Sunset over the Hermitage

So, in beholding the glory of the Trinity in creation, we must contemplate, sing, and rediscover wonder. In contemporary society people become indifferent “not for lack of wonders, but for lack of wonder” (G. K. Chesterton).…Nature thus becomes a gospel which speaks to us of God: “from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator” (Wis 13: 5).…But this capacity for contemplation and knowledge, this discovery of a transcendent presence in created things must lead us also to rediscover our kinship with the earth, to which we have been linked since our own creation (Gen. 2:7). This is precisely the goal which the Old Testament wished for the Hebrew Jubilee, when the land was at rest and man ate what the fields spontaneously gave him (Lev. 25:11-12). If nature is not violated and degraded, it once again becomes man’s sister. ~Pope St. John Paul II, general audience, January 26, 2000