“When leaves are falling, and the branch is bare, winter is calling and chills the silent air. when the moon is covered, the shadows of the night, know that I am waiting to call you to the quiet.” ~ Liam Lawton, In the Quiet

There is something special about fall.

I am reminded of it whenever the first leaves begin to fall, when the first hint of crispness fills the air, and when I read the magnificent words of poet priest Gerard Manley Hopkins: “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.  It will flame out, like shining from shook foil …”

The image reminds me of miles of trees, dressed in brilliant red and golden leaves, lining the New York State Thruway on so many trips home in the fall. Hopkins may not have written this poem to reflect a season marked by summer blossoms fading away, but he understood that “nature is never spent” because it is the work of the Holy Spirit, who, “over the bent world broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.”

This spiritual insight, the ability to see God in all of creation, is an ability we all have. It unfolds as we, like Hopkins, immerse ourselves in nature, in prayer, in reading and study, and in silence.

The depth and breadth of our spiritual insight is reflected in our realization that we share in the grandeur of God – and that brings with it a great responsibility to develop our interior life as we bring Christ into the world.  We find help for this work when we turn to Scripture, to the saints, to the great literature of the Church and to our Catholic tradition for illumination, for direction and knowledge.

We also grow as we turn to others; to see in others the face of Christ, opening our hearts and minds to discover the grandeur of God in all people.

One of my most powerful experiences of discovering God in others was as a pre-school teacher. In my daily interaction with young children of a variety of races and religions I was privileged to see – in their joy, their art, their conversations, and in their love of creation – an intimate relationship with God.

Children have a depth of spiritual insight that is a mystery, but is often buried as they grow older, like seeds that fall to the ground in the fall.

It’s not surprising, given that our journey toward adulthood is a difficult one. Life’s emotional roller coaster is a monumental challenge even for the stoutest of souls. On the way, our sense of God is often diminished or damaged.

If we are to grow as whole persons, we need to recover what has been lost or renew what has been weakened from when we had a child’s nature. Jesus said it. “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

For Christians, our spiritual insight is bound to our belief in God, maker of heaven and earth; in Jesus, God incarnate, and in the Holy Spirit, the giver of life.  Like Jesus, we must not only allow ourselves to “grow in wisdom and in Grace,” but nurture the process as well.

Any investment in our spiritual lives is an investment in the rest of our lives as well. As St. Francis de Sales reminds us, ultimately, it is our faith that “enables us to see God in all things as well as all things in God.”

Mary Morrell is an award-winning writer, editor and educator working at Wellspring Communications.  She can be reached at [email protected], and read at her blog,’ God Talk and Tea.’