Plants can also pray?

December 11, 2012 1:41 PM

Trying to track down a quote (or did I make this up?)

I remember reading (this feels like something I read in fiction, but I could be way off) something along the lines of "A tree, by simply existing, worships god." (or maybe, "A tree, by being a tree, worships god") Perhaps something about a prayer of existence. The basic idea was that our existence was a form of prayer.

I know this is vague, but this comes back to me as a question from time to time.

posted by Hactar to Religion & Philosophy (3 answers total)

Not quite the same, but there is a quote from the Talmud that "Every blade of grass has an angel that bends over it and whispers, 'Grow, grow.'"
posted by Mchelly at 1:59 PM on December 11, 2012

Best answer: “A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying [God]. It “consents,” so to speak, to [God's] creative love. It is expressing an idea which is in God and which is not distinct from the essence of God, and therefore a tree imitates God by being a tree”


― Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

googled: tree god quote
posted by czytm at 2:11 PM on December 11, 2012 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: I remembered the first line. Thank you.

(I kept looking for existence/worship tree prayer in google, which was much less successful. I bow to your google-fu)
posted by Hactar at 2:30 PM on December 11, 2012