Raymo, who used to write a column for The
ics and astronomy at Stonehill College. I have
recently discovered him and find him to be an
eloquent and perceptive writer who is trying to
bridge the worlds of science and religion.
ral Prayers in a used bookstore and want to pass
along a passage about the nature of prayer:
of my youth, an Olympian God,
who is separate from his cre-
ation, hears and responds to our
individual prayers; in the new
scientific cosmology, God re-
veals himself in and through his
creation, as law and chaos, light
and darkness, creator and de-
stroyer. In the words of the Greek
novelist Nikos Kazantzakis: ‘We
have seen the highest circle
of spiraling powers. We have
named this circle God. We might
have given it any other name we
wished: Abyss, Mystery, Abso-
lute Darkness, Absolute Light,
Matter, Spirit, Ultimate Hope, Ultimate Despair,
Silence. But we have named it God because
only this name, for primordial reasons, can
stir our hearts profoundly. And this deeply felt
emotion is indispensable if we are to touch,
body with body, the dread essence beyond
logic.’ The God of the new story does not take
note of our childish cries for attention. Rather,
we are swept along on the grand wings of an
abiding plan and presence.
God? . . .Learning to pray, as I understand it,
is learning to listen with the mind and heart—
making oneself attentive to each exquisite de-
tail of the world. It is a fearsome, exhilarating
task, best suited to solitude and silence. Such
prayers are answered not with miracles, tagged
with our names or those of our loved ones, but
with beauty and terror. For the prayerful listen-
er, the world becomes the sublime scripture,
full of stories of structure and chaos, law and
cay, including the story of the hu-
man person in whom the universe
becomes conscious of itself.
ing to pray—a letting go of
incantational magic, petition,
and the vain repetition ‘Me, Lord,
me,’ instead watching attentively
for the light that burns at the cen-
ter of every star, every cell, every
living creature, every human
heart.”
perhaps threatening words to
some. I find them to be full of
of all religious traditions and spiritual experi-
ence. He is clearly both scientist and mystic and
makes it very clear that the worlds of science
and religion, like art and religion, are rooted
in the same primordial human experience, the
experience of awe and praise that we feel
when we try to comprehend the mystery of our
existence.