September 18

Ps 104:30 You send forth your spirit, and they are created,

and you renew the face of the earth.

In the Valley of the Elwy (Hopkins)

I remember a house where all were good
To me, God knows, deserving no such thing:
Comforting smell breathed at very entering,
Fetched fresh, as I suppose, off some sweet wood.
That cordial air made those kind people a hood
All over, as a bevy of eggs the mothering wing
Will, or mild nights the new morsels of spring:
Why, it seemed of course; seemed of right it should.

Lovely the woods, waters, meadows, combes, vales,
All the air things wear that build this world of Wales;
Only the inmate does not correspond:
God, lover of souls, swaying considerate scales,
Complete thy creature dear O where it fails,
Being mighty a master, being a father and fond.

Meditation

We have traditionally regarded sin as being merely what people do to other people. Yet, for human beings to destroy the biological diversity in God’s creation; for human beings to degrade the integrity of the earth by contributing to climate change, by stripping the earth of its natural forests or destroying its wetlands; for human beings to contaminate the earth’s waters, land and air – all of these are sins. (Bartholomew I)

Musical Selection (Doxecology)

God, the Word of life, created all,
sun and moon and galaxies beyond,
giving life to all that lives and breathes,
grace and love supplying every need.
Yet we wait for the day.

In Christ we hope, 
by faith we know
our redemption is close, 
but still the earth groans.

God, our hope, has heard creation call,
pouring out his mercy on the earth,
giving us his one and only Son
rescuing the world he loves so much.
Yet we wait for the day.

The earth will be healed,
creation set free,
in the great day of the Lord.
The whole earth restored,
in beauty and awe,
in the great day of the Lord.

Prayer