{"id":206,"date":"2010-11-11T20:22:08","date_gmt":"2010-11-11T20:22:08","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-01-30T13:05:10","modified_gmt":"2021-01-30T18:05:10","slug":"sacred-soil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centernet.pcusa.org\/food-faith\/2010\/11\/11\/sacred-soil\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sacred ‘neath Your Soul!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Soil-hands-web\"<\/a>
\nAlong with Dr. Larry Rasmussen, we said “Amen” to this prayer…<\/p>\n

Lord of skies, you walk among us
\nin the plain brown soil of earth.
\nHow you\u2019ve chosen to be present
\noften seems of little worth.
\nYou have chosen common bushes,
\nkindled them with heaven\u2019s fire,
\nspoken through unlikely prophets
\nheralding your love\u2019s desire\u2026
\nHeaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.<\/p>\n

~ Henry David Thoreau<\/p>\n

Dr. Rasmussen spoke at the Festival of Faiths<\/a> Interfaith Breakfast in Louisville this week.<\/p>\n

“…the soul is the animating element of our humanity and the way we touch the divine.\u00a0 But the spelling is wrong.\u00a0 Soul is properly spelled s-o-l-e.\u00a0 Where is your soul\/sole? On the bottom side of your bare feet, in touch with the sacred \u2018neath your sole, the soil.”<\/p>\n

One more snippet to make sure you read the treasure below —<\/p>\n

“But let\u2019s not lose the main point: cultus (worship), culture and agriculture\u2014we belong to these as the miraculous clods who are cultivators by calling.\u00a0 We are here to maintain the fertility of the soil for on-going life, to \u201crenew the face of the earth,\u201d in the phrase of Ps. 104, and to give glory to God. The ancients would have understood Wendell Berry well.\u00a0 \u201cIn talking about topsoil,\u201d Berry says, \u201cit is hard to avoid the language of religion.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 So put aside the superstition that soul and soil are separate categories.\u00a0 Decent land-use is not about economics, it\u2019s about cultivation and the state of our souls.”<\/p>\n

We laughed. We listened. And at the end of his talk, glancing at people standing in ovation, I noted I was not the only earthling moved to tears at the beauty and truth in his words. Larry agreed without hesitation to have his talk published here, so consider yourself blessed!<\/p>\n

Download the PDF of his talk on Sacred Soil<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“…the soul is the animating element of our humanity and the way we touch the divine. But the spelling is wrong. Soul is properly spelled s-o-l-e. Where is your soul\/sole? On the bottom side of your bare feet, in touch with the sacred \u2018neath your sole, the soil.”\r\n\r\nOne more snipet to make sure you read the treasure below —\r\n\r\n“But let\u2019s not lose the main point: cultus (worship), culture and agriculture\u2014we belong to these as the miraculous clods who are cultivators by calling. We are here to maintain the fertility of the soil for on-going life, to \u201crenew the face of the earth,\u201d in the phrase of Ps. 104, and to give glory to God. The ancients would have understood Wendell Berry well. \u201cIn talking about topsoil,\u201d Berry says, \u201cit is hard to avoid the language of religion.\u201d So put aside the superstition that soul and soil are separate categories. Decent land-use is not about economics, it\u2019s about cultivation and the state of our souls.”<\/p>","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3631,182],"tags":[185,480,274,491,127,492,329,237,493,485],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-earth-care","category-faith","tag-agriculture","tag-berry","tag-faith","tag-festival","tag-god","tag-rasmussen","tag-sacred","tag-soil","tag-soul","tag-wendell"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Sacred 'neath Your Soul! - Food and Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/centernet.pcusa.org\/food-faith\/2010\/11\/11\/sacred-soil\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Sacred 'neath Your Soul!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""...the soul is the animating element of our humanity and the way we touch the divine. But the spelling is wrong. Soul is properly spelled s-o-l-e. Where is your soul\/sole? On the bottom side of your bare feet, in touch with the sacred \u2018neath your sole, the soil." One more snipet to make sure you read the treasure below -- "But let\u2019s not lose the main point: cultus (worship), culture and agriculture\u2014we belong to these as the miraculous clods who are cultivators by calling. We are here to maintain the fertility of the soil for on-going life, to \u201crenew the face of the earth,\u201d in the phrase of Ps. 104, and to give glory to God. The ancients would have understood Wendell Berry well. \u201cIn talking about topsoil,\u201d Berry says, \u201cit is hard to avoid the language of religion.\u201d So put aside the superstition that soul and soil are separate categories. 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