"Beauty is all around us..."

by: friar Alejandro Arias, OFM Conv.

We are surrounded by beauty all the time, but it seems that we are not able to see beauty anymore. Our eyes are fixed to our smartphones and we forget that there is another world out there. I have experienced the loss of beauty in my own life. I have found myself disconnected from reality when I am connected virtually with other people through social media. The screen has become a wall and that wall has block my vision from beauty.

    During our trip between Shamokin and Maryland, we had the opportunity to go off-roading and hiking and celebrate The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the mountains. It was during Mass that the sense of beauty came back to me. I was able to experience God’s beauty through the real presence and also through sister nature. I have attended so many Masses in my life but was not able to connect the Mass with nature because Mass is always celebrated in a building decorated with beautiful images made by man that also it helps us to bring us closer to God. But for me the images of the mountains, the music of the birds, the light of the sun, the rocks and wildlife the surrounded me made the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass more beautiful and I was able to connect with nature. Now that I had that connection with nature I was able to appreciate that all of us are “ to be created in God’s own image means that we are called to care in love for our precious Earth as if Earth were God’s own garden, just as God cares in love for all creation.”[1]  



    Beauty is all around us and we need to put our phones away and appreciate God’s garden and take care of sister Earth that give us life so that we may be able to give life to those in need through our work.




[1] At Home in the Web of Life, page 53.

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