A Cosmic Hill in Manila Philippines

News from Sr. Mary Teresita G. Figueroa, RGS

Sr. Tess completed the Deeptime Leadership & Wellbeing Program (2023). 

The Cosmic Hill pictured above is in the Philippines.   I was happy to discover this unexplored small hill in our convent in the city.  Our Cosmic Team composed of sisters from Myanmar, Vietnam and the Philippines zealously cleaned up the place which revealed huge boulders and rocks. It is inhabited by various creatures:  grass, moss, ferns, plants, trees, birds, butterflies, bees, snails, mosquitoes, etc.  It was so named  inspired by Thomas Merton’s poem:

No blade of grass is not blessed
On this archetypal cosmic hill,
This womb of mysteries.

My emergence of Cosmic/Ecological Spirituality in formation needs direct contact with creation.  Pope Francis wrote, “God has written a precious book, ‘whose letters are the multitude of created things present in the universe’… This contemplation of creation allows us to discover in each thing a teaching which God wishes to hand on to us.”  (LS #85)

It is thus of great importance that the formation house not only has a chapel as a place of prayer but also a space (this hill) which will provide for contemplation of nature.  Gardening and planting vegetables will form integral parts of the formation program to develop care for our common home.

I have been sharing the Universe Story with our sisters, even in my Introduction to Prayer session with our prenovices.  They now have a new image of God, the Creator God who is love whom they can meet daily in creation.  They are beginning to integrate their new identity as cosmological beings in a vast evolving Universe.