Welcome! I am a contemplative thinker and photographer from Colorado. In this blog, you'll discover photographs that I've taken on my hiking and backpacking trips, mostly in the American West. I've paired these with my favorite inspirational and philosophical quotes - literary passages that emphasize the innate spirituality of the natural world. I hope you enjoy them!

If you'd like to purchase photo-quote greeting cards, please go to www.NaturePhoto-QuoteCards.com .


In the Spirit of Wildness,

Stephen Hatch
Fort Collins, Colorado

P.S. There's a label index at the bottom of the blog.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

We Know Union with God in the Abyss of the Soul


"Only the divine abyss, God in all His immensity, can bring union about.  Sharing in the divine immensity, it defies all measurements.  In this state the soul, purified and enlightened, sinks into the divine darkness, into a tranquil silence and inconceivable and ineffable union.  It is absorbed in God.  In this abyss it loses itself, and knows nothing of God or of itself . . ."

Johannes Tauler, 14th century Germany

"In centering prayer, you intend to go to your inmost being, where you believe God dwells.  As you persevere, you will gradually develop new habits and new capacities, one of which is the ability to be conscious of two levels of awareness at the same time.  You can be aware of the noise in or around you, and yet you recognize that your attention is grasped by something at a deeper level that is impossible to define but is nonetheless real . . . God is much more intimate and accessible than we think.  If the Lord reaches up and pulls you down, great! You may sink into interior silence . . ."

Thomas Keating

Photo: The Joint Trail, Canyonlands National Park, UT, November 27, 2011

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