The early Celtic Christians talked of the "Primary Scriptures". The New Testament is full of the Good News, but it cannot be understood fully if we do not understand the Old Testament. In its turn the Old Testament cannot be understood fully unless we read the Primary Scriptures. The Primary Scriptures are the world and our own being. The sad thing about much modern education is that it has taught us to read but left us illiterate when it comes to reading the world about us. If we go through a world where we have closed our eyes to wonder, where we have become insensitive to beauty, all around us becomes dull, boring and empty. If we are insensitive to each other, how can we hope to be sensitive to the great Other who is God? I believe that people who have not learnt to give their attention to each other and to the world cannot give their attention to God. The world is a great teacher and offers us a joyful entry into the presence of God. Teilhard de Chardin, in that wonderful book Le Milieu Divin, says:
O world invisible, we view thee,
O world intangible, we touch thee,
O world unknowable, we know thee,
Inapprehensible, we clutch thee.