49 minutes
Produced by Nancy Stetson and Penny Morrell
Edited by Emma Morris and Jane Zipp
Original Music by Gary Schreiner

As a pioneer in the field of spirituality and ecology, Thomas Berry created a quiet revolution. He was a monk, a cultural historian, an author, a teacher, and a mystic.

He saw his life work as waking us up to that sacred story. He called us “mad” for the way we are despoiling our home, our planet, its beauty, and its living systems. He was a force that reminded us that we are living through the greatest extinction spasm of the past 65 million years. We are the ones responsible. Berry urged us to change our ways.

At the heart of the film is Berry’s experience of the universe as a cosmic liturgy. He reminds us that “we are not a collection of objects but a communion of subjects.” His values were rooted in this sacred cosmology which includes the entire natural world. The mountains, rivers, birds, fish, all living organisms are not there for our use but for a union which is needed for us to become who we are. As Berry said, “I am not myself without everything else.”