With all creation, we praise you.
Praise the light of late July, the long golden evenings that sing to your glory.
Praise the cicadas who murmur and pulse, not because we are listening, but because this is their appointed season.
Praise the cornflowers, day lilies, milkweed that blossom in the glory of your summer sun.
Praise the meadow alive with monarch, bumblebee, dragonfly.
Praise the sky washed of smoke, the blue sky we long to never take for granted.[1]
In your mercy, tend to it all.
The long light pooling beneath the canopy of trees, the goldfinch tipping the prairie grass toward the earth, the scent of warmth after brief thunderstorm tumbles east.
Attend to us and to this, your wide creation, Lord, smallest details forever slipping beyond our notice.
Attend to us and allow our attention to become a form of prayer. Let summer bear out your promises with broad leaves that form a green cathedral of shade.
Hear this, our thanks and thanks and ever thanks.
And hear our longing prayers within and beyond this summer day.
When we carry burdens too heavy for our hands, when worry clouds out wonder and doubt clouds our vision, do not let us drift from you.
Hold us steady when we are weary.
Speak calm into our restless bodies.
Grant us courage to walk by faith, even when the path ahead bends, falters or falls dark.
Quiet in us the clamor of the week.
Loosen our grip on what we can control.
Give us the tools and clarity to mend what we long to mend, and feed us your peace, deep and abiding, until our striving gives way to trust.
Teach us to linger. To notice. To soften to your grace that is as constant in quiet moments as chaotic ones.
For those who grieve, for those who suffer, for those who long for justice and peace, for the places in this world that need an extra measure of your grace, be and abide with us, God, the one in whom we place our trust.
And prepare our hearts as we pray the prayer that Jesus taught us. Our Father.... Amen.
Footnote:
[1] In the style of “Praise Song” by Barbara Crooker (Earth Blessings: Prayers, Poems and Meditations, edited by June Cotner. Berkeley, CA: Viva Editions, 2016.)
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