Rita Carroll RSCJ offers this visual reflection on Psalm 8 and Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’.
Download a PDF version: laudato-si-psalm-8.
“At the end, we will find ourselves face to face with the infinite beauty of God, and be able to read with admiration and happiness the mystery of the universe, which with us will share in unending plenitude.” Laudato Si’
O Lord, our Lord,
your greatness is seen in all the world!
Your praise reaches up to the heavens;
it is sung by children and babies.
You are safe and secure from all your enemies;
you stop anyone who opposes you.
Psalm 8
Contemplating the nature of space and time bring us deeper into Mystery. Light pollution has blocked our view of the beauty of the night sky but today we can find the awesome beauty of the cosmos brought to us in cyberspace.
Astronomers have been mapping the position of 8000 galaxies in in our region of the universe and have been able to show that our galaxy, the Milky Way is part of a larger structure they have named Laniakea, meaning “immense heaven” in Hawaiian.
“I will bless you richly and I will give you countless descendants, as many as the stars in the sky and as the grains of sand on the seashore.” Genesis 22:17
An image of the universe has emerged as groups of massive clusters made of hundreds of galaxies, all interconnected in a web of filaments in which galaxies are strung like pearls. Structures called superclusters form at the intersections of the filaments.
When I look at the sky, which you have made, at the moon and the stars, which you set in their places—
what are human beings, that you think of them; mere mortals, that you care for them? Psalm 8
“I will bless you richly and I will give you countless descendants, as many as the stars in the sky and as the grains of sand on the seashore.” Genesis 22:17
When I look at the sky, which you have made, at the moon and the stars, which you set in their places—
what are human beings, that you think of them; mere mortals, that you care for them? Psalm 8
“
Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs”.
Yet you made them inferior only to yourself;
you crowned them with glory and honour.
You appointed them rulers over everything you made;
you placed them over all creation: Psalm 8
O Lord, our Lord, your greatness is seen in all the world!