Since moving back to Notre Dame, Indiana, in 2022, I am retracing much of the landscape where I was born and grew up. I see the land, the lakes, the old neighborhoods with new eyes and old memories. The physical environment of the area helps me peer deeply into my past, as I recall my family as well as the loss of loved ones. I view more clearly today what has formed my life, opportunities that once presented themselves, and past mistakes. I now see familiar landscapes through my years of experiences—ministry opportunities, life commitments, and the grace of aging. The scenery seems so vivid and beautiful now, so lovely to consider as my homeland as I gaze through years of being away.
As the Church celebrates Saint Francis of Assisi on October 4, I review my old terrain as gift with responsibility. Saint Francis is the patron saint of animals, ecology, and the care for all things wild and beautiful. He challenges us to see our physical world with prayerful eyes and a gentle spirit, and I reflect upon my past environment as I see the physical landscapes where I learned to appreciate the earth and to experience a deeper reliance on God as Creator. This land now speaks with richer meaning and calls me into a responsibility to make sure the wooded grounds remain vital, the farmlands remain for future generations, and the water remains clean for all who will follow me. I see clearly how past experiences challenge our present generation to work for the common good of our planet.
I grew up on Garver Lake in Edwardsburg, Michigan. I remember opening the drapes on our front windows to view the lake before school. I stood in awe in the early morning light, listening to the birds and wildlife, captivated by the calm of the waters or a winter snowfall. The view was different every morning as nature played out before my family. After some years, we knew the date when the ice would melt on the lake in spring or how much time it would take before a storm brewed under dark clouds in summer. The lake helped us see the world, to view and respect nature, to step back in silence to take in the earth and its beauty. The lake became for me a place of contemplation where I learned the miracles of life and how to surrender to God’s love and generosity.
In many ways, the lake was an early teacher. I admired the rhythm of life on this small lake long before I ever saw an ocean or had an opportunity to live in the mountains. Over time the lake showed me that I did not have to own or control the natural world; I did not have to possess it or wish it was different or claim it as my own property. The lake revealed to me that I was just a small part of creation and yet, I was part of the care for its future. This formed my consciousness about the resources of our common earth and even how to care for such a life-giving gift.
The waters of Garver Lake taught me to view the preciousness of life well before I spent time with other bodies of water. The simple and yet deep water of childhood helped me appreciate the oceans I have dipped my feet into, and the waters across the globe like the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The original waters of childhood taught me to stand in awe on the shoreline and to see the rising or setting sun. The waters invited me to be comfortable with the changing tides of life, whether within bodies of water or within my own heart. The original waters claim in me a life of wonder and ultimately, of praise to God. I believe Saint Francis must have claimed his homeland as such a place of learning, seeing, and discovering miracles and beauty.
We are not creators of the earth. We do not own our environment. We cannot possess its complexities or fully comprehend the interdependence of all that lives. All life comes from God. Our place is to bask in the joy of the earth and find common ways to honor and sustain it. Our work toward caring for all creation begins in prayer—prayer that may come from looking back to our childhood and what has influenced us. We surrender to such beauty so that God’s face may be revealed in our world. We seek the Kingdom of Heaven even in the chaos of how we have treated our earth. We surrender to the joy of God’s Kingdom, and to God’s desire that we create our earthly home in reflection of what is to come in heaven.
Saint Francis of Assisi: Praise God Among Bold Waters of the Earth
From dew drops on spring grass…From deep wells of drinking water…From pools of rain on country roads…From blue seas and rocky shorelines…From rain-soaked clothes on children at play…
From droughts and flooding…From melting snow to high blizzard drifts along a fence…From a drinking fountain near the school gym…From bottled water carried in a briefcase…
From dams that hold back spring flooding…From fountains in the town square…From forest streams creating their own paths…From country lakes where children learn to swim…From youth drinking from a hose in summer shade…From filling a carafe with cool water from a tap for first morning coffee…
From animals corralling their young aside a spring stream…From a barefoot mother balancing water jars on her shoulders…From rushing mountain streams melting into spring…From reservoirs relinquishing their levels in summer heat…
From our plastics washing ashore along powerless countries…From trash heaps that keep creatures from sipping or surviving…From factories pumping waste into streams…From rivers that flow into unknown places that silence our conscience …From wildlife searching for clean drink…From dirty waters that reveal our apathy…
From initiating waters that flow at baptism…From baptismal waters of renewal at Easter Masses…From baptismal fonts where water and Trinity merge…From the droplets of holy water that mark our gravesite and burial…May all waters of the earth, praise the Lord.
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About:
Rev. Ronald Patrick Raab, C.S.C., serves as religious superior of Holy Cross House, our retirement and medical facility at Notre Dame, Indiana. He is an award-winning author, blogger and visual artist. Learn more: ronaldraab.com
Artwork:
Fr. Ron created this collage, “Among Bold Waters of the Earth” in spring of 2025. Fr. Ron’s artwork has been published in parishes, dioceses, and ecumenical settings around the world.
Published September 2025
