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Celebrating Everyday Spirituality

Sunflower Seeds

Celebrating Everyday Spirituality

Let’s Celebrate Universe Day!

It is widely accepted in the scientific community that the universe began 13.7 billion years ago with a massive, colossal, gigantic explosion called “The Big Bang.” At this moment all matter came into being. This means that everything that was, is, and will be traces itself back to this moment. I should mention, however, that the term “Big Bang” is misleading. The beginning of the universe was not so much an explosion as it was (and continues to be) an expansion.

hubble 1

The Irish priest and social psychologist, Diarmuid O’Murch, describes the Big Bang as “a wonderful…proliferation of possibility, deserving remembrance.” Writer William Cleary suggests that we commemorate this event annually. After all we celebrate Earth Day every April 22. On that day we give thanks for our beautiful planet and we focus our attention on environmental issues. But earth is only a small part of our complete history. In that primordial expansion lies our true genesis. The atoms that form everything on earth—including each one of us—have their origin in “the Big Bang.” As astronomer Carl Sagan was fond of saying, “We are all made of star dust.”

In celebrating Universe Day we would give thanks for all of creation–not only for our earth, but for our solar system, galaxy, and the billions and billions and billions of stars and other worlds beyond our own. On Universe Day we believers would also give thanks for God’s Infinite Love which we believe brought everything into existence. We would give thanks for that Initial and Continual Expansion of Divine Love, that Primordial Gush of Infinite Creativity, that Passionate Inception of All that Is.

Some suggest that we celebrate this day on the summer solstice, that is, the longest day hubble 4of the year. This year that’s June 21 in the northern hemisphere and December 21 in the southern. This day with the longest light is appropriate, for it recalls those opening words of God in the book of Genesis: “Let there be light!”

What are some practical ways we might celebrate Universe Day? We could: read more on the Big Bang, view pictures taken by the Hubble telescope (the pictures accompanying this reflection are all from the Hubble telescope), google “English Astronomie” and watch the 8 minute video on YouTube, gaze at the moon and the stars, reverence the atoms that make up our body, pray Psalm 8, listen to excerpts from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets Suite” (available on line), or compose a prayer giving thanks to God for all that is. Can you think of some other ways?

A celebration of Universe Day might help our efforts toward global unity. It would fuel our gratitude to God and/or to the Universe for all that exists. And it would increase our appreciation that anything exists at all!

Denise Levertov wrote a poem, “Primary Wonder,” that does just that. She begins by hubble 5talking about the numerous problems and diversions that continuously “jostle” for her time and attention. But every now and then “the quiet mystery/is present to me.” What mystery? “the mystery that there is anything, anything at all,/ let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything/ rather than void and that, O Lord,/ Creator, Hallowed One, You still/ hour by hour sustain it.”

What do you think of celebrating Universe Day?

More images–this time not from a telescope but from a microscope:

A microscopic image of a 20-million-year-old fossil of algae.
A microscopic image of a 20-million-year-old fossil of algae.

 

A microscopic image of the retinal pigment epithelium.
A microscopic image of the retinal pigment epithelium.

PS: I will be facilitating a retreat this week for the Mercy Sisters at Sea Isle, NJ. Please pray for the retreatants and for me! Thank you!

10 Responses

  1. What a wonderful idea of celebrating Universe Day! I like it Sister Melannie. Sometimes I feel like I get stuck in the minutiae of life and forget about God’s big picture and the wonder of creation.

    Thanks for reminding us of the our amazing univers.

    Kathleen

  2. Dear Sister, I looked for you today; as I do everyday. Prayers are with you. Return home safely. Penny

  3. This is a wonderful idea! I especially love the “cat’s eye nebula” which looks like a rose—it has a centre, petals and leaves. And thank you Sister for introducing me to Denise Levertov; I’ve done some research on her works already! How great are you, Lord!

  4. Hi Sr. Melannie,
    I would probably say a prayer and do some simple thing like listen, for someone who needs to be heard or forgive someone when I wasn’t heard.
    I would have a chat…something like this…
    Dear God,
    Help me to remember that we, your children, are all connected and loved by You. Help me to remember my choices affect others across time and space. Help me be your instrument of peace and compassion. Thank you for the gift of life. Strengthen and sustain me and allow me to bless others the way You bless me.
    Amen.

    HAVE A GOOD RETREAT IN SEA ISLE

  5. I made that retreat in Sea Isle and it was a beautiful setting at the ocean and a wonderful prayer experience with Sr. Melannie.

  6. Sr. Melannie,

    I have looked online today for any group or organisation that celebrates or at least recognises an annual Universe Day and there appears to be nothing apart from your website. Thank you. There is an annual World Space Week but that is really about space travel and exploration, I think. So, although you suggested the idea five years ago there seems to have been no progress.

    Peter

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Hi and welcome to my blog! I’m Sister Melannie, a Sister of Notre Dame residing in Chardon, Ohio, USA. I’ve been very lucky! I was raised in a loving family on a small farm in northeast Ohio. I also entered the SNDs right after high school. Over the years, my ministries have included high school and college teaching, novice director, congregational leadership, spiritual direction, retreat facilitating, and writing. I hope you enjoy “Sunflower Seeds” and will consider subscribing below. I’d love to have you in our “sunflower community.” Thank you!

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