Peace, all. Here's a prayer I wrote for Ash Wednesday. Our Wednesday night gatherings at Gethsemane this year will be facilitated in collaboration with the outstanding Pastor Nic Peñaranda. Our theme is titled, "Art of Lent." Engaging this theme, I was reminded of a talk that Dr. Rob Saler once gave to a congregation I was serving at the time. In those days, he was working at the Sittler Archives. His presentation drove home the idea that when we speak in creeds of God's creating, if nothing else, we are summoning a memory of the "artistry of God." Perhaps obvious to some, his naming of creation as art offered a new key. It certainly unlocked my heart, opening it to imagine in new directions. Good stuff.
All that to say, that's the context for the prayer below. Use as you will. And give it a footnote, if you'd be so kind. It'll help me out if you do.
Peace, all.
To Lent!
~ Tom Gaulke
[ image source ]
Prayer of the Day
Dreaming beauty into the Void, you gave birth to us all: stars and suns, skies and oceans, scales, furs, and leaves. Dreaming love into the dirt, you made us, your art, shaped of laughter and clay.
Where we had no breath, you gave us your own. When we hadn't a spark, you planted a flame to warm us in seasons when hearts will grow cold.
Where sinful systems made of hate and greed have turned us again to ash or ground us back down into soil, send your Spirit, wind, and flame. Earth or ash, dust or clay, build us up again. Make us to rise with you.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment