Do you believe the earth is full of God's glory?

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Rob2

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In the Latin rite we proclaim at every Mass , " Heaven and earth are full of your glory." based on Isaiah 6:2-3 "
" Upon it stood the seraphims: the one had six wings, and the other had six wings: with two they covered his face, and with two they covered his feet, and with two they flew. And they cried one to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory.""

We see plenty of doom and gloom about the earth in the media , so how do you see the earth as being FULL of God’s glory ?
 
Wonderful question !!!
That’s the part of mass - where I am most personally overwhelmed in utter mortal awe -
every mass - I’ve never thought of my feelings before - at that exact moment - till now !
I smile within me - humbled beyond belief - that outside of church - as these words are spoken or sung -
how wonderful life is - a waterfall - a grasshopper - a blue sky - you name it !
It’s all so glorious !
I admit it - silently, humbly, and yet excitedly, in my return prayer, of this saying !
 
God’s glory can be found everywhere, even amidst the doom & gloom.

Anytime we see a flower or a buttery or a sunset, and appreciate it as a gift from God, we give Him glory.
Anytime someone lifts up another with a meal or shelter or even just through the gift of being present to someone in need, we give glory to God.
The joyful laughter of a child or an elder is giving glory to God.

I could go on & on. God is found in all things, if you look, listen and pay attention. 😉
 
Rob2 said:
In the Latin rite we proclaim at every Mass , " Heaven and earth are full of your glory." based on Isaiah 6:2-3 "
" Upon it stood the seraphims: the one had six wings, and the other had six wings: with two they covered his face, and with two they covered his feet, and with two they flew. And they cried one to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory.""

We see plenty of doom and gloom about the earth in the media , so how do you see the earth as being FULL of God’s glory ?
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Yes.

Catholic Encylopedia
Frequently in the New Testament it signifies a manifestation of the Divine Majesty, truth, goodness or some other attribute through His incarnate Son, as, for instance, in John 1:14: “(and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth”; Luke 2:32, “A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel”; and throughout the prayer of Christ for his disciples, John 17. Here too, as elsewhere, we find the idea that the perception of this manifested truth works towards a union of man with God.
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Fox, J. (1909). Glory. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.t: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06585a.htm
 
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Rob2 said:
In the Latin rite we proclaim at every Mass , " Heaven and earth are full of your glory." based on Isaiah 6:2-3 "
" Upon it stood the seraphims: the one had six wings, and the other had six wings: with two they covered his face, and with two they covered his feet, and with two they flew. And they cried one to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory.""

We see plenty of doom and gloom about the earth in the media , so how do you see the earth as being FULL of God’s glory ?
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First, you try to see with the eyes of God, through Christ.
In God’s kingdom, suffering is redeemed to the glory of God. When we separate the suffering that we all endure from our good end, it seems senseless.

But look at any seed, and observe the suffering it must endure to become a tree that bears fruit.
 
If you open your eyes, it’s hard to miss God’s glory.

I got up this morning. That fact is God’s glory.

Had a cup of coffee, with my sister. She is a blessing, and a reflection of God’s glory.

Went to work, noticing the beautiful sunrise, gentle clouds, the magnificance of the ocean. God’s glory.

Have a wonderful job. More of God’s glory.

Yes, I would say “heaven and earth ARE full of Your glory” is a fairly accurate summation.
 
The whole of creation came to be through the Word and so therefore all of Creation reflects the truth and beauty of God that finds its completion in Him:

The Church glorifies God.

Prayer glorifies God.

God’s grace, manifesting through the lives of people, and events, glorifies God.

Nature reflects the glory of God.

Music can glorify God.
 
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You are raising the issue of the problem of evil. And it typically goes like this in the philosophy of theology

How can God allow…sin, sinners, evil.

Read St Augustine on this. He shaped the way the Church views this
 
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Yes, I do believe that the earth really is full of God’s glory - each person in the state of sanctifying grace has Jesus present in their soul. And there are people in sanctifying grace, living breathing temples of God, spread all over the world.

Plus also, like others have said, they natural wonders of creation reflect God’s glory.

Not to say that the earth is also not full of evil. Both are coexisting.
 
Isn’t this the part of the Mass where we either say or sing this, then drop to our knees for the Eucharistic prayers? The Mass is represented in Revelation with the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, so we are experiencing what is happening in Heaven. So at this point, Heaven and Earth would be full of His glory. (I think I got this right - comments?)
 
Rob2 said:
In the Latin rite we proclaim at every Mass , " Heaven and earth are full of your glory." based on Isaiah 6:2-3 "
" Upon it stood the seraphims: the one had six wings, and the other had six wings: with two they covered his face, and with two they covered his feet, and with two they flew. And they cried one to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory.""

We see plenty of doom and gloom about the earth in the media , so how do you see the earth as being FULL of God’s glory ?
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The fact that it exists. If God were to withdraw even one bit of his glory, which is inseparable from the divine Nature, the planet would crumble into nonexistence.

I only need to drive an hour and a half to the Canadian Rockies to remind me of the truth that “earth is full of [his] glory”.

The other is that the Resurrection took place on this planet and is made present every single day at Mass on this planet. Even if only one Mass were celebrated at any moment, by virtue of that alone, the whole world would be filled with his glory.
 
Shakuhachi said:
What exactly is “glory”?
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Good question .

What is this glory which the earth is full of ?

“Let them give glory to the LORD” (Isaiah 42:12) . Here it is something humans give to God .

“I have given them the glory that you gave me” (John 17:22). Here it is something given to us .

“We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son” (John 1:14). Here it is something God possesses .
 
Why yes I do! Each morning I watch the sunrise as I do morning prayer. I also love nature, animals, and humans I interact with on a daily basis. These all are part of God’s glory, manifest all around.
On the other hand, media can be a joy-sucker of a huge degree, convincing those in its grasp that things are terrible and people are terrible.
 
When we say give God Glory or “Glory to God” I think it is more a giving of acknowledgement than the glory itself. Seems God has that without anyone giving it. We can only recognize it…
 
Shakuhachi said:
When we say give God Glory or “Glory to God” I think it is more a giving of acknowledgement than the glory itself.
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Yes , @Shakuhachi , and a problem may arise from the translation of Hebrew and Greek into English . Clearly the use of the word “glory” has different connotations , flavours as we see it used , especially in the Bible .

I was reading a quote from the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins yesterday , and I find some of his words good pointers towards getting into the concept of “glory” . I don’t know what you think .

“All things therefore are charged with love, are charged with God and if we knew how to touch them give off sparks and take fire, yield drops and flow, ring and tell of him.”
― Gerard Manley Hopkins, Letters to Robert Bridges and Correspondence with Richard Watson Dixon .

“To lift up the hands in prayer gives God glory, but a man with a dungfork in his hand, a woman with a slop pail, give Him glory, too. God is so great that all things give Him glory if you mean that they should.”
― Gerard Manley Hopkins .

" Pied Beauty— "

Glory be to God for dappled things–
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced–fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise Him.”
― Gerard Manley Hopkins .

And above all his poem “God’s Grandeur” - - - - - - - - -

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
 
I don’t let the media dictate whether or not the earth is full of God’s glory. It often ignores that which sings to the glory of God.
 
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