They have owned remote convents, willow-shaded hospitals, and schools and orphanages on green campuses. For decades, nuns have been little-noticed stewards of the land.<\/p>\n
Now, a group of nuns at a Plainville nature center is pushing to preserve properties owned by nuns and other religious groups, arguing that protecting open space is a worthy pursuit, even for those focused on a higher plane.<\/p>\n
The Dominican nuns at the Crystal Spring Earth Learning Center have formed the Religious Lands Conservancy Project, a partnership with the Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition. [Source<\/a>]<\/p>\n Here is the site for the Crystal Spring Earth Learning Center<\/a>. They seem to be heavily influenced by Fr. Thomas Berry. There is an article about him in the NC Reporter that includes this<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rather than a theologian, Berry considers himself a cosmologist and “geologian,” an Earth scholar. He believes the only way to effectively function as individuals and as a species is to understand the history and functioning of our planet and of the wide universe itself, like sailors learning about their ship and the vast ocean on which it sails. “It takes a universe to make a child,” he says, adding that he is “trying to establish a functional cosmology, not a theology.” The amazing, mind-boggling cosmological perspective, he feels, can resuscitate human meaning and direction. The most important spiritual qualities, for Berry, are amazement and enchantment. Awe is healing. A sense of wonder is the therapy for spiritual autism.<\/p>\n In other words, caring for our planet and ascertaining where we are in the universe goes to the heart of what it means to be a faithful Christian. Nothing is really itself without everything else. Christianity’s task, if it is going to survive, will be to place itself within the context of science’s new story of our human origins and the evolution of the universe.<\/p>\n A geologian? That is just too funny. Here is one of his poems:<\/p>\n It Takes a Universe The child awakens to a universe. It takes a universe to make a child Gee I guess Hillary got it wrong, but maybe this is what she was thinking of for universal health care. I also guess people might become frustrated waiting for the universe to come and pick up their child to take them to universal day care.<\/p>\n Also on the nuns site from one of their newsletters was this piece of cosmic relativity.<\/p>\n As a species we are programmed to reflect on the reality that we experience. Out of our reflection we construct our meaning and create our cosmology. Our cosmology is our belief about the creation and purpose of the world. <\/p>\n
\nby Thomas Berry<\/p>\n
\nThe mind of the child to a world of meaning.
\nImagination to a world of beauty.
\nEmotions to a world of intimacy.<\/p>\n
\nboth in outer form and inner spirit.
\nIt takes a universe to educate a child.
\nA universe to fulfill a child.<\/p>\n