The Reason

A few years ago, I attended a Faith and Astronomy workshop put on by the Vatican Observatory in Tuscon, Arizona, and, I know what you’re thinking, yes, it was incredible. If you are interested in studying the cosmos or the physical sciences in general, you can understand why faith and astronomy might go together, but not everyone sees the connection.

The head of the Vatican Observatory, Brother Guy Consolmagno, SJ, told the participants that in his experience, too many Catholics and other Christians, not to mention non-religious people, believe there is some type of hostility between science and faith. They think they either have to choose between the two or maintain this uneasy compartmentalization inside their brains. The reality is that nothing could be further from the truth. Science, and for that matter, literature, history, music, art, and film, can provide us with insight, wisdom, and inspiration. As the Fathers of the Church taught, the world is rich with logoi spermatikoi or “seeds of the Word.” There are signs of God’s goodness in every corner of creation and every example of human ingenuity and genius. Now, I’m not suggesting that all of these things are theology or that they should be awkwardly merged with our dogma, but I am suggesting that we can find God in more than just novenas and religious movies. We can see him everywhere if we know how to look and where to look.

That, in a nutshell, is the purpose of Wadi Cherith. Just like Elijah was nourished in his exile by an animal as strange and ambiguous as a raven, we are going to see how we can be sustained by science, literature, film, history, art, and whatever we find. Don’t be afraid to dive into the mystery of God’s creation and the genius of the human mind that was made in his image and likeness; he has left you sources of nourishment everywhere.