Reflection
We are grateful for this earth, our home;
For the wide sky and the blessed sun,
For the salt sea and the running water,
For the everlasting hills
And the never-resting winds,
For trees and the common grass underfoot.
We thank you for our senses
By which we hear the songs of birds,
And see the splendor of the summer fields,
And taste of the autumn fruits,
And rejoice in the feel of the snow,
And smell the breath of the spring.
Grant us a heart wide open to all this beauty;
And save our souls from being so blind
That we pass unseeing
When even the common thorn bush
Is aflame with your glory.
Walter Rauschenbusch (Adapted)
Prayer
Grant us the wisdom to care for the earth and preserve it.
Help us to act now for the good of future generations and all your creatures.
Action
During this Season of Creation make a special effort to be in contact with nature. Appreciate the beauty of the natural world and all its creatures. Let it restore you. Do one specific action to oppose pollution- restrict your use of plastic, join a group to clean and reclaim a local polluted area, plant a tree, don’t use bottled water, recycle.
Suggested Reading
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Matthew 5:26-34
As stewards of God’s creation, we are called to make the earth a beautiful garden for the human family. When we destroy our forests, ravage our soil and pollute our seas, we betray that noble calling.
Pope Francis
What I know of the divine sciences and Holy Scriptures, I learned in woods and fields. I have no other masters than the beeches and the oaks.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.
Iris Murdoch
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
William Shakespeare
We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.
Albert Einstein
I am glad I will not be young in a future without wilderness.
Aldo Leopold
If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.
Laura Inglls Wilder
My soul can find no staircase to heaven unless it be through Earth’s loveliness.
Michaelangelo
Preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, it’s the only home we’ve ever known.
Carl Sagan