this morning i recited the special prayer "Glorified be God the Lord of Splendor and Beauty" 95 times as prescribed...and yet my heart and mind were distracted by thoughts of ugliness, hatred, deceit, anger, sadness that abound in the world...
this evening i glanced out the window at the most spectacular sunset i have seen in a long time... i pulled on my jacket and my hat and ran outdoors desparate to drink in the scene before it slipped away. as i walked there surrounded by the grass and tall bare trees silhouetted black against the brilliant sky the heavens seemed to be shouting "Glorified be God, the Lord of Splendor and Beauty"... how many sunsets like this one have come and gone so silently with such magnificence and glory and i have been too wrapped up in my trivial concerns to even have the vaguest awareness that they were happening just outside my door. and think of all the wonderful sunsets, each unique in its luminous artistry, that cover the earth at ANY given moment on ANY given day.
as I was walking in awe and joy and reverence I came across the lovely couple who live next door to my parents in law, Tibo and Elizabeth. we exchanged appreciation for the beauty of the sunset and i decided to walk back with them. They both graduated with master's degrees in theology from a Jesuit school and are now devoting their whole life to coming up with some kind of a project that they were not able to describe to me in any detail. somehow it seemed so fitting that I was drawn out of the house this evening by the splendor of the skies to meet these two spiritual people who are so evidently devoted to each other and so inseparable and who emanate such calm beauty and serenity.
