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Faith Formation Article
Nature is a gift and a connection
to God  

I like to play indoors better 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are," says a fourth-grader.

St. Bernard said, "You will learn more in the woods than you will in books. The trees and stones will teach you what you will never learn in the school of masters."

Our times have changed. Wendell Berry evaluates: "Our children no longer learn how to read the great book of nature from their own direct experience or how to interact creatively with the seasonal transformations of the planet. We no longer coordinate our human celebration with the great liturgy of the heavens."

A new book brings together what we have always innately known, what theologians have continually told us, and what Catholic social teaching today says: "Creation is the primary revelation of God" (Meister Eckhart).

"Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder" by Richard Louv (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2005) illustrates not a medical condition, but a description of the human costs of alienation from nature, an alienation that damages children and shapes adults, families and communities. Louv presents research that illustrates the direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development – physical, emotional and spiritual.

Environment-based education, natural play, time within and an awareness of our natural world have so many ramifications and benefits. Let us look at just two – as well as our constant challenge.

Nature is reflected inour ability to wonder.

Spiritual directors and theologians tell us that a pre-requisite for prayer is a capacity for wonder. To be in awe, to appreciate, to be struck by beauty, by the more, by more than what is visible to the eye, to be aware of the possibilities… "The world is charged with the grandeur of God…" (Gerard Manley Hopkins).

To have these experiences that one cannot really put into words, yet, in our humble ways, do overflow into silence, music, words – are all forms of prayer. They only come from wonder-filled experiences. And many of our wonder-filled experiences originate in the world of nature, rather than in our technological, sports, shopping or amusement world. Where do we – or our children – spend most of our lives?

Will our children be our future stewards of nature?

Naturalist Robert Michael Pyle has asked, "What is the extinction of a condor to a child who has never seen a wren?"

What will happen to us? Who will take seriously the Catholic social teaching call to care for creation, if we continue to lose our intimate connection with creation?

I remember hearing one of our preeminent theologians observe more than 30 years ago that we were losing our simple, but oh-so-necessary, rhythm of just being outside amid the world of God's creation. Instead of being in nature, we had brought nature inside, so we didn't need to go outside. Think about our shopping malls. We have brought flowers, large trees, inside – and benches to sit by them – and that's whether people go, even on Sundays. But, is it really nature – with the sun, clouds, earth, wind, smells, sounds, feelings?

hildren become what they've grown up with. Will they care about (let alone appreciate, wonder at) creation if:

• leisurely family walks have disappeared?
• there's no collecting of seashells and marveling at their differences?
• there's always trip to amusement parks but never to camp sites or national/state parks?
• there's never time to pray outdoors?

We have an ever-presentchallenge.

We cannot say we care about God if we do not care for God's creation. The United States Catholic Conference of Bishops is one of the four founding partners of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment. Paul Gorman, its director, says, "The extent that we separate our children from creation is the extent to which we separate them from the creator – from God." Gorman says that this conviction and all its ramifications is a growing consciousness, especially since Pope John Paul II's 1990 World Day of Peace message when he suggested that Christians were morally responsible for the protection of creation.

When Richard Louv's son was 4, he asked his dad, "Are God and Mother Nature married, or just good friends?" In the simple words of a youngster, this was his attempt to try to figure out the relationship of how nature, God's ever-surprising and awe-inspiring creation, always leads us back, brings us closer to the Creator.

Sr. Janet Schaeffler, OP, is the archdiocesan associate director for adult faith formation for the Office for Faith Formation/Catechetics.