The example of Saint Francis shows what place the beauty of the world can occupy in Christian thought. (…) We also find beautiful verses about the beauty of the world in the works of Saint John of the Cross. However, it can generally be said (with the exception of unknown or perhaps little-known treasures buried among the forgotten fruits of the Middle Ages) that in Christian tradition the beauty of the world is almost absent. This is strange. It is difficult to understand what the cause may be. It is a dreadful gap. How could Christianity rightly be called Catholic if the universe is absent from it?
(Simone Weil /1909–1943/, excerpt from the essay Forms of Implicit Love for God)
