EarthSpirit

By Fr. Wilson ( articles ) | May 23, 2003

In our parish, we were going to have the Forty Hours Devotion, but that just seemed so, well, DONE, you know? And "forty," well, so limiting. Then we discovered the Earthspirit conference and we're sure this will be a MUCH more memorable occasion for us to invite Father Mankowski for his first preaching engagement here...

"Weeping, Miriam came to an immense waterfall cascading down into a beautiful mountain lake. She looked into that waterfall, with its 'absolute, unconditional giving of itself,' giving, even though it would eventually flow down 'into the industrialized farms, with nitrates running off, hedgerows being taken away, industrial tractors coming in, and trout streams with cautionary signs not to eat the fish.'

She found herself, through opening up to the pain, 'sounding,' in what she would later come to understand was 'keening.' Keening, a groaning sound that carried the sorrow, mourning, and grief, was something women would do, Miriam explained, at the death of the members of families and communities. She realized, 'that it is at this level that goddess, feminist wisdom must come forth. The energy must come forth from the deep grief of saying, no, we cannot do this!' Then she began to imagine what would happen if the women of Ireland, and the farmers with their deep, feminine, intuitive knowing, began to put on black shrouds, and showed up when the earth movers came in or incinerators were being built which would devastate the lakes."

Yes. I think we'll videotape this. Fr Fessio can market it as an Ignatius Videotape. We may see Fr Mankowski's EarthSpirit Rising on EWTN yet.