The last couple of years I have been a student at
Benedictine college studying Biology. I was first drawn to biology through my
love for nature. A major part of my love of nature comes from the fact that for
me it is a place of radical encounter with God. It is when I’m sitting next to water or within
the woods that I find a stillness within me which brings me to God’s peace and
love. In fact, I was first drawn to St. Francis because he was the patron saint
of ecology. Since then I have realized that there is much more about him and
his spirituality that I love including his love of the cross and the Eucharist.
Yet, his ability to see God and God’s will and works within creation remains one
of the ways in which I connect to St. Francis.
It has been
a gift for me to continue the biology degree which I started before I entered
the convent. It’s continued to bring home to me the amazing intricacies of
God’s creation and the uniqueness of each different part of creation. My Sisters
have told me that they never know what they are going to see when I walk
through the door. I have been blessed with a variety of experience. From labs
in which I have been netting fish in streams and studying axolotls and fruit
flies to projects in which I’m growing plants or catching insects. Each
different encounter has drawn me more into the beauty of what God has given us
on the Earth and the amazing minute details which he has placed here in His
love for us.
There is so
much which is interdependent on the Earth and so many amazing particulars on
each different level whether the molecular, the cellular, or on that of the
ecosystem. When one studies the spectacular details of creation one becomes
aware that the daily workings of life which we so often take for granted are
miracles which are continuously given to us by God.- Sister Karol Marie, FSGM
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