We end each day together with our evening Ignatian examen that begins with Psalm 34: “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord”. This phrase is often associated with Ignatius who believed that we could use all of our senses to experience the presence of God. So far we have shared our experiences of taste, sight, feeling and sound as we notice God in our day. But this morning we all agreed that we were deeply aware of our sense of smell. When the wind blew, as we walked through golden fields of wheat, rye and barley, we could smell the smoke from fires now raging west of Pamplona. After days of a heat wave over 105 degrees, these fires are the unnatural effects of climate change.
It is bittersweet to witness the breathtaking grandeur of God’s creation all around us each day, and to know that we are not caring as we must for our common home. We are grateful for this gift of the natural world that we are experiencing, and grateful for those who work for environmental justice and preservation in our world.