To hope in a biblical context does not mean to stand still and quiet, but to act, pray, change, and reconcile with Creation and the Creator in unity, metanoia (repentance), and solidarity

Ms. Nora Antonsen, youth leader, Church of Norway

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A Thanksgiving for the Beauty of the Earth

We give you thanks, most gracious God,
for the beauty of earth and sky and sea;
for the richness of mountains, plains, and rivers;
for the songs of birds and the loveliness of flowers.
We praise you for these good gifts,
and pray that we may safeguard them for our posterity.
Grant that we may continue to grow in our grateful enjoyment of your abundant creation,
to the honour and glory of your Name,
now and for ever.
Amen.

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Original source: The Episcopal Church, The (Online) Book of Common Prayer, Thanksgiving for the Natural Order (839 no. 8).

Sent from The Superintendent South Area BCU, Croydon Neighbourhoods

A prayer of longing to open to the Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver

God of little buds now wearing green sleeves,
God of lilac limbs all full with signs of flowering,
God of fields plowed and black with turned-over earth,
God of screeching baby bird mouths widely awaiting food,

God of openness, of life, and of resurrection,
Come into this season and bless me.
Look around the tight, dead spaces of my heart
That still refuse to give you an entrance.

Bring your gentle but firm love.
Begin to lift the layers of resistance
That hang on tightly deep inside of me.

Open, one by one, those places in my life
Where I refuse to be overcome by surprise.
Open, one by one, those places in my heart
Where I fight the entrance of real growth.
Open, one by one, those aspects of my spirit
Where my security struggles with the truth.

Keep me open to the different and the strange;
Help me to accept the unusual and also the ordinary;
Never allow me to tread on others’ dreams
By shutting them out, closing them up,
By turning them off or pushing them away.

God of the Resurrection, God of the living,
Untomb and uncover all that needs to live in me.
Take me to people, events and situations
And stretch me into much greater openness.

Open me. Open me. Open me.
For it is only then that I will grow and change.
For it is only then that I will be transformed.
For it is only then that I will know how it is
To be in the moment of rising from the dead.

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Source: Joyce Rupp, ‘May I Have This Dance?: An Invitation to Faithful Prayer Throughout the Year’