Thomas Berry -Thought becomes music: The Emergent Universe Oratorio

Morningside Cathedral – Aria for SATB – Movement 13 – Soloists and Orchestra

Whale song from

the deep of the sea.

Wolf cry from the forest.

Heartbeat

of a planet.

This cry

Our Revelation

As the sun

Sinks lower

In the sky

Over a wounded

World.

And the healing

Of the wound

Is there in

A single cry

A throat opened wide

For the wild

Sacred sound…

Hovering over

The darkening earth,

Beseeching humankind

To bring back the Sun,

    To let the flowers

Bloom in the meadows

The rivers run

Through the hills

And to let

The Earth and all

Her living creatures

Live their wild fierce

Serene and abundant life. -Thomas Berry

“By bringing forth the planet Earth, its living forms, and its human intelligence, the universe has found, so far as we know, its most elaborate expression and manifestation of its deepest mystery. Here, in its human mode, the universe reflects on and celebrates itself in a unique mode of conscious self-awareness.” (Thomas Berry, “The Viable Human,” in The Great Work, 56).

“We come into being in and through the Earth. Simply put, we are Earthlings. The Earth is our origin, our nourishment, our educator, our healer, our fulfillment. At its core, even our spirituality is Earth derived. The human and the Earth are totally implicated, each in the other. If there is no spirituality in the Earth, then there is no spirituality in ourselves.” (Thomas Berry, “The Spirituality of the Earth,” in The Sacred Universe, 69).

“We need a spirituality that emerges our of a reality deeper than ourselves, a spirituality that is as deep as the Earth process itself, a spirituality born out of the solar system and even out of the heavens beyond the solar system. For it is in the stars that the primordial elements take shape in both their physical and psychic aspects. Out of these elements the solar system and Earth took shape, and out of Earth, ourselves.” (Thomas Berry, “The Spirituality of the Earth,” in The Sacred Universe, 74).

“Our challenge is to create a new language, even a new sense of what it is to be human. It is to transcend not only national limitations, but even our species isolation, to enter into the larger community of living species. This brings about a completely new sense of reality and value.” (Thomas Berry, “The Ecological Age,” in The Dream of the Earth, 42).