Thought for the Week - 3rd September 2023

 

Dear Friends, 

As September begins so too does the ‘Season of Creation’, a special time in the Church calendar set aside to give thanks to God for the wonder and beauty of the created world. ‘Creation Time’ runs from 1st September, the Day of Prayer for Creation, until 4th October, the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology. Some 2.2 billion Christians world-wide will come together during this month-long celebration to think, pray and care for our common home. This year’s theme is ‘Let justice and peace flow’, and a special prayer has been written for the season:

Creator of All, from your communion of love life sprung forth like a mighty river and the whole cosmos came into being. On this Earth of overflowing love, the Word was made flesh and went forth with the life-giving waters proclaiming peace and justice for all creation. You called human beings to till and keep your garden. You placed us into right relationship with each creature, but we failed to listen to the cries of the Earth and the cries of the most vulnerable. We broke with the flowing communion of love and sinned against you by not safeguarding the conditions for life. We lament the loss of our fellow species and their habitats, we grieve the loss of human cultures, along with the lives and livelihoods that have been displaced or perished, and we ache at the sight of an economy of death, war and violence that we have inflicted on ourselves and on the Earth. Open our ears to your creative, reconciling and sustaining Word that calls to us through the book of Scripture and the book of creation. Bless us once again with your life-giving waters so that the Creator Spirit may let justice and peace flow in our hearts and overflow into all creation. Open our hearts to receive the living waters of God’s justice and peace, and to share it with our suffering brothers and sisters, all creatures around us, and all creation. Bless us to walk together with all people of good will so that the many streams of the living waters of God’s justice and peace may become a mighty river all over the Earth. In the name of the One who came to proclaim good news to all creation, Jesus Christ. Amen.             (taken from the Season of Creation 2023 Celebration Guide)


Grace and peace,


Neil

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