Prayers in Pentecost: Beauti-ful is less

Royal Albatross in Flight over the South Island of New Zealand

Beauty saves. Beauty heals. Beauty motivates. Beauty unites. Beauty returns us to our origins, and here lies the ultimate act of saving, of healing...Do not confuse beauty with beautiful. 

Beautiful is a human judgment. 

Beauty is All. 

The difference is everything. 

~ Matthew Fox* [1940- ]

Holy Creator of Beauty ~
       When I am in the presence of true beauty, it lights up my soul and brightens my whole sense of what Creation is through nature, art, music, the laughter of a child, or the map of life on an aged face. And while I believe I am often surrounded by it, I realize that more often I fail to see and experience it. Instead, I'm critical and judgmental, rejecting in others the very failings I suspect are my own, damaging the essence of Creation and its creatures. I'm guilty of absorbing the artificially contrived, often unattainable, and even unhealthy standards of human beauty whether physical, intellectual, or spiritual imposed by a purely commercial culture intent on control and profit. 
        Help me, Lord, to get beyond my flawed judgement that, I must confess, can be at the very least, unkind. Please turn my heart, refresh my soul, and heal my inner vision so that I might see the world and especially Your people, through the eyes of love. Grant me a lightness of spirit and an effortless appreciation of all that exists in Your Creation. Rid me of lingering -isms, - phobias, and negativity that I may lift the spirit of another, expand my appreciation of the flora, fauna, and terra firma, and become a co-creator of true beauty until my earthly existence is completed. amen.




*Matthew Fox, is an American Episcopal priest, theologian, and author. Formerly a Roman Catholic priest of the Dominican order, Fox became an early advocate and exponent of Creation Spirituality that has drawn inspiration from Thomas Aquinas, Hildegard of Bingen, Francis of Assisi and others.  The movement is aligned with ecological and environmental movements and in the spirit of deep ecumenism, embraces many spiritual traditions of the world such as Buddhism, Sufism, Judaism, and Native American.  Fox has authored more than 30 books and a great deal of controversy among "traditional" religious leaders.




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