Wonder
“Start each day anew with a deep sense of wonder and awe…When awe and wonder depart from our awareness, depression sets in, and after its blanket has lain smotheringly upon us for a while, despair may ensue, or the quest for kicks begin. The loss of wonder, of awe, of the sense of the sublime, is a condition leading to the death of the soul. There is no more withering state than that which takes all for granted, whether with respect to human beings or the rest of the natural order. The blasé attitude means spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and creative death…If we abandon amazement and wonder, we descend into hell. The evil one would have humanity discard the image of our holy God. In worship, we engage in wonder, and wonder makes us open to Him.” (Robert J. Wicks, Father Barnabas Powell)
“…humility is the beginning of wisdom because it is the necessary prerequisite for our eyes being opened to reality. One who has humility will have a sense of gratitude for his own existence and for the existence of all that he sees. This gratitude enables him to see with the eyes of wonder. The eyes that see with wonder will be moved to contemplation of the goodness, truth, and beauty of the reality they see.” (Joseph Pearce)
“The role of wonder is (among other things) to slow us down, make us quiet, and help us pay attention. The “flat-landers” sail prosaically through life and miss most of what is true, drawing only the most obvious conclusions, even when what is obvious is incorrect. It is the things that are “out of place” that are easily ignored (they’re so bothersome!), while they are most often the clues that reveal the mystery.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“The finely tuned mechanisms of our solar system manifest the divine governance of the entire universe. Whether one gazes into the skies as the ancients did, in order to mark the progress of seasons and years, or peers through great telescopes on mountaintops or via satellite, as do our astronomers today, the order of the universe is unquestionably awesome and wonderful. A major task of Holy Scripture is to proclaim the Governor who directs the whole universe, teaching all who will listen to say, “Bless the Lord, O my soul…Who establisheth the earth in the sureness thereof” (Ps 103:1, 6).” (OCPM 7/14/2016)
“A primary vulnerability for every human being comes through the eye. When the Lord Jesus says that our eye can cause us to stumble, He is using an Hebraic idiom for the imagination – the inner working of the heart. The physical eye is an innocent bodily organ; it merely receives light impulses and transfers them through the optic nerve to the brain. We are, however, responsible for what we do with the information the physical eye delivers to our imagination.” (Dynamis 6/11/2020)
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