From the book: For the weary
Nature helps us to feel God deeper, stronger, and closer. That’s why it rests us so much. Embraced by the sea, air, a gentle breeze, a grain field, and orchards, we experience first-hand our own surroundings, as if our soul dances with joy that we have come back to our source, the only place where we feel comfortable, where everything suits us and where everything is ours.
If we want to become happy and rested, we need to get closer to God. And we will approach him through his signs, through the creatures he has given us in nature.
Therefore, do not miss the chance, while on vacation, to recognize him, the hidden Creator and tireless Creator of all that is – in everything that surrounds you – in the smell of pine needles, in the vastness of the open sea, in the clarity of floral colors, in the delight of people, in the taste of food and drinks.
The course of meditation: It is important that you calm down completely. Sit down and take a deep breath, and exhale slowly to make sure you are relaxed. This will make it easier for you to notice everything around you. Put a flower in front of you and stare at it. Watch it for a long time and listen to what your intuition tells you. Go to the river and watch it. Approach a spring and observe it. Go to the beach and watch the sky, the horizon, and the sea for a long time. Stare at a child at play. Look at everything created by human hands. Could nature, even more perfect, have come into being by chance? Look at the fruit, look at your eyes. Climb the hill and watch… Watch the sunset… Do you sense Someone?
He was born in Davor in 1938. After studying philosophy and theology in Zagreb and Rome, he was ordained a priest of the Zagreb Archdiocese in 1966. After achieving a master’s degree in philosophy and a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, he returned to Zagreb in 1971, where he became a professor at the Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb. He is the head of the Chair of Fundamental Theology, and was one of the editors of the Theological Review. Areas of his scientific work are philosophy, theology and literature. He explores the relationship between philosophy and theology, faith and science, atheism and religiosity, revelation and faith, the Church and ecclesial communities, Christianity and religion, the phenomenon of sects and issues of theological epistemology. His special field of interest is the study of man’s existential-spiritual dimension, where he discovers the way of modern evangelization and the necessity of the development of spiritual medicine, which, along with somatic and psychological, is indispensable in the complete healing of man, especially in the healing of spiritual diseases and addictions. For this purpose, he developed the method of hagiotherapy and founded in 1990 in Zagreb the Center for Spiritual Help, of which he is the head. From 1971, in addition to working at the faculty, he was a student religious teacher in Zagreb, the initiator of the prayer movement within the Church of the Croats, the founder of a religious society called the Prayer and Word Community(MiR), and the leader of numerous seminars for spiritual renewal and evangelization at home and abroad. After completing his studies and scientific doctorate in fundamental theology at … (Read more at https://hagio.hr/tomislav-ivancic/).
