Water, Wind, Earth Fire
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water, wind, earth & fire For too many centuries, too many Christians have been taught that a deep reverence for the beauty of nature is incompatible with sincere faith. Christine Valters Paintner’s Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire thus comes as both a blessing and a gift. Not only is her writing as beautiful as the symbolism she describes, but her wide knowledge of scripture, patristic writing, the mystical life of the saints, and contemporary spiritual poetry makes the reading of this book an inspiring and rejuvenating adventure. Paula Huston Author of The Holy Way Christine Valters Paintner invites us—with inspiring words and examples— to dive deep into the elemental universe, and encounter there the Mystery that hides in all things. She writes out of the Christian tradition, but her message is as universal as the elements themselves. Chet Raymo Author of When God Is Gone, Everything Is Holy Amid the current profusion of spirituality-and-nature books, Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire is a rare treasure: a deeply Christian book that also draws us more deeply into contemplation of and relationship with nature. This fine work of spiritual wisdom and guidance offers to both individuals and groups a companion for all seasons. It can soothe at night, enliven in the morning, kindle the human spirit during the day, and at all times serve as a reminder of the abiding presence of the Creator Spirit, which is the spirit of Christ on earth and among us. Jane Redmont Author of When in Doubt, Sing water, wind, earth & fire The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements CHRISTINE VALTERS PAINTNER SORIN BOOKS Notre Dame, Indiana Copyright acknowledgments for excerpts used in this book are detailed in the Sources section on pages 143–149, which is a continuation of this copyright page. ____________________________________ © 2010 by Christine Valters Paintner All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews, without writ- ten permission from Sorin Books, P.O. Box 428, Notre Dame, IN 46556-0428. www.sorinbooks.com ISBN-10 1-933495-22-7 ISBN-13 978-1-933495-22-4 Cover and text design by Brian C. Conley. cover art © iStockphoto Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Paintner, Christine Valters. Water, wind, earth, and fire : the Christian practice of praying with the elements / Christine Valters Paintner. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-13: 978-1-933495-22-4 (pbk.) ISBN-10: 1-933495-22-7 (pbk.) 1. Prayer—Christianity. 2. Nature—Religious aspects—Christianity. 3. Four el- ements (Philosophy)—Miscellanea. I. Title. BV227.P35 2010 248.3’2—dc22 2009043975 To Abbess Petunia and former Abbott Duke (1996–2006) whose four-legged wisdom has taught me about the profound mysteries and graces of the natural world. They have each revealed a face of God in their being just who they were created to be. Contents Acknowledgments ............................................ix Introduction ..................................................... 1 Brother Wind ................................................. 15 Wind and Creation .................................................................. 16 Life Breath ........................................................................... 19 Holy Inspiration .................................................................. 23 Carried by the Wind ........................................................... 29 God in the Whirlwind ......................................................... 32 Lectio Divina with Wind ........................................................... 37 More Air and Wind Quotations for Prayer .................................. 39 Blessing of Wind ...................................................................... 42 Brother Fire ................................................... 45 Fire and Creation ..................................................................... 46 Fire of Illumination .............................................................. 50 Fire of Purification ............................................................... 55 Becoming Fire ...................................................................... 59 Living Flame of Love ........................................................... 62 Sun, Moon, and Stars .......................................................... 65 Lectio Divina with Fire .............................................................. 69 More Fire Quotations for Prayer ................................................ 71 Blessing of Fire ........................................................................ 73 Sister Water ................................................... 75 Water and Creation .................................................................. 76 Rise and Fall of the Tides ..................................................... 79 Living Water ........................................................................ 85 Holy Wells, Desert Springs, and Fountains ........................ 88 Viriditas ............................................................................... 92 Baptism and Blessing ........................................................... 95 Lectio Divina with Water .......................................................... 99 More Water Quotations for Prayer ........................................... 100 Blessing of Water ................................................................... 101 Sister Earth .................................................. 103 Earth and Creation ................................................................. 104 Tree of Life ........................................................................ 107 Holy Mountain ................................................................. 111 Sacred Garden ................................................................... 116 Feasting and Communion ................................................. 120 Our Own Earthiness.......................................................... 126 Earth’s Creatures ................................................................ 129 Lectio Divina with Earth ......................................................... 133 More Earth Quotations for Prayer ............................................ 134 Blessing of Earth .................................................................... 136 Conclusion .................................................. 137 Sources ........................................................ 143 Introduction All praise be Yours, my God, through Brothers Wind and Air, And fair and stormy, all the weather’s moods, By which You cherish all that You have made. All praise be Yours, my God, through Sister Water, So useful, humble, precious, and pure. All praise be Yours, my God, through Brother Fire, Through whom You brighten up the night. How beautiful he is, how gay! Full of power and strength. All praise be Yours, my God, through Sister Earth, our mother, Who feeds us in her sovereignty and produces Various fruits and colored flowers and herbs. —ST. FRANCI S O F Ass I S I 1 water, wind, earth& fire Nature as a Book of Revelation How necessary it is for monks to work in the fields, in the rain, in the sun, in the mud, in the clay, in the wind: these are our spiritual directors and our novice- masters. They form our contemplation. They instill us with virtue. They make us as stable as the land we live in. —Thomas Merton All things with which we deal preach to us. What is a farm but a mute gospel? The chaff and the wheat, weeds and plants, blight, rain, insects, sun—it is a sacred emblem from the first furrow of spring to the last stack which the snow of winter overtakes in the fields. —Ralph Waldo Emerson Christian tradition tells us that we have received two books of divine revelation: the book of scripture and the book of nature. Creation itself is a sacred text through which the presence of God is revealed to us. There is a story about the hermit Antony, who lived in the desert of Egypt in the third to fourth centuries. When he was asked once by a philosopher what he would do if one day he could no longer read scripture, Antony replied simply: “My book, sir philosopher, is the nature of created things, and it is always on hand when I wish to read it.” In this brief exchange we witness the essen- tial role of the natural world in forming Christian awareness and practice from ancient times. 2 Introduction Celtic Christian tradition especially has developed this under- standing of the natural world as a window onto the divine; nature is considered to be an essential source of revelation about God. This is in large part why Celtic Christian practices and wisdom are being reclaimed with great enthusiasm in our contemporary world. People are hungry for ways to reconnect with creation in meaningful and prayerful ways. This primary connection to creation is rooted in the example of Jesus himself, who expressed many of his teachings through para- bles, those profound stories that reveal to us the nature of God and God’s Reign. Much of the language Jesus used is earth-based, root- ed in metaphors of seed, fruit, and harvest with which his listeners would have identified. His ministry also centers around elemental places, such as feasting at the table on the gifts of the earth, his ap- pearance on the mountain as a place of transfiguration, his encoun- ters at the well, and his own baptism in the River Jordan,