by Rodney Marsh
Animals in general, and birds in particular, are often, I believe, ‘messengers of hope’. Over the years, I have had many bereaved people tell me of an unexpected angelic avian visitor (angel = messenger) bringing them comfort, hope and peace following the death of a loved one. In such a way three birds, were a significant feature of my recent Bibbulmun walk. They were, I think, divine messengers to my walking companion and I. Birds accompany and encourage us on our journey through life. So, they too represent God’s presence with us. From conception to dissolution we are never alone, and God is with us and within us (and all things) and so we can and should “apprehend God in all things, for God is in all things” (Eckhart). Here’s my take on three birds who visited us on our Bibbulmun walk.
On the first day we began our walk, our expectations were of an easy 14km stroll to the first hut. We soon, however, struck difficulties – we strayed off the path, found our way again, encountered a 
difficult detour and then one unexpected very steep hill. We were walking to the next hut, so we had no alternative but to keep walking, despite these setbacks. Not only that, we didn’t know it at the time, but day two would be much more difficult with many more and steeper hills. Walking has so many parallels with life! There is always the need to keep on keeping on in the face of adversity and turmoil – a long obedience in the same direction (Eugene Peterson). St Paul calls this faithfulness, ‘fortitude’ which is translated by J B Phillips in 1Thess 1:3 as the “sheer dogged endurance in the life that you live” (1Thess 1:3). After our first night in a trekking hut we definitely needed a fortitude top-up. We received just what we needed. The very next morning our hut was visited by a splendid fairy wren, proudly displaying his regal blue plumage in preparation for the spring mating season. He brought an immediate injection of joie de vivre. The message of this messenger: “Glimpse my joy. Share my joy” and since “Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God” (Pierre Teilhard De Chardin) then God was surely present.
On day two, as on many other days, we saw Mari twigs and chewed honkey nuts (a local term for redgum or Marri nuts) on the path, so we knew there were red-tailed black cockatoos in the forest. We heard their calls, and later caught sight of a group of about a dozen or so of these magnificent birds. We could hear the calls of their 
nestlings, but could not sight any nests. Seeing and hearing these birds was a great encouragement to me, because these birds, along with white tailed cockatoos and other parrots, were my childhood companions on the family farm. Almost all these parrots are endangered. But they persist. The redtails reminded me that despite humanity’s best (or worst!) efforts “… nature is never spent;… /Because the Holy Ghost over the bent/ World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.” (Gerard Manly Hopkins), and the redtails certainly have ‘bright wings’! All creation – every ‘thing’ – is a manifestation of the universal energy we sometimes call the ‘Ground of Being’. This mystery is in us and all things. We are all invited to come into contact with, and to discover with ever-increasing depth of experience, “the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27). My walking companion said of day two, “I myself think of the hills and the grind of getting one foot to move after the other and the relief of getting to the top of repetitive hills.” I, too, needed encouragement to move my feet and the redtail cockeys of day two were that day’s avian angels.
The steep hilly terrain of day two was exhausting. The sun had already descended, but not entirely removed its guiding light, by the time we arrived at the next hut. We were very, very glad to have 
arrived. When I shared with my companion about my connection to the redtailed cockeys, he mentioned a bird which was a frequent companion to him and his brothers in their childhood beside the beautiful Porongurups – the scarlet robin. I mentioned that the ‘robin-red-breast’ was also a bird from my childhood nearer the coast. I thought, but didn’t say, “We won’t see one on this walk in the forest”. I was wrong!
As we were taking our first steps out on the last day of our walk a robin red breast flitted across our path – then he was gone. What a gift. Near the beginning and close to the end of our walk, two tiny birds graced us with their presence and in so doing brought us a great gift – a heart knowing that on this journey, as throughout our lives, we are companioned by a high, deep, wide and vast Presence within us and around us always on every step of the way. This presence is important because birds, stones, trees, clouds just are who they are. They find being real easy. Humans don’t. It seems difficult (or impossible) for us to just be. This was Mary Oliver’s experience when, presumably, trying to write, “What’s that you’re doing? whispers the wind” to her. Her response, “Give me a little time, I say back to its staring, silver face./It doesn’t happen all of a sudden, you know”./’Doesn’t it?’ says the wind, and breaks open, releasing distillation of blue iris.” Then her heart that “panics not to be, as I long to be, /the empty, waiting, pure, speechless receptacle.” (Distillation of Blue Iris). A wren, a cockatoo and a robin can only convey their angelic message to an empty, waiting, pure, speechless heart (like Mary Oliver’s surely was). It is my meditation practice the helps me to open my heart to see God in all things.
A question to think about: Meister Eckhart writes “But if I could not have a child with me, I would like to have at least a living animal at my side to comfort me. Therefore, let those who bring about wonderful things in their big, dark books take an animal – perhaps a dog – to help them. The life within the animal will give them strength in turn.” Can humans be fully human without animals and birds or the natural world?
Tomorrow is St Francis Day, a day that many of us associate with with blessing of the animals. Francis grew up in a wealthy family but abandoned this life and embraced poverty and service. He gave away his worldly possessions, embraced lepers, welcomed women and walked a path that most of us would find impossible. St Francis believed that nature itself was the mirror of God. He called all creatures his “brothers” and “sisters”, and even preached to the birds and supposedly persuaded a wolf to stop attacking some locals if they agreed to feed the wolf. Francis’s goal was to imitate the life, and carry out the work of Christ in all he did. Ironically the prayers he is best known for Make Me An Instrument of Your Peace and Let Nothing Disturb Us, were not actually written by him, though they express some of the sentiments that we associate with his life.
I suspect that it wasn’t just the animals but in fact all of creation that St Francis embraced a fact that I was reminded of as I grieved the cutting down of the famous 300 year old sycamore tree at Sycamore Gap in Northumbria in the UK last week. This senseless act of vandalism reminded me of the wonder of trees and the blessing they are to all our lives. They are worthy of our respect and reverence, an emotion that stirred me to write a poem which I published over the weekend as an instagram reel. I have since posted it on YouTube.
In my Meditation Monday: Think of the Second Life I reflect on how much of nature is given a second life when it is processed, or composted. What about our lives? So much of what has gone before is given a second life by God. It is wonderful to realize this and give thanks.
We have had another very rich and varied week on Godspace. Elaine Breckenridge delighted us all with her Ritual to Welcome Autumn which as someone commented could as easily be used for spring in the Southern hemisphere too. This was followed by Karen Wilk’s beautiful poem Creator Delights In and Lilly’s Freerange Friday: Harvest New Wine in which she talks about how wine producers will cut off good fruit in order to provide the best fruit for wine making. On Saturday Rodney Marsh from Western Australia blessed us with his reflection on Walking and Silence.
Don’t forget too that it is time to sign up for the Season of Gratitude Retreat. I cannot emphasize enough how important I feel gratitude is or how concerned I am at how infrequently we express our gratitude. My gratitude practice has changed my life. It is one of the things that inspires me to write poems and put together the mediation videos that I post on instagram and YouTube, so I thought you might also enjoy the words to my latest meditation.
I am awed by the beauty of trees,
Especially the old ones,
Their trunks gnarled and twisted by time.
I love the way their leaves rustle in the wind,
As a for the sheer joy of life.
How connected they are beneath the ground,
Reaching out with filaments
so fine we cannot see them.
Nourishing each other, protecting, sending out alarms.
Do they gossip like old friends?
Sharing stories of all they have seen.
Do they comfort the lonely?
Show love to the young?
Do they feel the pain,
When all around is cut down,
and their sisters and brothers destroyed?
Do they smile when we sit in the shade,
and refresh ourselves on a hot summers day?
So many stories they could tell.
So much they could teach us.
I thank God for the beauty of trees.
Many blessings
Christine Sine
by Christine Sine
This season of autumn is phenomenal in its scope and the lessons it teaches us. Last week I commented that that this is the season of letting go, of harvest, but also of planting and sending down roots. Then I read an interesting article by Jeff Goins and realized there are other dimensions to autumn that I need to think about too. Jeff Goins commented:
Herbs are dying…. but I think of the second life these plants now extinguished, will know, how I will turn them into a spice blend and sprinkle their remains on the food that will get us through the winter.
So I spent the morning thinking about the many aspects of my garden that I am preparing for a second life. My dried tomatoes that will become olive tapenade and flavour omelettes and pasta dishes. Marinara sauce for warm winter stews and soups. My dried apples that will be added to winter cereal, cider that will warm us over the winter months, frozen apples that will make delicious pies and apple cakes. Even the tomato skins have been dried and will add rich flavour to soups over the winter. Herb blends, rosemary salt, dried basil and pesto frozen for later use, are all ready for a second life that will enrich our enjoyment of the coming season . Even the waste has a second life as the garden scraps go into the compost bin. By next year they will have become that most precious of garden fertilizers – compost.
What about my life I wonder? What has God been preparing for a “second life”? What has God been molding, processing, changing in me so that it will enrich my life and the lives of others in the coming year?
Sometimes I look at my life and can only see those things that still need to be changed. At other times I look at what I used to do and feel deflated because I am less active and maybe less effective than I once was. I read the Bible less. I rarely ask myself: “What has God been preparing for a “second life”?
At first nothing much came to mind. Then, as I looked back over my life, I realized that almost every aspect of my past life has a second life in who I am now. Nothing is wasted and nothing is lost. That is the way that God’s economy works. So continuing with my garden analogy and my processing of the abundance of produce I wonder what that looks like.
What has been processed?
Processing fruit and vegetables takes heat but the finished product is usually more flavourful and delicious. So I look back and wonder “Where did God apply heat in my life to give it second life?” At every major juncture I realize. The heat of study to become a doctor. The heat of moving from Australia to New Zealand as a young doctor and the then even more intense heat of my twelve years on board the Mercy Ship M/V Anastasis. Fiery hot heat was applied when I worked in the refugee camps on the Thai/Cambodian border. Six short weeks transformed my life and turned my theology upside down. It transformed my faith from a “What can God do for me?” perspective to a “What does God want me to do for others?” perspective.
This perspective grew as God applied heat at different times over the coming years. After my marriage to Tom, during my long years of struggle with chronic fatigue syndrome, God applied heat through the steady diet of books, especially those with an Anabaptist and contemplative focus, that continued to reshape my theology and practice. My concern for justice not just for the disadvantaged and disabled but also for God’s good creation, grew. That’s why I call myself a contemplative activist. Contemplation fuels my concerns but it must be paired with action to really have an impact.
God continues to apply heat to my life. A year ago Tom and I started going to the local Mennonite church and I am constantly challenged by their commitment to justice and change. each week at the beginning of the service we light a Just Peace lamp and pray “We long for a just peace, we pray for a just peace, we choose to live for a just peace.” It is a prayer that is being indelibly imprinted on my mind. Last year the church gave away a 2 million dollar property to an organization that works with those at the margins of our society, because their research showed how their acquisition of this property and its increase in value had been made easier because of the injustices done to those who once owned the land. They also introduced me to the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery and my mind continues to be stretched as I absorb the implications of this understanding.
What Will Become Compost?
As we age, it is easy to look back and think “Why did I have to give that up?” However if we change our perspective and ask instead “What do I need to give up and allow to die so that it can fertilize the next stage of the cycle of life?” then we can look ahead with excitement rather than depression. Ministry becomes mentoring. Letting go of leadership becomes a way to empower the next generation. Slowing down becomes an opportunity for God to speak to us at a deeper and more intimate level. Letting go is probably one of the hardest aspects of life yet it is necessary in order to allow God’s kingdom work to proceed.
I encourage you today to spend time meditating on these two questions:
- “What has God been preparing for a “second life”?
- “What do I need to give up and allow to die so that it can fertilize the next stage of the cycle of life?”
by Rodney Marsh
“… coming into the full light of Reality, of falling away from illusion, a great silence emerges from the centre. We feel ourselves engulfed in the eternal silence of God.” John Main The Present Christ (NY Crossroad 1991 pp74-76)
In August 2023 a friend and I set off to walk part of the Bibbulmun Track (Western Australia) between Dwellingup and Bailingup (12 days, 200km). The winter weather was typical for South Western Australia. Chilly nights (2-5oC) and days when the air was still, silent and cool (about 15-18oC – perfect walking weather). My walking partner and I had agreed that, whilst walking, we would maintain a ‘monastic’ silence using only ‘considered’ or ‘necessary’ speech. This silence was also held by the bush. There were, mostly, no bird sounds, except for the dawn chorus, and no wind to rustle the leaves and disturb the silence. The silence of the Jarrah/Marri forest was a precious gift. To my recollection the only natural sounds we heard were created by the Murray river and the occasional noisy screeching of red-tailed black cockatoos, either adults feeding on Marri nuts or their nestlings noisily demanding food. Fortunately, when the fierce wind and driving rain of winter storm fronts arrived, it was night, and we were ensconced in our warm, dry sleeping bags in the safety of the trekking huts.
Stillness and silence have been, literally, vital to me since I started practising Christian meditation, about fifteen years ago, and, no matter what the season, I have developed the habit of being silent and still surrounded by the generosity of the natural world. I have learned that nature heals and restores my spirit though attention, presence and silence. My walking partner and I didn’t realise it at the time, but during the extended silence of our walk, Peace had nestled in our hearts – for Peace, like Hope, is also ‘a thing with feathers’, and, in our hearts the bird of Peace had ‘sung the tune – without the words’ (apologies to Emily Dickinson). The silence around us had nurtured a stillness and silence within us.
We had spent about five days in ‘silent nature’, separated from the ugliness of the ubiquitous noises of the man-made machines with which we have surrounded ourselves in the modern world. This artificial cacophony to which we daily subject ourselves may have become ‘normalised’, but it is degrading our humanity. As we walked, the silent bush was daily healing our agitated and corroded spirits. Twice, in the course of our walk, the aural infection and corruption of our humanness became apparent to us – machine noises interrupted the silence and wounded our spirits in a profound, visceral way. The first was when we heard the distant, intermittent, howls and screeches of a massive conveyor belt that carried bauxite ore from the mine to the mill. We heard the sounds first in the overnight hut, but it was many kilometres before we sighted, and then had to walk through the legs of, the monstrous machine. The second disturbance arose for us, when, after the days of silence, we approached the Coalfields Highway. The roars and groans of the trucks and cars labouring up or speeding down the hill gradually became louder. And the bird of Peace in our breasts took flight! These machine noises precipitated an inner agitation and anxiety. Surely the groans and moans of a dying world!
Aesthetes have always struggled to define or capture the connection they sense between beauty and truth. On the other hand, when we emerged from the silence there a definite and undeniable link between noise and ugliness. This noise-ugliness link does not prove there is a connection between truth and beauty, but it continues to persuade me that it is necessary to take a less travelled road to stillness and silence to experience the beautiful, good and true. The best explanation for our experience of the peace of silence is that Reality is constantly being created from a living flow of love. Creation is sourced in love fulfils itself in love and returns to love. And we humans, each one of us, are a unique part of this flow of life. We can know this Reality through experience because we were created to be part of it. An inner silence, stillness and peace is necessary to experience Reality as a flow from love, in love and to love, and it takes the experience of inner silence for each of us to recognise and play our own part in this flow of life. In God’s world, then the groans and moans we hear and also know through personal experience, are of a new world being born in us and through us.
So, to restore my spirit, I will continue my twice daily practice of 30 minutes silent, still, openness to Reality. Like walking, and all that we do, silence and stillness is an embodied practice. The Psalmist knew how: still yourself, experience the silence and know (experience in the embodied sense) your own reality (I am) and you will discover that you are “in Christ” and “Christ is in you” (experience your own self in God and God in all things). You can use the words of Psalm 46:10 to practise being present to Presence.
Be still
Be still and know
Be still and know that I am
Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I am
Be still and know
Be still
Join Christine Sine on October 14 or watch the recording later. October and November, the season between Canadian Thanksgiving and American Thanksgiving, is gratitude season on Godspacelight. Christine Sine will encourage you to enter into the practice of gratitude in this interactive retreat that will help us enter this season of gratitude with joy and delight in our hearts.
by Lilly Lewin
It’s the end of a month and the beginning of a new one this weekend. In my old neck of the woods, Napa Valley California, it’s harvest season. Living in Napa Valley in the middle of a vineyard for four years taught me a lot about wine and even more about why God refers to vineyards and grapevines so often in scripture. I learned how much care goes into a vineyard and how much work goes into making a vine grow good fruit. I learned that they will cut off ” good fruit” during the growing season in order to get the better fruit to grow. That’s been a great metaphor for me. Sometimes I need to say NO to what is a good thing, good fruit, in order to get to do or enjoy the BEST fruit.
In Matthew 21: 33-46 Jesus gives us a parable about a vineyard and a some workers who reject the care and ownership of the vineyard. READ the Passage in a couple of translations.
Matthew 21:33-46 The Message
33-34 “Here’s another story. Listen closely. There was once a man, a wealthy farmer, who planted a vineyard. He fenced it, dug a winepress, put up a watchtower, then turned it over to the farmhands and went off on a trip. When it was time to harvest the grapes, he sent his servants back to collect his profits.
35-37 “The farmhands grabbed the first servant and beat him up. The next one they murdered. They threw stones at the third but he got away. The owner tried again, sending more servants. They got the same treatment. The owner was at the end of his rope. He decided to send his son. ‘Surely,’ he thought, ‘they will respect my son.’
38-39 “But when the farmhands saw the son arrive, they rubbed their hands in greed. ‘This is the heir! Let’s kill him and have it all for ourselves.’ They grabbed him, threw him out, and killed him.
40 “Now, when the owner of the vineyard arrives home from his trip, what do you think he will do to the farmhands?”
41 “He’ll kill them—a rotten bunch, and good riddance,” they answered. “Then he’ll assign the vineyard to farmhands who will hand over the profits when it’s time.”
42-44 Jesus said, “Right—and you can read it for yourselves in your Bibles:
The stone the masons threw out is now the cornerstone. This is God’s work; we rub our eyes, we can hardly believe it!
“This is the way it is with you. God’s kingdom will be taken back from you and handed over to a people who will live out a kingdom life. Whoever stumbles on this Stone gets shattered; whoever the Stone falls on gets smashed.”
45-46 When the religious leaders heard this story, they knew it was aimed at them. They wanted to arrest Jesus and put him in jail, but, intimidated by public opinion, they held back. Most people held him to be a prophet of God.GRAPE HARVEST1
What is God’s Word for you today?
What is the Holy Spirit speaking to you about today?
What do you notice that you haven’t noticed before?
What questions come up for you from this passage?
Where are you today? Are you feeling like the land owner, the tenants, or the ones sent to the vineyard?
Are you protecting the vineyard, are you planting, harvesting, or do you feel like you’d like to tear things down for good or for ill?
Are you feeling rooted or uprooted today? Do you want harvest? Need deeper roots? Talk to Jesus about where you are.
How has Jesus been your cornerstone lately? How can you allow Jesus to be your cornerstone in the weeks ahead?
“There’s a beautiful Jewish midrash that goes like this: Even when God exiles Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, saying to them as they go, “you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” the three words left ringing in their ears contain a hidden seed of hope, a promise of blessing: “you shall return” (Gen 3:19). Likewise, for all of us, a “change of mind” is always possible; the road back to the vineyard is always open. God’s love and faithfulness are steadfast, as “God with Us” proclaims — and so despite our worries, our quarreling, our testing of God and each other, in the end God will quench our thirst with surprising, living water: refreshment springing up from what looks like nothing but dry rock, resurrection from a tomb in Jerusalem, new life in the valley of the shadow of death.” THE SALT PROJECT
GRAB SOME GRAPES or a GLASS OF WINE TO PRAY WITH TODAY:
Taste and See that the Lord is Good!
Jesus you provide the space, the vineyard to grow good grapes in us. You plant good things FOR each of us, IN each of us!
Jesus you long for relationship! To have us ABIDE in you. You long to help us grow deep roots and produce good fruit.
You put a watch tower and a wall of protection around us so we can grow.
Allow Jesus to dig up the soil and to prune the vine that is you.
To press the fruit and to make NEW WINE.
Remember that GOOD WINE takes time! It’s not rushed, it’s not hurried. It’s nurtured by the wine maker.
Good WINE is ART…it’s flavor, taste, time and place.
TASTE and see that the LORD IS GOOD and you are GOD’S GOOD and PERFECT CREATION!
AMEN
LISTEN
by Karen Wilk
Creator delights in
Long-necked giraffes
…..Huge elephants
Flamingoes turning pink
…..from eating too much shrimp
Intoxicating lily-of-the-valley, lilacs perfume
The sound of honking geese in a V vroom
A hard-shelled turtle, a white long eared rabbit,
A rainbow, a newborn, a thunderstorm
And me?
Creator delights in
Ants marching in a line
Hummingbirds in flight
The neighbour cat exploring
The puppy slipping through the hedge
The chipmunk sitting on the ledge
Bees buzzing, butterflies soaring
Herbs in the garden
Beans in a row
My pink polka dot plant
Our children, laughing, as they go
Unique, gifted, benign beauty,
Earth, sky, rain proffering
Like our neighbours offering…
…..…..Openness, hospitality
…..…..Friendliness and generosity
Creator, YOU DELIGHT IN
Not because of, if or when
Every all are Your delight!
…..Precious, priceless in Your sight
…..…..Cherished, treasured meant for flight!
Join Christine Sine on October 14 or watch the recording later. October and November, the season between Canadian Thanksgiving and American Thanksgiving, is gratitude season on Godspacelight. Christine Sine will encourage you to enter into the practice of gratitude in this interactive retreat that will help us enter this season of gratitude with joy and delight in our hearts.
curated by The Rev. Elaine Breckenridge
Today is September 23, the Autumn Equinox and the first day of Fall. It is a cool and rainy day where I am. As I opened some of my favorite prayers and poetry to mark the occasion, I decided to put together “A Ritual to Welcome Autumn” that some of you might care to pray and use with your communities. May the changing seasons bless you wherever you are.
A Ritual to Welcome Autumn
For this ritual, a six-inch piece of string or twine may be used by participants. Space for sitting and standing is desired. Leadership and readings may be shared among those gathered. Bold print indicates communal response.
Participants may gather, standing in front of an open door or window.
Leader:
Welcome, Autumn, arms full of summer’s blessings,
carrying the seeds of life for next year’s planting.
Come, enter our homes with your golden wisdom;
be our guest and share our tables.
Welcome, Old Wise One,
May we be your students in the school of gratitude.
Guide us in reflecting upon the summer now gone,
that we might give thanks for all its many gifts.
…..–Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim by Edward Hays
Blessed are you autumn, your harvesting time has come. Blessed are you, autumn season of unpredictability.
You inspire us to be flexible to learn from your shifting moods.
Blessed are you, autumn season of surrender.
You teach us the wisdom of letting go as you draw us into new ways of life.
…..–The Circle of Life, Joyce Rupp & Macrina Wiederkehr
The door or window may be closed and people may be seated.
A Reading from the Gospel of John
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. [John 12:20-26]
Reader: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s People.
People: Thanks be to God.
A Reflection on the Gospel Reading
Autumn is a wondrous metaphor for the transformation that takes place in the human heart each season. It is easy to read the human story in these autumn pages between summer and winter. Autumn calls us in from the summer playground and asks significant questions about our own harvest. What in our lives needs to fall away like autumn leaves so another life waiting in the wings can have its turn to live?
Autumn speaks of connection and yearning, wisdom and aging, transformation and surrender, emerging shadows, and most of all, mystery. This is the season that touches our longing for home, for completion. We are invited to let go, to yield…. yes, to die. We are encouraged to let things move in our lives. Let them flow on into some new life form just as the earth is modeling these changes for us.
…..–The Circle of Life, Joyce Rupp & Macrina Wiederkehr
Reader: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s People.
People: Thanks be to God.
A Ritual of Letting Go
The ritual is best done in silence with time provided for quiet reflection.
Ask yourself the following:
1. …..What old habits, patterns, and way of being no longer serve you and your relationships?
2. …..What things from the past adversely affect your family or your community’s well-being and would best be forgiven and forgotten?
3. …..What does our planet need less of to make it healthier?
Take the piece of string and make three knots in it, one for each concern. As you make each knot, visualize each situation clearly, and imagine every aspect of it being firmly bound into the knot. Bury the knotted cord in the ground and let it rot away.
……– Kindling The Celtic Spirit by Mara Freeman
Participants then stand for the prayers that follow.
Prayers to the Four Directions
Leader:
As we give thanks for the summer now past, help us to surrender to the letting go embodied in this season.
May we turn to embrace the mysterious gifts of autumn.
We turn to face East.
Great Spirit of the East,
We stand before the place of the rising sun,
knowing the time to let go has arrived.
The chill of this seasonal change
challenges our hopeful dreams.
A persistent voice in us nudges
our tough hold on inner security.
Bless us with the rays of your love
as we struggle with our desires and needs.
May this season give us hope for the days ahead.
We turn to face South.
Great Spirit of the South,
We turn to you with nostalgic awareness.
Summer’s flowers are gasping goodbye.
Baskets of abundance sigh with farewell.
Now comes the season of diminishment.
The rays of the sun are more distant
and the vibrant greens are turning gray.
Now arrives the time of surrender.
May your love settle quietly in us like the hush of the first fog and frost.
We turn to face West.
Great Spirit of the West
We bow to the place of goodbye,
where the sun slides below the horizon.
We stand in the presence of the ancestors
whose wisdom invites us further.
As they learned from their transitions,
so will we look to the teachings of this time.
As we fall into the embrace of emptiness, help us to trust in emerging new life.
We turn to face North.
Great Spirit of the North,
the land is stripped of what was strong.
The long months of waiting soon begin.
We move toward a vigil of emptiness.
Keep alive the memory of the harvested seeds
while autumn stretches frosty fingers
around the corners of our watchful heart.
Bless us as we enter the lengthy darkness with the strong arms of your love.
…..–The Circle of Life, Joyce Rupp & Macrina Wiederkehr
A New Zealand Lord’s Prayer
Leader: Let us pray together,
All: Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed
by the peoples of the World!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
now and forever. Amen.
…..—A New Zealand Prayer Book
The Blessing
Leader: May we be open to God’s blessing as we pray together,
May the arm of God be about us,
the way of Christ guide us,
the strength of the Spirit support us,
this day and always. Amen.
Let us bless the Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver.
Thanks be to God.
Join Christine Sine on October 14 or watch the recording later. October and November, the season between Canadian Thanksgiving and American Thanksgiving, is gratitude season on Godspacelight. Christine Sine will encourage you to enter into the practice of gratitude in this interactive retreat that will help us enter this season of gratitude with joy and delight in our hearts.
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