The Redemption of the world, and Creation, itself, is one of the promised gifts coming to us through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. For through Original Sin, Creation groans within itself, and looks forward to the Redemption of the Human Race and the restoration of the original order and harmony it enjoyed in Paradise. "Harmony with creation is broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man. Because of man, creation is now subject "to its bondage to decay" (Catholic Catechism Section II, Chapter I Article I Paragraph 7-400)

Romans 8:19 "For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected [the same] in hope,
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, [to wit], the redemption of our body."

And it is through Contemplative Prayer that we gain an intimation of how this gift of Creaturely Restoration will become a reality in our lives, to some extent in this world, and, par excellence, in the next world. For the Loving Spirit of God is filled with Goodness. And Goodness is diffusive of Itself, Loving to share Its Treasures. And, like the artists of the world, made in Its Image, Love shares this Inner Dynamic through an ongoing Creation of an Infinite Variety of Creatures, each giving expression to a different aspect of the Mystery of Love within Its Being.

For when seen through the Divine Perspective, the Eyes of God, everything has significance, everything has meaning, and everything has intrinsic beauty. To see objects through the Eyes of God means to see them as they are known in the Eternal Dimension, through the Consciousness of God. God raises us to share this Consciousness through contemplative prayer, thus restoring "a hundredfold" all we have given up for Him:

"Then I withdraw, as far as the center of my consciousness is concerned, from my actual life, emerging towards the world of genuine and ultimate things which I now see ordered in the perspective of eternity, located as it were in their topos uranios ("celestial place"). I ascend, so to speak, a high peak soaring above my actual life and beyond the level of time experience. From that point of vision I perceive all things in their remoteness and their timeless being, independent of their real presence, penetrating their essence entirely at rest, in a specifically contemplative mode of consciousness. In this form of the contemplative attitude the aspects of tranquillity and timelessness, of a pure and undisturbed intellectual devotion to the inward logos of the object, are particularly preeminent.(Dietrich von Hildebrand, "Transformation in Christ")

And this is the vision of Creation Christ has restored to us through His death and Resurrection. For this vision of creation described by von Hildebrand, above, gives us contemplative joy of a sublime nature, in response to the essential goodness of the object being contemplated. And all objects from which we have withdrawn our selfish "attachment," are now restored to us in their "essential goodness," in a manner that is no longer connected with our desire for them. And this new "spiritual joy" in the "being," rather than the "using," is now available to us from every object that exists.

St John of the Cross tells us how the proper love of creation leads to greater love of God:

"When the will, becoming aware of the satisfaction afforded by the object of sight, hearing, or touch, does not stop with this joy but immediately elevates itself to God, rejoicing in Him who motivates and gives strength to its joy, it is doing something very good. The will, then, does not have to avoid such experiences when they produce this devotion and prayer, but it can profit by them, and even ought to for the sake of so holy an exercise. For there are souls who are greatly moved toward God by sensible objects."(Ascent of Mt Carmel)

For all of creation sings with joy at its role in the Glorification of God through the Created, Resurrected Humanity of the Word made Flesh, Jesus Christ. And in mankind, creation will eternally share in the inter-Communion between God and His creature in the Beatific Vision. So in light of the Incarnational Mystery, this is not just empty rhetoric. For as Wordsworth said, we, created being, come into this world "trailing clouds of Glory." And the world of St. Francis' "Canticle to the Sun," the world of "Brother Sun," and "Sister Moon," are all visions of the real world, as seen through the loving eyes of Contemplation. Unfortunately, perhaps we cannot see it, due to "the world being too much with us," and due to our separation from God. It is "the hundredfold" return that God has promised to those who voluntarily sacrifice attachment to the world and faithfully seek Him:

"Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come." (Mark 10:29-30)

William Wordsworth reminds us that we have no vision, nor eyes to see the beauty around us, because we are filled with "the spirit of the world," rather than the Spirit of God.

THE world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gather'd now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.?Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

William Wordsworth

.

In God's unified, simple vision of Himself He knows and Loves in an eminent degree, those attributes which are reflected by created beings in a limited degree. Contemplatives, seeing through the Eyes of God, participate(although less than in an infinite degree) in the divine intellect, will, and vision, knowing creatures through the Creator, and knowing and loving these attributes reflected by the creature first and better in the fullness of God's eminent, unified vision of His Own Being, and secondarily in the creature, to the extent, and only because, it reflects the goodness already loved in the Creator. Creatures are loved for God, and through God, with a far more profound and fulfilling delight than is had by loving them as beings separate from God. They are not loved with the spirit of the world which sees them as ends in themselves, in competiton for the love of God. Moreover, the contemplative will sometimes be raised to a level of vision which intuits the unity of all creation within the Being of God, in which all things live and move and have their being.

God is Pure Spirit of Infinite Power, Infinite Creativity, Infinite Goodness, and Infinite Delight. His Goodness is diffusive of Itself and ever delights in sharing its bounty with an infinite profusion of created beings. He made man in His own image; as like God man also possesses intellect, will, power, creativity, goodness, and delight. So some of the things we like to do, like imagining new things and creating them, He also likes to do at an Infinitely greater level. And some of the unending litany of things He creates come about indirectly through the activities, power and will of the creatures He creates. We, for example, like to exercise our abilities and facullties in connection with the created being and life on earth. He likes to exercise His Uncreated Abilities and Faculties in connecton with creations that span the microworld, the Macroworld Universe, the spiritual, and angelic levels of being.

We create pictures of things, imaginary beings, and dreamlike reality through our faculty which imitates His, called "imagination." His Imagination is different than ours in that the things He Imagines, through His Will, become real created beings. We like to to use our imagination to play "Let's pretend," and create stories told orally, in books, and in movies. We delight in these imaginary creations. He likes to play "Let's not pretend," and creates stories and creatures which live and move and have their being within His Infinite Consciousness and Spirit. He delights in these creations as we, in imitation of Him, delight in ours. We like to organize created reality into relationships of systems, forces, and interacting parts to achieve some new, man-made machine or purpose. He likes to organize creatures into systems of unbelievable complexity, ingenuity, and unity of purpose. Created parts come together into a unity or symphany of created elegance, like a crystal, or a tree, or a man, or a galaxy, or a Universe, each part giving voice to something eminently of His Own Sophisticated Elegance.

Through man-made science, and the natural intellect of man, we are able to laboriously discover some of the hidden relationships between and among the beings of the created, natural world, item by item, one at a time. We can imagine our sun, and then envision many of its realtionships to the planets within the solar system. We have to analyze these relationships one at a time, for that's how our created attention and understanding work. One thing at a time. For example, we can use our minds to examine the nature of the activities connected with the atomic fusion going on in the heart of the sun, function by function. For that's how created man gains knowledge, one thing after another. However, Infinite Consciousness knows in a different way.

Infinte consciousness(Eyes of God) sees all created being, all relationships, and all potential and possible created being, simultaneously, at the same moment, in one, infinite act of understanding. Moreover, it sees all prbabilities and motions and directions things are taking. It sees all causes and knows all effects and intuits the purpose of all things. It sees how the voice of each created entity bespeaks something of the eminent grandeur of the Being of God. And all of the history of all of creation becomes a Symphony of Unspeakable Beauty, Elegance, and Delight, producing an Ineffable Harmony of Creation, and leading to the Glorious Kingdom of the New Heavens and New Earth of Everlasting Life.

And in this New Creation, One Alone holds the Crown of Kingship over all Created being and all principalities and powers. He is the One Whose Life and Sacrifice reflects "The Greatest Story Ever Told," the Greatest Heroism, the Greatest Humility, and the Greatest Love possible reflected in the creature through the Godman, Jesus Christ. The grandeur and glory of all the great symponies of all time come together in a Glorious Celestial Harmony that honors this One, Solitary Life. And through His sacrifice, each of us, by our participation in the Life of God, by our deification through contemplative prayer, can share in this hundredfold gift,i.e., the Divine Vision of Creation. We, in this life, can participate in the Divine Consciousness which knows and loves in an eminent degree, in God, those Divine qualities reflected in created being, and Which, through the Eyes of God, encompasses all created being in a single act of Infinite, Loving Knowledge.

For in return for the things we gave up for His love, He repays us by giving them all back to us in an unattached manner, that includes greater enjoyment for everything in creation. Now, instead of being limited to enjoyment of creatures we own and possess in a natural way, we have enjoyment of all creatures that exist, whether we own them or not, in a supernatural way, participating in God's Love for them. For as we progress in Contemplative Prayer, we find a shift taking place in our Understanding and, at the same time, we begin to see creation through the "Eyes of God!". This means we find a new meaning and a new loveableness, in itself rather than for ourself, as all of creation reflects something of the glorious attributes of God. We begin to appreciate the "thing" that poet's like Wordsworth were constantly seeking to capture in poetry: "Creation and nature are intrinsically good, and have intrinsic significance by the glory they give to God when they assist us to know and love Him!" For all finite beings possess a natural goodness and beauty, from microparticles to the Expanding Universe, and they all reflect something of the Truth, Goodness and Beauty of Infinite Being.

And at the highest level of Contemplation and Redemptive Goodness, created being participates in Divinity through the faces of the rejected, the poor, the lonely, the lame, and the outcasts of this world, transformed in beauty, with the radiance of God's Glory, by the Loving Glance of The Son who suffered with them, and who passed their way, on the Road to Jerusalem.

The Fall of Man separated him from participation in the ongoing joy of Supernatural Consciousness, from appreciating the beauty in everything that exists, to a state of general dissatisfaction, characteristic of natural consciousness. Natural consciousness, by itself, is never content because it is created for, and can only be satisfied by, its fulfillment in That of Which it is made in the image: Supernatural Spirit. It is, therefore, a state of constant seeking, constant desire, and constant yearning for that which will ultimately satisfy it, the Unlimited Goodness, Beauty, and Self-Giving of an Infinite Being. And it will be that way forever, because it is immortal spirit. Unlike Supernatural Consciousness which, while enjoying the true value of natural reality, finds supreme satisfaction only within itself, natural consciousness must seek satisfaction outside itself.

Because of this anxious need for satisfaction, the natural consciousness separates reality into that which can give some sort of pleasure, and that which cannot. Reality is viewed through the prism of "the spirit of the world," and "what it can do for me," rather than through God's love, which sees the beauty and significance of all things, "in themselves." And reality and people are viewed as beautiful, average, mediocre, or ugly, according to this natural, utilitarian standard. So, the Contemplative, as part of the transformation process, will learn to see the "new creation," gaining vision of a "new heavens and new earth," seeing reality through God's Eyes, a creation destined for its own renewal and perfection as it shares in the Resurrectional life of mankind in Glory. And even now, it is filled with awesome power, beauty, and wonder, reflecting traces of God's Being, no matter how it might be viewed by the natural consciousness, or by the standards of the world.

John Paul II:

"The Redeemer of the world! In him has been revealed in a new and more wonderful way the fundamental truth concerning creation to which the Book of Genesis gives witness when it repeats several times: "God saw that it was good"(38). The good has its source in Wisdom and Love. In Jesus Christ the visible world which God created for man(39)-the world that, when sin entered, "was subjected to futility"(40)- recovers again its original link with the divine source of Wisdom and Love. Indeed, "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son"(41). As this link was broken in the man Adam, so in the Man Christ it was reforged(42). Are we of the twentieth century not convinced of the over poweringly eloquent words of the Apostle of the Gentiles concerning the "creation (that) has been groaning in travail together until now"(43) and "waits with eager longing for the revelation of the sons of God"(44), the creation that "was subjected to futility"? Does not the previously unknown immense progress-which has taken place especially in the course of this century-in the field of man's dominion over the world itself reveal-to a previously unknown degree-that manifold subjection "to futility"? It is enough to recall certain phenomena, such as the threat of pollution of the natural environment in areas of rapid industrialization, or the armed conflicts continually breaking out over and over again, or the prospectives of self-destruction through the use of atomic, hydrogen, neutron and similar weapons, or the lack of respect for the life of the unborn. The world of the new age, the world of space flights, the world of the previously unattained conquests of science and technology -is it not also the world "groaning in travail"(45) that "waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God"(46)? (John Paul II, "Redemptor Hominis")

PROVIDENCE AND SECONDARY CAUSES(Catholic Catechism)

302 "Creation has its own goodness and proper perfection, but it did not spring forth complete from the hands of the Creator. The universe was created "in a state of journeying" (in statu viae) toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it. We call "divine providence" the dispositions by which God guides his creation toward this perfection:

"By his providence God protects and governs all things which he has made, "reaching mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and ordering all things well". For "all are open and laid bare to his eyes", even those things which are yet to come into existence through the free action of creatures."161 306 "God is the sovereign master of his plan. But to carry it out he also makes use of his creatures' co-operation. This use is not a sign of weakness, but rather a token of almighty God's greatness and goodness. For God grants his creatures not only their existence, but also the dignity of acting on their own, of being causes and principles for each other, and thus of co-operating in the accomplishment of his plan.(Catholic Encyclopedia)

307 "To human beings God even gives the power of freely sharing in his providence by entrusting them with the responsibility of "subduing" the earth and having dominion over it.168 God thus enables men to be intelligent and free causes in order to complete the work of creation, to perfect its harmony for their own good and that of their neighbors. Though often unconscious collaborators with God's will, they can also enter deliberately into the divine plan by their actions, their prayers and their sufferings.169 They then fully become "God's fellow workers" and co-workers for his kingdom.170(Ibid.)

For we live in a world alive with signs of the Truth, Beauty and Goodness of God, once again made available to us through Jesus Christ, Who re-established in His Own Flesh the broken link between Creation and the Wisdom and Love of God. Created being is alive with the reflected Radiance of His Glory. And this means we can learn something of God through His reflection in this world.

Where do we think beauty in the world comes from? And where does the reality of a human face as possessing "radiant beauty" come from? For those who live in Contemplative participation in God's Spirit, find His goodness and His glory reflected everywhere, in the people they meet, in mundane activities, in the places they visit, in the wonder of animals and all living things, in what the world calls ugly, and in all of the mystery of natural creation. For them, if it exists, it is intrinsically beautiful, as seen through the eyes of God. But, because of our separation from God, and the evil we now do, we prefer darkness to light, and we do not have God's eyes to see.

Through Contemplation, we begin to retrain our vision, and to see the reflection of God and the wonder of His works in our everyday encounter with the world. For although His works are not divine, they, nonetheless, give powerful testimony of His Reality and of His Glory. Indeed, a man who truly looks at the beauty and goodness of creation has no excuse for not seeing the handiwork of Intelligent Power beyond comprehension. For as we look around us, we do not find an expected "nothingness," nor do we find the "chaos" characteristic of unintelligent action. Instead, we find unbelievable precision and organization, with the coordinated interaction of billions of variables for the achievement of a common purpose, i.e., life in the universe! Billions of electro-chemical interactions within our brain produce a unity of mind, capable of unified mental clarity reading these lines, and capable of changing the very universe, itself, as the result of the Power of God, successfully working within this precision of interaction. For through Contemplation of this God, we learn to see as He does, loving and seeing the beauty of creation through His Supernatural Vision.

According to St John of the Cross:

"The third benefit(that comes to the soul through Contemplative purification of the pleasures of sense) is that the pleasures and the rejoicing of the will in temporal matters are very greatly increased; for, as the Saviour says, they shall receive an hundredfold in this life. So that, if thou deniest thyself one joy, the Lord will give thee an hundredfold in this life, both spiritually and temporally;... For, through the eye that is purged from the joys of sight, there comes to the soul a spiritual joy, directed to God in all things that are seen, whether Divine or profane. Through the ear that is purged from the joy of hearing, there comes to the soul joy most spiritual an hundredfold, directed to God in all that it hears, whether Divine or profane. Even so is it with the other senses when they are purged. For, even as in the state of innocence all that our first parents saw and said and ate in Paradise furnished them with greater sweetness of contemplation, so that the sensual part of their nature might be duly subjected to, and ordered by, reason; even so the man whose senses are purged from all things of sense and made subject to the spirit receives, in their very first motion, the delight of delectable knowledge and contemplation of God.(St John of the Cross, "Ascent of Mt. Carmel," Bk III, Ch XXVI)

God's Presence is not hard to find in the love of a child. God's Presence is hidden in the smile of the one to whom you have done a kindness. God's Presence is found in a beautiful voice, a smiling face, and a beautiful person. We find Him hidden in the forms, color, and textures that form the reality of our world. He is in the radiance of sunlight. He is in the rain. He is hidden in the mystery of the billowy surge of the sea. He is triumphantly there in the rainbow, and the crimson-orange and gold found in the colors of a sunrise or sunset. We can easily find Him in the subtle and powerful emotions arising from beautiful music. He looks down on us with the thousand eyes of the night watching over the world of men. For all these things give testimony to His Glory reflected in the goodness and beauty of Creation.

This is the world, a hundredfold more enjoyable, when found through the Contemplation of God, and when we see through His Eyes, a vision of a "New Heavens and a New Earth," looking forward to the "Eternal City," the "New Jerusalem," coming down from heaven. And this is no pious fable. We live and breathe, and even are troubled at times, by the mystery of God, from moment to moment, in the world around us: for example, the mystery of "death" and "sacrifice," both in religion, and in Creation. For such mysteries in this world reflect matters of incomprehensible Wonder in the Infinite Reality of God.

Specifically, we may have difficulty accepting the mystery of the role that "sacrifice" plays in Creation, where plants and animals, through their sacrifice and death at one level, provide greater good and new life at a higher level. Such sacrifice of minerals, plants, and animals reflects, in a very simple manner, a Mystery of Ineffable Dimensions within the Self-Giving Heart of the Trinity. In like manner, we are somewhat troubled by the mystery of "sacrifice" in the life and death of Jesus Christ. For the Ultimate Good of mankind, the Word of God Assumed Flesh, Which became a Living Consumation, drawing all things to Himself, that through the Sacrifice of His Sacred Humanity, all Creation might participate in self-giving sacrifice and have access to the Supreme Goodness of "Supernatural Life."

When we "take and eat" in Holy Communion, we are continuing the natural act through which created being normally participates in sacrifice, and it incorporates us personally in this Infinite Mystery of "Death" and "Sacrifice" which gives us access to "Abundant Life" through "Resurrection" as "New Men," at a higher level of Life, even participation in the Supernatural Life of God. So this disconcerting mystery, by which death and sacrifice permeates every aspect of vegetative, animal, and human existence, and which reflects something of Infinite Majesty in the Creator God, achieves Ultimate Meaning in the Created World in our own flesh's participation in Death and Sacrifice as we "take and eat" the Holy Eucharist. For thereby these same mineral, vegetative, animal, and human dimensions become part of the "New Creation" and, through the "Resurrection," themselves, participate in the Abundant Life of Supernatural Love and Adoration brought forth through the Sacrifice, Death and and Resurrection of Jesus Christ!

"Thus in the bosom of the Blessed Trinity, God the Father, by virtue of the eternal generation, communicates His Divine Nature to God the Son, "the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father" (John, i, 18), while the Son of God, by virtue of the hypostatic union, communicates in turn the Divine Nature received from His Father to His human nature formed in the womb of the Virgin Mary (John, i, 14), in order that thus as God-man, hidden under the Eucharistic Species, He might deliver Himself to His Church, who, as a tender mother, mystically cares for and nurtures in her own bosom this, her greatest treasure, and daily places it before her children as the spiritual food of their souls." (Catholic Encyclopedia, "Eucharist")

For the True God, Who lives in the Continual Self-Giving Relationship of the Trinity, is not ashamed of His Creation, nor is He ashamed of Sacrifice. For He was Willing to Empty Himself, in some mysterious sense Sacrificing Divinity, while coming to meet mankind, humbly partaking of its being, and fully blessing His Creature as a vehicle worthy of Divine Incarnation. "Jesus Christ in a wonderfully condescending manner responds to the natural craving of the human heart after a food which nourishes unto immortality, by dispensing to mankind His own Flesh and Blood." (J. Pohle, Catholic Encyclopedia, "Eucharist")

For our lives spring forth from the Eternal Mystery of the Supernatural, and the nature of the reality which shocks us when we really encounter the fact: "We have bodies," and "we exist!" And it is only thorugh the intensification of grace found in Contemplative Prayer, apophatic(unknowing) and cataphatic(through images), that the darkness of this existential mystery gives way to the Wisdom of Supernatural Vision, through the Divine Clarity illuminating the life of Jesus Christ, the Light that enlightens every man that comes into the World.

And by the power of this Wisdom, we gain vision to see ourselves as beloved children of the universe, at home in God's Creation, which everywhere lies within the bosom of the Father. And through this vision we begin to understand earthly mysteries such as the above riddle of the finite realities we call eating, suffering, death, and sacrifice. For wisdom tells us that they, like all natural realities, have their infinite prototypes in the Life of the Trinitarian God. And this Trinitarian Life is nothing else but Eternal Love; and this Love of the Persons of the Trinity for one another is characterized by qualities of Self-Giving that become sacrifice, suffering, and death at our level of existence. And, at the level of the Infinite, these same characteristics become a Love among Persons that is Kindly, Compassionate, Humble, Self-Emptying, Radiantly Beautiful, and Gloriously Attractive beyond our comprehension.

And, therefore, as contemplatives, we behold the world as a "New Creation," with forms and shapes bathed in the light of Glory, and colored by significance, meaning, and beauty, through incorporation in the Incarnate, Resurrected Christ, Who Drew all things to Himself, providing a Contemplative doorway by which shape, image, color and form might provide an Accurate and True Road to Supernatural Sacred Presence. And this Sacred Presence warms and transforms the Earth, as well as the cold heart of mankind through the Incarnation of Self-Giving Love. Even now, through restoration of the Contemplation of "Cataphatic" Prayer, embracing the signs and images of Incarnate Divinity, it is calling mankind to the living waters of Eternal Life, beginning in this world, and flowing in perfection in the next world, the Everlasting City, the "New Jerusalem," of the City of God.

For this unredeemed world, with its finite beauty, is not our lasting home, and we must always give priority in our action and religious practice to personal holiness, the love of Christ, and our role as citizens with Him, in the Eternal City of the next life. In the words of Cardinal Ratzinger:

"Paul VI in his 'Profession of Faith', express with full clarity the faith of the Church, from which one cannot deviate without provoking, besides spiritual disaser, new miseries and new types of slavery. "We profess our faith that the Kingdom of God, begun here below in the Church of Christ, is not of this world, whose form is passing away, and that its own growth cannot be confused with the progress of civilization, of science, and of human technology, but that it consists in knowing ever more deeply the unfathomable riches of Christ, to hope ever more strongly in things eternal, to respond ever more ardently to the love of God, to spread ever more widely grace and holiness among men.

"But it is this very same love which makes the Church constantly concerned for the true temporal good of mankind as well. Never ceasing to recall to her children that they have no lasting dwelling here on earth, she urges them also to contribute, each according to his own vocation and means, to the welfare of their earthly city, to promote justice, peace and brotherhood among men, to lavish their assistance on their brothers, especially on the poor and the most dispirited. The intense concern of the Church, the bride of Christ, for the needs of mankind, their joys and their hopes, their pains and their struggles, is nothing other than the graet desire to be present to them in order to enlighten them with the light of Christ, and join them all to Him, their only Savior. It can never mean that the Church is conforming to the things of this world, nor that she is lessening the earnestness with which she awaits her Lord and the eternal Kingdom." (Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Rome, l984)

In the "Canticle of the Sun," St Francis of Assisi says it best, as he shares his kataphatic, contemplative vision with us:

Most high, all-powerful, all good, Lord!
All praise is yours, all glory, all honor
And all blessing.
To you alone, Most High, do they belong.
No mortal lips are worthy
To pronounce your name.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through all that you have made,
And first my lord Brother Sun,
Who brings the day; and light you give to us through him.
How beautiful is he, how radiant in all his splendor!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Moon and Stars;
In the heavens you have made them, bright
And precious and fair.

All praise be yours, My Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air,
And fair and stormy, all the weather's moods,
By which you cherish all that you have made.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Water,
So useful, lowly, precious and pure.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
Through whom you brighten up the night.
How beautiful is he, how gay! Full of power and strength.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Earth, our mother,
Who feeds us in her sovereignty and produces
Various fruits with colored flowers and herbs.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through those who grant pardon
For love of you; through those who endure
Sickness and trial.
Happy those who endure in peace,
By you, Most High, they will be crowned.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Death,
From whose embrace no mortal can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin!
Happy those She finds doing your will!
The second death can do no harm to them.
Praise and bless my Lord, and give him thanks,
And serve him with great humility.

CANTICLE OF THE SUN, St Francis of Assisi

"The completion and happiness of man are said to be the relatively ultimate end of creation, and thereby the creative plan is absolutely completed, the Creator finally explicitly formally glorified by the return of the creation, carried up by and in man to conscious inter-communion with the Source and End of the creative act(F.P. SIEGFRIED, "Creation," Catholic Encyclopedia)

"These three characteristics, identity, entirety, and immortality, will be common to the risen bodies of the just and the wicked. But the bodies of the saints shall be distinguished by four transcendent endowments, often called qualities.

"The first is "impassibility", which shall place them beyond the reach of pain and inconvenience. "It is sown", says the Apostle, " in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption" (I Cor., xv, 42). The Schoolmen call this quality impassibility', not incorruption, so as to mark it as a peculiarity of the glorified body; the bodies of the damned will be incorruptible indeed, but not impassible; they shall be subject to heat and cold, and all manner of pain.

"The next quality is "brightness", or "glory", by which the bodies of the saints shall shine like the sun. "It is sown in dishonour," says the Apostle, "it shall rise in glory" (I Cor., xv, 43; cf. Matt., xiii, 43; xvii, 2; Phil., iii, 21). All the bodies of the saints shall be equally impassible, but they shall be endowed with different degrees of glory. According to St. Paul: "One is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon, another the glory of the stars. For star differeth from star in glory"'(I Cor., xv, 41-42).

"The third quality is that of "agility", by which the body shall be freed from its slowness of motion, and endowed with the capability of moving with the utmost facility and quickness wherever the soul pleases. The Apostle says: "It is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power" (I Cor., xv, 43).

The fourth quality is "subtility", by which the body becomes subject to the absolute dominion of the soul. This is inferred from the words of the Apostle: "It is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body" (I Cor., xv, 44). The body participates in the soul's more perfect and spiritual life to such an extent that it becomes itself like a spirit. We see this quality exemplified in the fact that Christ passed through material objects.(A.J. Maas, Catholic Encyclopedia, "General Resurrection")