Praise is due to you, O God of all life,
and to you we commit ourselves
because you have been faithful in loving
us.

You are there when injustice overwhelms us, and
you forgive us when we are part of the injustice.

Happy are those who stay close to you,
who walk in your ways throughout life.

Happy are those who are satisfied by you,
those who know peace without accumulating endlessly.

O Holy God — Source of all healing and reconciliation —
you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.

You are the hope of the mountain stream.
You are the hope of the Gulf of Mexico,
and the hope of the soaring hawk.

By your strength,
you drew the mountains skyward from the depths of the earth.
By our strength,
we whittle away at their stones and their beauty.

By your breath,
you calm and comfort the seas
into which our industries & our farms & our carelessness have bled.

By your wisdom,
you sooth the tumult of the peoples,
which we aggravate in our pursuit of prestige,
in our unrepentant and uncritical love of nation.

We are in awe of you,
O Eternal Trumpet who wakes the dawn,
O Holy Silence who calls the evening to sleep;
so in awe of you…

…except when we are more in awe of ourselves.

How infrequently are we satisfied!
How often are we restless with our insecurities!

Yet you make the soil rich
so that the fields of grain and the pastures of grass
are abundant for all, abundant for all, abundant for all…

…if we would not manipulate their abundance.

You water the earth
so that all can drink and wash and eat and irrigate
equally, equally, equally…

…if we would let all be equal.

The meadows and the valleys sing together for joy
and weep with longing for your intervention,
for you are the hope of all the ends of the earth.

You are the earth’s richness and its reconciliation.
You know the way to the earth’s healing;
you construct the gateways that open to paths of peace.

We repent of our lack of belief in peace.
We pray for hope to stir our souls.

With all the ends of the earth and with all the farthest seas,
we pray for hope. Amen.

 

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