Challenge was to have a
staring contest with some friends and find God's goodness shining through their
eyes.
Like any form of
prayer, praying with your eyes requires practice. Just as it is with practicing
an instrument or world language, the more you practice prayer the easier it
becomes to realize that God’s goodness is always shining all around us and
within us, waiting to be acknowledged, celebrated, and shared.
God saw all that he made, and it was very
good. This Labor Day
weekend, I hope you take a good pause to see as God does and pray with your
eyes.
With Love and
Prayers,
Chaplain Timothy
"Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul." -
St. Augustine
For regular updates, photos, prayers, and glimpses of what's going on
in the spiritual life of the HIES Lower School, you’re welcome check out the
following:
Facebook: facebook.com/episcopalschoolchaplain
Instagram: http://instagram.com/episcopalschoolchaplain
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EpiscopalChap
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