Where the Pure Water Flows:
The New Story of the Universe and Christian Faith
Margaret Galiardi, OP

A REVIEW: Where the Pure Water Flows

Albert Nolan is a brother of the Vicariate General of Southern Africa. He is currently the Novice Master of the vicariate. He is a well known author with three major titles to his hame, Jesus Before Christianity, God in South Africa and Jesus Today.

The need to integrate the exciting new story of the universe and our traditional Christian faith is the great challenge of our time. It needs to be done clearly, simply and convincingly. This is precisely what Margaret Galiardi has done for us in her book “Where the Pure Water Flows”.

Making use of all the best authors on aspects of the question, she helps the reader to see that it is not just a matter of reconciling the two. The new cosmology can enhance our Christian faith, expand our horizons, deepen our appreciation of God’s immanence and give new meaning to the Incarnation. On the other hand, Christian faith can enhance the new sense of the sacredness of the Earth by seeing it as the Body of God.

Galiardi has done all of us who are grappling with this contemporary challenge a great service. 

Encountering Mystery in the Wilderness: One Woman's Vision Quest
by Margaret Galiardi, OP

(Issue No.4; April 2004) Margaret Galiardi, OP, takes the reader to Death Valley with her, as she recounts an extraordinary experience of “going into the desert to fast and pray” that reawakened her childhood memories of being at home in the natural world and ignited a spiritual hunger to feel at home on Earth, once again. In Encountering Mystery in the Wilderness: One Woman’s Vision Quest Margaret writes: “While it was deeply enriching for me to live outdoors for an extended period of time, that kind of intensive exposure to the natural world is neither necessary nor always possible. What does seem indispensable to me, however, is that we create spiritual practices that will help us regain a sense of intimacy with the natural world and that will awaken in us its revelation of the Divine.” She adds, “Religious experience in these opening years of the twenty-first century simply must be seen as inclusive of the natural world if we are to preserve our Earth-Mother from destruction.”