Ok, get ready for a little philosophizing today...
I’ve been reading a devotional book on St. Bonaventure’s writing (an early Franciscan friar) and my mind is blown by this simple and yet mind-stretching line. “God is the one whose center is everywhere and circumference is nowhere.” That got me going… if God’s center is everywhere – we can find God in all things. But He is also not limited to each of the things He dwells in – He has no circumference. If He has no circumference, then nothing is excluded from God. Whoa… St. Bonaventure is not saying our Triune God is a pantheistic god – a god who lives in everything and is limited to created things. No, His circumference is nowhere. He is the I AM, the One Who IS and who contains all being.
If God dwells in everything, then that means He is not just close to His creation, but that He somehow peeks out through it, from it. His Presence can seep through me, through you. He is close to us. And that means that everything is sacred.
One of our faithful volunteers, Barb, comes up to our Motherhouse to answer phones, help with laundry, and do odd maintenance jobs with our sisters. This hardy woman is over 90 years old and you can see her sitting at the desk, directing calls. Barb is also legally blind. And yet she cleans and works harder than most of us sisters. Barb is sacred. What she does is sacred. God peeps out through her eyes at us.
There is nothing excluded from God. His circumference is nowhere – He has no limit. The most mundane work of my day – like being at the computer, changing a diaper, grocery shopping, making dinner, driving home from work – God has allowed these activities, and therefore they can become sacred with grace. He is with us, He is close, He is at the most deepest part of you.
- Sr. Sarah Rose Dent, T.O.R.
