“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” How often have we heard this passage from Ecclesiastes? At first, it can sound as though everything is meaningless. Yet it also awakens us to life’s passing nature and its recurring patterns.

What if we read it in a more positive light? The repetition it describes can also be seen as a beautiful rhythm woven through creation: generation after generation, day and night, sun and moon, the seasons, and the boundaries of the sea. What a beautiful world we have been given to contemplate as we journey toward eternal life. In fact, Saint Thomas Aquinas saw the details of nature as one of the signs pointing to God’s existence.

Saint Peter Julian, raised in the French Alps, learned about God and the spiritual life through that beauty. He spoke of mountains and eagles, streams and rivers, and loved the Canticle of Creation, which we pray in the Liturgy of the Hours every Sunday morning.

For spiritual reading, Father Eymard once advised a friend that the “two best books to read are nature and the crucifix!” That is how creatures become, for those who love God, like a divine mirror. Like steps to lift us up to God. They are the mystical ladder of Jacob. Then we understand the words spoken at creation: “God saw that all things were good.” (cf. Genesis 1,4), etc., and God makes all things contribute to the good. (Romans 8)

Let Us Pray:

Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord, praise and exalt him above all forever. Sun and moon bless the Lord, every shower and dew, all you winds, nights and days, light and darkness, mountains and hills, praise the Lord. Let us bless the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, praise and exalt him above all forever. (Taken from the Liturgy of the Hours)