This past week, all the quotes posted to social media (Facebook, Instagram, X) spoke of the Christian (i.e., Christic) character of contemplation, as well as transitioned into Earth Month, with a special focus on the silence of nature:
There is no prayer, no contemplation, unless Christ be in the soul, and unless an imitation of Christ, a participation in his states and in his life, and in his prayer, what Saint Paul calls a reproduction of his image, be present in the depths of the soul. — Raïssa Maritain
If prayer made you a guru, it wouldn’t be Christian prayer. — Arturo Paoli
Let me unite myself with the saints and rejoice with them in the spirit over the beauty of creation… I wish to think according to God’s Spirit, love with God’s love, and protect what God cares for. Jesus said that no sparrow shall fall to the ground outside the Father’s care [Mt 10:29–31; Lk 12:6–7]. — Saint Titus Brandsma
Contemplation of creation allows us to discover in each thing a teaching which God wishes to hand on to us, since “for the believer, to contemplate creation is to hear a message, to listen to a paradoxical and silent voice.” — Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, quoting Saint John Paul II
God is the friend of silence. See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls. — Saint Teresa of Calcutta
Contemplative in the Mud 