Chlidren planting trees in the Garden of Oneness. (Teresita Abraham)
View of the Garden of Oneness. (Teresita Abraham)
Labrynth in the garden. (Teresita Abraham)
by Teresita Abraham
Contributor
I know a man
who lived looking after his sheep in the wilderness
suddenly he woke up
he saw
he saw with new eyes
he noticed a burning bush
he took off his shoes
this is holy ground
a Presence greater than him.
You know him too . . .
yes, the bush was always burning
but the miracle is that Moses noticed it
his life was never the same after that.
What a visitation of the fire of the Spirit,
that turned his life upside down
to a new God experience, a New Consciousness.
I have learned a lot of wisdom in my life from small children. One spring Sunday morning a little boy was walking with his grandma, and I met them on the way. He was running from bush to bush in such delight and wonder, watching the new buds bursting forth and inviting his grandma to see it.
Spirituality is the ability to see the miracles of life all around us: the burning bush of Presence everywhere. Children are always seeing the burning bush everywhere. Why is it that we adults miss it? No wonder Jesus said, "Unless you become like little children you cannot enter the kingdom of God."
The Kingdom of God is an experience of seeing the connection. We fail to live in the present, with presence. We have made our minds and hearts into a mesh of busy-ness and the rubrics of religion and other systems.
It is with the heart one sees rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eyes.
- from The Little Prince
Today more than ever we need a theology of the heart and not one of books. Unless we become like little children, we'll miss seeing the connection, being the connection, living the connection.
Once a week local children come to water the plants and grass at a particular spot here at our Garden of Oneness in the middle of rural Zambia. It's a delight to hear them say to the plants as they water them, "Grow, grow, grow well." They have composed little mantras which they sing and dance when they come like this one:
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
We are One; we are One
Mother Earth, we are One, we are One
Sister Moon, we are One, we are One
Brother Sun, we are One, we are One
Holy childhood, we are One, we are One
They are growing in awareness of the oneness and sacredness of the Garden of the Holy One and Earth, our only home, the sanctuary where we encounter the Holy. They explain to the visitors the meaning of the three big stones we have in the center of the Sacred Web — the cosmic story, the Love story of God, as we call it here. These three stones symbolize the Trinity and the three cosmic dimensions of communion, diversity and interiority.
They have built the Peace Hill at the Garden which is an ant hill. (Ant hills are sacred places in Zambia.) They carried stones to mark the path of the Journey of the Heart, which is a specially designed garden labyrinth, and for each stone they carried in their heart a person or place in our world and blessed them. One big gift they bring is filling the garden with their joyful spirit.
On September 1 we celebrated World Day of Prayer for Creation for the first time in the garden. We invited the children to come to the garden to celebrate this day and they came all dressed up and with joyful hearts. They sang and danced, played and prayed, drew pictures of something in creation they love most. They learned why Pope Francis declared this a day to celebrate and care for creation.
As they ran around the trees and played, I said to myself, "They are the burning bush right now, making visible the love of God, the presence of God through their playfulness and joyful ways."
We and all life are connected with the golden thread: We are of God, making all life sacred. This is what we miss in life today. We are failing to see our true identity. That is the crisis of our world today. We adults fail to see this profound connection. Children and mystics see it straight away.
Can we see the world with the eyes of a child?
Seek the wisdom of the ages but look at the world through the eyes of a child.
- Ron Wild
The most important aspect of the story of Moses is not that the bush is burning but that Moses noticed.
For every bush is burning, every bush is aflame with the Living Presence. The fire of the Spirit is hidden in everything that has being. - Philip Newell.
Pilgrim, look! This is Holy Ground! You are Holy Ground! Take off your shoes!
[Teresita Abraham is a Presentation Sister from India living in rural Zambia. She is passionate about the new creation story and spirituality of being in communion. Together with the local community she has created the Garden of Oneness, a Sanctuary of Peace and Harmony where she lives and works.]