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Earth
- Black Elk
- Song: "Sacred Creation" by Rufino Zaragosa
 Water
 Plants, trees
- Song: “St. Teresa’s Prayer” by John Michael Talbot
 Animals
Humans
Angels and Saints
Divine
Genesis 9:8-16
God spoke to Noah and his sons,
“See, I establish my Covenant with you, and with your descendants after you;
also with every living creature to be found with you, birds, cattle and every wild beast with you: everything that came out of the ark, everything that lives on the earth.
I establish my Covenant with you: no thing of flesh shall be swept away again by the waters of the flood. There shall be no flood to destroy the earth again.”
God said, “Here is the sign of the Covenant I make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all generations:
I set my bow in the clouds and it shall be a sign of the Covenant between me and the earth.
When I gather the clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds,
I will recall the Covenant between myself and you and every living creature of every kind. And so the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all things of flesh.
When the bow is in the clouds I shall see it and call to mind the lasting Covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is found on the earth.”
Romans 1:20a, 8:18-23
Ever since God created the world his everlasting power and deity—however invisible—have been there for the mind to see in the things he has made.
I think that what we suffer in this life can never be compared to the glory as yet unrevealed, which is waiting for us.
The whole creation is eagerly waiting for God to reveal his sons.
It is not for any fault on the part of creation that it was made unable to attain its purpose, it was made so by God; but creation still retains the hope
of being freed, like us, from its slavery to decadence, to enjoy the same freedom and glory as the children of God.
From the beginning till now the entire creation, as we know, has been groaning in one great act of giving birth;and not only creation, but all of us who possess the first-fruits of the Spirit, we too groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free.
Luke 12:22-32
Then he said to his disciples, “That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it.
For life means more than food, and the body more than clothing.
Think of the ravens. They do not sow or reap; they have no storehouses and no barns; yet God feeds them. And how much more are you worth than the birds!
Can any of you, for all his worrying, add a single cubit to his span of life?
If the smallest things, therefore, are outside your control, why worry about the rest?
Think of the flowers; they never have to spin or weave; yet I assure you, not even Solomon in all his regalia was robed like one of these.
Now if that is how God clothes the grass in the field which is there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, how much more will God look after you, you men of little faith!
But you, you must not set your heart on things to eat and things to drink; nor must you worry.
It is the pagans of this world who set their hearts on all these things. Your Creator well knows you need them.
No; set your hearts on the kingdom, and these other things will be given to you as well.
There is no need to be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Creator to give you the kingdom.”
Black Elk
Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw the sacred hoop of my people was one of the many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw it was holy….
Prayer of Water, by Sr. Joan Brown, OSF, Albuquerque resident involved with ecological work
Read in 10 parts as each person at a table dips their hand in the water bowl
“Be praised my God for Sister Water who is useful, humble, precious and pure.”
As St. Francis prayed in great gratitude for Sister Water,
We pray in thankfulness for her life sustaining generosity.
Oh, water, in your mysterious beauty you cause the desert to bloom.
One tiny drop spread,
then collected with thousands of other drops
waters tiny seeds that grow grain fields feeding humans and creatures.
One tiny drop multiplied into a simple cup of water quenches our burning thirst.
Our bodies, like the body of earth are over 75% water.
We are a water people.
We are a water planet.
Oh compassionate God, Creator who breathes over the waters
We seek forgiveness for our mindless use of water.
We beg for wisdom to know how to conserve and cherish water.
We ask healing for the ways that we disrespect and contaminate our sister.
We seek hearts of wonder and awe to celebrate the miracle of water.
In this drought time,
We wait and watch for the gift of rain upon earth.
We watch and wait for grace to rain into our souls.
Come free us from hatred, greed, fear and lack of love for the gifts of water and earth.
Transform us into living streams of water
Flowing green and moist with life, hope and love for earth and all peoples and creatures.
We pray this prayer in the name of God who is gracious Creator and Source of All Being, Jesus who is Eternal Word and Spirit who is Wellspring of Wisdom. Amen
Benediction for the Animals
George Appleton [modified]
Read Saturday at 10:30 am liturgy, as blessing of participants’ Holy Cards
O God, I thank you
For all the creatures you have made,
So perfect in their kind—
Great animals like the elephant and the rhinoceros,
Humorous animals like the camel and the monkey,
Friendly ones like the dog and the cat,
Working ones like the horse and the ox,
Timid ones like the squirrel and the rabbit,
Majestic ones like the lion and the tiger,
For birds with their songs.
O Lord give us such love for your creation,
That love may cast out fear,
And all your creatures see in human beings
Their steward and friend,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
From Earth Prayers, page 255.
We Are...
For each child that's born
a morning star rises
and sings to the universe
who we are.
We are our grandmothers' prayers.
We are our grandfathers' dreamings.
We are the breath of our ancestors.
We are the spirit of God.
We are
Mothers of courage
Fathers of time
Daughters of dust
Sons of great vision.
We are
Sisters of mercy
Brothers of love
Lovers of life and
the builders of nations.
We are
Seekers of truth
Keepers of faith
Makers of peace and
the wisdom of ages.
We are our grandmothers' prayers.
We are our grandfathers' dreamings.
We are the breath of our ancestors.
We are the spirit of God.
For each child that's born
a morning star rises
and sings to the universe
who we are.
WE ARE ONE.
Words and music by Ysaye M. Barnwell (performed by Sweet Honey In The Rock on the recording “Sacred Ground”)
These words have been illustrated by Brian Pinkney for a forthcoming book (We Are One) for young people published by Harcourt, for release early in 2008.
8 Statements on how we humans have sinned against the Great Chain:
- Every day we cover an area larger than 175 soccer-fields with concrete to build towns and roads.
- We have polluted the waters – Industrial garbage, along with pesticides, herbicides, and hormones have polluted rivers and larger bodies of water. Rivers in which we could bathe some 50 years ago are now restricted areas. And many kinds of fish do not exist any longer.
- We have destroyed thousands of acres of rainforest in order to produce furniture made of exotic timber.
- A West German survey showed that 34 % of the country's total forest has been damaged by air pollution.
- If present trends continue, one half of all species of life on earth will be extinct in less than 100 years, as a result of habitat destruction, pollution, invasive species, and climate change.
- More than 2 million innocent people have been forced from their homes due to the Darfur Conflict and more than 400,000 have been killed.
- Our ancestors have also caused, and suffered from, genocide: Armenian Christians, Jews and other minority groups in Nazi Germany, Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, prior generations of Native Americans….
- We and our ancestors have also persecuted those who believe in other images of the Divine: Christian Crusades against the Turks, Bosnians and Serbs, Israelis and Palestinians
8 Statements on how we humans are working to support the Great Chain:
- Poland has halted the planned work on a road through one of Europe's last remaining wetlands. Construction within the environmentally protected Rospuda river valley was to have started on Wednesday.
- Environmental groups finally achieved, after ten years of lobbying, a global ban on the use of tributyltin (TBT) as a cleaning agent for ships, due to its harmful effects on marine wildlife.
- Two of Spain's regional governments and its capital city plan to plant millions of trees to help offset the impact of the country's spiraling greenhouse gas emissions.
- China, the world's largest producer of ozone depleting chemicals, has shut down five of its six remaining plants and banned their wide use.
- Thanks to conservationists who replanted native buckwheat along the California coast, the endangered El Segundo blue butterflies have returned after decades to Redondo Beach and Torrance, thriving on nectar from the restored native plants.
- The UN Security Council has voted to send peacekeepers to the war-ravaged Darfur region of Sudan, after months of wrangling. Up to 26,000 troops and police will make up the world's largest peacekeeping force."
- Paris has pulled out all stops in its efforts to offer environmentally friendly ways of getting around town, including electric trams, low-cost bicycle rentals, dedicated bus lanes and, before long, commuter buses.
- There is a concerted Saudi government effort to counter the ideology that nurtured the 9/11 hijackers and that has lured Saudis in droves to the Iraq insurgency. The deprogramming, similar to efforts carried out in Egypt and Yemen, is built on reason, enticements and lengthy talks with psychiatrists, Muslim clerics and sociologists.
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