Living and working in the city, a place full of human crafted splendor as well as squalor, can dull our senses to the grounding truths and cultivated compassions of the Creator’s crafting. But it does not have to be so. Though we may be far from the grandeur of the mountains or the majesty of the sea, though we may be shaded by skyscrapers and marveled by masses, we are near enough to the Creator’s work to be steadied and compelled by it. At least that is what we will be praying with and for one another using these words adapted from John Ballie.
Creator Spirit, who forever hovers over the lands and waters of earth, enriching them with forms and colors that no human skill can copy, give us today the mind and heart to rejoice in your creation.
Forbid that we should walk through your beautiful world with unseeing eyes;
Forbid that the attractions of the city and its stores and steel, its promises and playthings, should ever steal our hearts away from the love of open fields and green trees;
Forbid that under the low ceiling of office or classroom or workspace or study, we should ever forget your great overarching sky;
Forbid that when all your creatures greet the morning with songs and shouts of joy, we alone should wear a grumpy and sullen face;
Let the energy and vigor which in your wisdom you have infused into every living thing stir within in our being today, so that we may not be lazy or mindless bystanders among your creatures.
And above all, give us grace to use these beauties of earth around us and this eager stirring for life within us to lift our souls from creature to Creator, and from nature to nature’s God.
O Father, your divine tenderness always outsoars the narrow loves and kindness of earth. Grant us today a kind and gentle heart toward all things that live. Help us to take a stand against cruelty and misuse of any of your creatures and created things. Help us to be actively concerned—as you are—for the welfare of little children, and those who are sick, and of the poor, and those who suffer indignity by laws and by individuals, remembering that what we do for the least of these brothers and sisters of Jesus, we do for Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.