Entering the New Creation: A Call to Spiritual Exercises.

By Rod Mitchell in All Sorts

invitation to contemplate ourselves as participants in God's continuing creative work...

Entering the New Creation: A Call to Spiritual Exercises.

Our Christian faith invites us not only to believe in God, but to
encounter God ever more deeply in the unfolding story of creation. In
the spirituality associated with Teilhard de Chardin and developed
through the spiritual exercises of Louis M. Savary, creation is not
simply something that happened long ago. Creation is an ongoing
movement in which God is continually bringing life toward greater
consciousness, communion, love, and fullness in Christ.
Savary’s vision invites us to ask: What might happen if our church
community made time to experience our faith in new ways?
Many of us have inherited rich spiritual practices—prayer, Scripture,
worship, silence, Eucharist, service and fellowship. These remain
precious gifts. Yet our rapidly changing world may also require us to
rediscover how these practices can awaken us to God's presence
within the whole of creation. Savary's Teilhard-inspired exercises offer
opportunities to do precisely this. They encourage us to move beyond
thinking about creation as a static backdrop to human life and instead
to contemplate ourselves as participants in God's continuing creative
work.
Such exercises can help us see Christ not only as the one who came
into the world, but as the One toward whom all creation is being
drawn. The ordinary world—our bodies, relationships, work, suffering,
beauty, science, technology, the natural environment—can become
places where we seek and recognise God's presence. Prayer then
becomes an attentiveness to the divine movement already taking
place around us and within us.
This does not mean abandoning traditional Christian spirituality.
Rather, it can deepen it. Scripture can be read with fresh eyes.
Communion can become an even more profound recognition of our
unity in Christ. Silence can open us to the sacredness of creation.
Service can become participation in God's healing and transforming
work. Even our struggles can be held within the hope that God's
creative love is moving history toward reconciliation and greater
wholeness.
As a church community, we might therefore permit ourselves to
experiment. We could set aside regular times to practise these new
spiritual exercises together: contemplating the universe and our place
within it; praying with the unfolding story of creation; reflecting on
Christ as the centre and fullness of creation; walking prayerfully in
nature; or sharing how these practices change our understanding of
God, ourselves, and our neighbours.
The invitation is not to replace what we know, but to discover what we
have not yet experienced. Spiritual growth often begins when we
become willing to see familiar truths from a new perspective.
Perhaps these exercises can help our community recover a sense of
wonder: creation is still happening, Christ is still drawing all things
toward fullness, and we are invited to participate. By giving time to
these practices, we may discover that Christian spirituality is not a
retreat from the world, but a deeper awakening to God's presence and
transforming love within it.
Rod Mitchell.

Books that reflect this approach:
‘The New Spiritual Exercises: In the Spirit of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’
by Louis M. Savary.
Teilhard de Chardin The Divine Milieu: Explained- A Spirituality for the
21st Century by Louis M. Savary.
Le Milieu Divine by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.