Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,
Warm New Year blessings to you! We are delighted to return after a time of rest and begin the year with our Contemplative Prayer Service tomorrow, January 6th. We will continue our exploration of the principles of the Monk Manifesto with this month’s theme of Kinship with Creation.
Principle 4: I commit to cultivating awareness of my kinship with creation and a healthy asceticism by discerning my use of energy and things, letting go of what does not help nature to flourish.
These prayers of concern are excerpted from Day 1 Morning Prayer from the Earth Monastery Prayer Cycle.
Help us, O Creator God, to see the world as your sanctuary shimmering with your sacred presence. Inspire us to protect this living cathedral in all the ways needed to support its flourishing.
We pray for the courage and fortitude to transform our patterns of daily life, individually and collectively, in ways that honor our kinship with the church of creation. Help us and our leaders to see how necessary radical change is in the way we live our lives and move into a life-giving future for all beings.
O Sacred One, we pray that we might find your Presence within Creation that surrounds us. May each stone, each plant, each river, each star speak to our hearts of your Glory and your Presence with us.
Join Simon de Voil and me for our Prayer Service tomorrow with guest musician Deidre Ní Chinnéide.
With great and growing love,
Christine
Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE
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