All I Really Need To Know I Learn From Children's Books: An Egg Is An Egg (BOOK 6)

JESUS SAID TO HIS DISCIPLES: “PEACE I LEAVE WITH YOU; MY PEACE I GIVE TO YOU. NOT AS THE WORLD GIVES DO I GIVE IT TO YOU. DO NOT LET YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED OR AFRAID. YOU HEARD ME TELL YOU, ‘I AM GOING AWAY AND I WILL COME BACK TO YOU.’ IF YOU LOVED ME, YOU WOULD REJOICE THAT I AM GOING TO THE FATHER; FOR THE FATHER IS GREATER THAN I. AND NOW I HAVE TOLD YOU THIS BEFORE IT HAPPENS, SO THAT WHEN IT HAPPENS YOU MAY BELIEVE. I WILL NO LONGER SPEAK MUCH WITH YOU, FOR THE RULER OF THE WORLD IS COMING. HE HAS NO POWER OVER ME, BUT THE WORLD MUST KNOW THAT I LOVE THE FATHER AND THAT I DO JUST AS THE FATHER HAS COMMANDED ME.” JOHN 14:27-31A

Today's "All I Really Need To Know I learn From Children's Books"—BOOK 6 is "An Egg Is An Egg."

Author: Nicki Weiss

Publisher: Trumpet Club

Year: 1992

Theme: A poetic rendition of how everything changes—eggs to chicks, branches to sticks, green to white, and day to night, day after day, season after season. "Many things have to change course, but it is we human beings above all who need to change." (Laudato Si' 202)

An egg is an egg

Until it hatches. And then it is a chick.

A branch is a branch

Until it breaks. And then it is a stick.

Everything changes.

Nothing stays the same.

A seed is a seed

Until it is sown. And then it is a flower.

A block is a block

Until there are many. And then they become a tower.

Everything changes.

Nothing stays the same.

Water is water

Until it is brewed. And then it becomes tea.

You are you until I come.

And then you become "we."

Everything changes.

Nothing stays the same.

The yard is green

Until it snows. And then it becomes white.

Day is day

Until sunset. And then it is the night.

Everything changes.

Nothing stays the same.

The baby was a baby

Until it grew. And now the baby is a kid.

But you can always be a baby.

You will always be my baby....

Some things stay the same.

Some things never change.

What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. (Ecclesiastes 1:3-5)

Word Of God: (See full text below)

1. John 17:1-11a (And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.)

Questions and Considerations To Ponder:

1. Our Christian faith is not only about eternal and unchanging truths and dogmas; it is also about things that we constantly face in an ever changing world day in and day out. But the Christian challenge is this: How can you fix your gaze constantly on the unchanging and ever faithful, ever true love of God for you? Recall moments in your life when you wavered in your faith in God. How did God help you out?

2. Everything changes, true! But it is not easy to accept sometimes especially when biting off more than you can chew—e.g. an accident or a pandemic such as the COVID-19. We are quick to blame God and say "If God does exist, how could He allow such a terrible thing to happen?" But Jesus never promised that we will have a life without sacrifice. He said, "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock" (cf. Mt 7:24-25). Are the building blocks of your faith firmly founded on the words of Jesus?

“PEACE I LEAVE WITH YOU; MY PEACE I GIVE TO YOU. NOT AS THE WORLD GIVES DO I GIVE IT TO YOU. DO NOT LET YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED OR AFRAID. YOU HEARD ME TELL YOU, ‘I AM GOING AWAY AND I WILL COME BACK TO YOU.’ IF YOU LOVED ME, YOU WOULD REJOICE THAT I AM GOING TO THE FATHER; FOR THE FATHER IS GREATER THAN I. AND NOW I HAVE TOLD YOU THIS BEFORE IT HAPPENS, SO THAT WHEN IT HAPPENS YOU MAY BELIEVE. I WILL NO LONGER SPEAK MUCH WITH YOU, FOR THE RULER OF THE WORLD IS COMING. HE HAS NO POWER OVER ME, BUT THE WORLD MUST KNOW THAT I LOVE THE FATHER AND THAT I DO JUST AS THE FATHER HAS COMMANDED ME.” JOHN 14:27-31A

3. Contemplate these two pictures.

An egg that looks broken... is not really broken at all!

Credits: (https://www.thechickentractor.com.au/how-to-help-an-egg-bound-chicken/)




















4. The Cosmic Egg Exercise and Psalm 104: “We have lost our symbolic universe of meaning—the 'cosmic egg' has been broken, and a new one is still waiting to be formed... The soul can live without answers, but it cannot live without meaning.” “God creates things that create themselves. Wouldn’t this be the greatest way that God could create—to give autonomy, freedom, and grace to keep self-creating even further? Healthy parents love their children so much that they want them to keep growing to their highest potential, even surpassing their parents. As Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Don’t get too excited about the things that I did. You’re going to do even greater things!’ (Jn 14:12).” Richard Rohr

Lectio Divina: Read and listen through the heart Psalm 104 "The universe praises its Creator"

Richard Rohr, The Cosmic Egg

APPLICATION OF THE SENSES: I first encountered the following exercise in the book "The Creative Spirit: Harmonious Living with Hildegard of Bingen" by June Boyce-Tillman. The world as a Cosmic Egg was one of the visions of Hildegard Von Bingen (1098-1179) portraying the universe as one undivided whole. She gained considerable trust among famous people in her own day, e.g. St Bernard of Clairvaux and the Emperor Barbarossa. Her main teaching tenet is about the unity of all creation with human beings, the divine and the natural world being intimately fused in right relationship (Boyce-Tillman, 2001, pp ix-x). Thomas Aquinas similarly held that "The whole universe together participates in the divine goodness more perfectly and represents it better than any single creature could by itself."— Summa Theologica, I, 47, 1

Take an egg and meditate on its promise of hope. Feel through the power of your senses the fragile egg resting in your hand. How does it feel? It is a living egg with a short shelf life. Picture in your mind what is inside this egg. Now, using the faculties of your understanding, consider this egg as your own potential in the whole of the universe. Feel the warmth of our Creator in your heart as if He is the one holding and protecting this great potential in you and encouraging its growth. What are you being called to do now? As you look forward to the end of this pandemic, what lies ahead?

The following is a quote from Pope Francis' Laudato Si': The continued acceleration of changes affecting humanity and the planet is coupled today with a more intensified pace of life and work which might be called “rapidification.” Although change is part of the working of complex systems, the speed with which human activity has developed contrasts with the naturally slow pace of biological evolution. Moreover, the goals of this rapid and constant change are not necessarily geared to the common good or to integral and sustainable human development. Change is something desirable, yet it becomes a source of anxiety when it causes harm to the world and to the quality of life of much of humanity. (Laudato Si 18)

Fr JM Manzano SJ

John 17:1–11a

Father, glorify your Son.

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him. Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.

  “I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”