The Thistle - An E-Newsletter of Scotch College, Perth, Western Australia

Chaplain’s Reflections

What I notice when I take our dog Mackie for a walk in the morning depends very much on my state of mind each day.

In a comment on the way ‘landscape’ refers not only to the natural world but also to how human beings know themselves and move through the world, John O’Donohue said:

‘It makes a huge difference how you wake up each morning and come out of your house.  Whether you believe you are walking into a dead geographical location, which is used to get to a destination, or whether you are emerging out into a landscape that is as alive as you, but in a totally different form.  If you go towards it with an open heart and a watchful reverence, you will be absolutely amazed at what it will reveal to you.  In Celtic Christianity there is a strong sense of mystery with a passionate embrace of nature, the body, and the senses.  The divine is understood as manifest everywhere in everything.’  (John O’Donohue, Irish poet, priest and philosopher).

May we encounter the presence of the Divine each day of our lives.