Post 31/2023. KEEP CALM YOU’RE IN A LIBRARY. I use caps sparingly. Here the all-caps phrase communicates as both a whisper and a shout. I found it at Awesome Librarians, a UK-based website. Other quotes: “Reading is an adventure that never ends.” And “I Am a Book Dragon Not a Worm.”

Thanks for libraries!

Today, at Goshen Public Library, I renewed one book and borrowed another. The latter is Vesper Flights, by Helen Macdonald (Grove Press, New York, 2020). It’s a collection of 41 essays about the human relationship to nature. Essay titles include 2. Nothing Like a Pig; 11. Sex, Death, Mushrooms; 21. Vesper Flights; 31. A Handful of Corn; and 41. What Animals Taught Me. I’m looking to dive in.

I renewed The invisible Bestseller: Searching for the Bible in America, by Kenneth A. Briggs (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2016). Briggs is a journalist and commentator, for many years religion editor for Newsday and religion editor for The New York Times. This book, as per the back cover, is “A personal, journalistic inquiry into the Bible’s disappearance from American life.” One previous borrower left their Check Out Receipt in the book, dated August 7, 2017.

Prayers for all living things

News of what’s happening in the natural world courses all around us. One need not look far for reports of horrific wildfires, floods, high temperatures, and their impact on all things living. I’ve chosen to share a few prayers that guide my thoughts on what I regard as the call to care for Creation.

The first is a prayer by Basil the Great, c. 330-379:

“O God, enlarge within us the sense of fellowship with all living things, our brothers the animals to whom thou gavest the earth as their home in common with us.

“We remember with shame that in the past we have exercised the high dominion of man with ruthless cruelty so that the voice of the earth, which should have gone up to thee in song, has been a groan of travail. May we realize that they live not for us alone but for themselves and for thee, and that they love the sweetness of life.” –The Complete Book of Christian Prayer (Continuum, New York, 1997).

J. Philip Newell, compiled Celtic Prayers from Iona as an aid to daily prayer, featuring the communal themes of the Iona Community which are Justice and Peace, Healing, The goodness of creation and care for the earth, Commitment to Christ, Communion of heaven and earth, and Welcome and hospitality.

From the Wednesday focus, The goodness of creation and care for the earth, I quote the morning prayers.

Intercession

There is no plant in the ground
But tells of your beauty O Christ.
There is no creature on the earth
There is no life in the sea
But proclaims your goodness.
There is no bird on the wing
There is no star in the sky
There is nothing beneath the sun 
But is full of your blessing
Lighten my understanding
of your presence all around, O Christ
Kindle my will
to be caring for Creation.

Closing morning prayer
Bless to me O God
My soul that comes from on high.
Bless to me O God
My body that is of earth.
Bless to me O God
Each thing my eye sees
Each sound my ear hears.
Bless to me O God
Each scent that goes to my nostrils
Each taste that goes to my lips
Each ray that guides my way.

To conclude, I take a prayer by Maynard Shelly (1925- ), used one hot August morning in 1973 with the Bethel College congregation, Newton, Kansas. It’s included in Prayers For Everyday, complied by the late Elaine Sommers Rich, (Faith and Life Press, Newton, Kansas, 1990).

In the dryness of August

Dear God, we’re here. We know the world is filled with many who are needy, and we would pray for them. But we know that we too are needy. We are empty, needing filling; we are dirty, needing washing; we are unruly, needing forgiving.

So we gather our thoughts and feelings, gathering ourselves to say a word of thanks, to express the gratitude that will lift us out of ourselves, to see what is outside and all around. And so we say, thank you, God.

Yes, thank you, God–but for what? In the dryness, in the heat, in the aridness of August–in this brittleness, the tension, the pressure, the dying of these days, amidst the getting nowhere-ness: yes, thank you, God–but for what?

To begin with and to make it a summing up of all: We thank you, God, for seven days in August, the seven that have passed and the seven, if it be your will, that will come. For here is the measure of what you have given us–you have given us in each day the life that cannot be taken lightly, a gift from you.

Each day is an eternity, inelastic time that goes slowly for children waiting for school to be over or a church service to end; so slowly for those waiting to be married, for those wanting reward and recognition; so slowly for those recovering from a stubborn illness or a persistent weakness of body and/or soul.

Yet each day is an eternity moving so swiftly for those who have work to do–books to write, socks to mend, pictures to paint, children to teach, bills to pay, houses to build proposals to submit, gardens to plant.

But slow or fast, we’ve come to pray: dear God, we’re here. Thank you, God. We come to prayer to wrestle with you, God, seeking as did Jacob, our identity and our name. We learn our name in our giving–for you, O God, are a giving God. We would be like you and learn how hard and how necessary it is to give–to give ourselves in selfless service: how really tough!

So we pray: Good God, accept our gifts. Thank you, God. Dear God, we’re here. Amen

Brief recap for the record

It has been a good week. Soon I’ll be able to take longer walks. Lots of rain, plus thunder. Flower beds are in full bloom. Home projects are getting done. Last Sunday was the end of the 2023 Summer Season at the Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts, the final show: Alway’s Patsy Cline–love it.

At Greencroft Goshen we’ve been watching the progress on street completion and construction of two duplexes in Whispering Pines. It’s always a pleasure to hear a duck or ducks quack as we pass by. Garden tomatoes and local sweet corn are fully in season. Thank you, gardeners. Thank you, God.

We anticipate traveling to see shows in mid-September at the Stratford Festival of Canada.

Digging it!

-John