In music, in the sea, in a flower, in a leaf, in an act of kindness... I see what people call God in all these things.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the idea that divinity can be found in the beauty and kindness present in the world around us.
Pablo Casals highlights the notion that the presence of God can be perceived in various aspects of life, such as music, nature, and acts of kindness. Instead of seeking divinity in abstract concepts or dogmas, he emphasizes that one can experience and connect with the divine through the beauty and love that surround us in everyday experiences.
In practice
This quote can be used in a reflection on spirituality during a community gathering.
Bach is the supreme genius of music... This man, who knows everything and feels everything, cannot write one note, however unimportant it may appear, which is anything but transcendent. He has reached the heart of every noble thought, and has done it in the most perfect way.
The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?
The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.
I am an old man but in many senses a very young man. And this is what I want you to be, young, young all your life.
To the whole world you might be just one person, but to one person you might just be the whole world.
How could anybody think of Bach as 'cold' when these [cello] suites seem to shine with the most glittering kind of poetry," Casals said. "As I got on with the study I discovered a new world of space and beauty... the feelings I experienced were among the purest and most intense in my artistic life!
An horrible stillness first invades our ear, And in that silence we the tempest fear.
Our birth is nothing but our death begun, As tapers waste the moment they take fire.
Let the natural flow of the universe, course through your being, and harmonize your soul.
The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility.
There is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest affliction.
As one whose husband and mother-in-law have died the victims of murder and assassination, I stand firmly and unequivocally opposed to the death penalty for those convicted of capital offenses. An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed of retaliation. Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life. Morality is never upheld by a legalized murder.
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