St Francis shares several anecdotes from the lives of several saints about paying attention to thingsaround us for inspiration and prayer. We are too busy, to distracted, and miss the small voice of God in things.
These are lovely stories but meaningful in our times.
St. Gregory Nazianzen tells his flock, how, walking along the seashore, he watched the waves as they washed up shells and sea weeds, and all manner of small substances, which seemed, as it were, rejected by the sea, until a return wave would often wash part thereof back again; while the rocks remained firm and immoveable, let the waves beat against them never so fiercely. And then the Saint went on to reflect that feeble hearts let themselves be carried hither and thither by the varying waves of sorrow or consolation, as the case might be, like the shells upon the seashore, while those of a nobler mould abide firm and immoveable amid every storm;--whence he breaks out into David's cry, "Lord, save me, for the waters are gone over my soul; deliver me from the great deep, all Thy waves and storms are gone over me;" for he was himself then in trouble by reason of the ungodly usurpation of his See by Maximus.
St. Basil the Great says that the
rose amid its thorns preaches a lesson to men. "All that is pleasant in
this life" (so it tells us mortals) "is mingled with sadness--no joy is
altogether pure--all enjoyment is liable to be marred by regrets,
marriage is saddened by widowhood, children bring anxiety, glory often
turns to shame, neglect follows upon honour, weariness on pleasure,
sickness on health. Truly the rose is a lovely flower," the Saint goes
on to say, "but it moves me to sadness, reminding me as it does that
for my sin the earth was condemned to bring forth thorns."