Earth Day ~ Everyday!

 

 
Let the rain come and wash away
the ancient grudges, the bitter hatreds
held and nurtured over generations.
Let the rain wash away the memory
of the hurt, the neglect.

Then let the sun come out and
fill the sky with rainbows.
Let the warmth of the sun heal us
wherever we are broken.
Let it burn away the fog so that
we can see each other clearly.
So that we can see beyond labels,
beyond accents, gender or skin color.

Let the warmth and brightness
of the sun melt our selfishness.
So that we can share the joys and
feel the sorrows of our neighbors.
And let the light of the sun
be so strong that we will see all
people as our neighbors.
Let the earth, nourished by rain,
bring forth flowers
to surround us with beauty.
And let the mountains teach our hearts
to reach upward to heaven.
Amen.
a prayer for the world - rabbi harold kushner - 2003
 

Earth Day Prayer . . .

 

BEGIN AND END YOUR DAYS WITH PRAYER

The Earth is always a good teacher — and especially in spring.  Begin and  End your days this season with this prayer from the Native American tradition.

Earth teach me stillness
       as the grasses are stilled with light.
Earth teach me suffering
       as old stones suffer with memory.
Earth teach me humility
       as blossoms are humble with beginning.
Earth teach me caring
       as the mother who secures her young.
Earth teach me courage
       as the tree which stands all alone.
Earth teach me limitation
       as the ant which crawls on the ground.
Earth teach me freedom
       as the eagle which soars in the sky.
Earth teach me resignation
       as the leaves which die in the fall.
Earth teach me regeneration
       as the seed which rises in the spring.
Earth teach me to forget myself
as melted snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me to remember kindness
as dry fields weep with rain.
— Ute prayer

Anniversary . . .

Tuesday -  First Anniversary of the Death of Pope Francis . . .

Lord God of peace, hear our prayer!

We have tried so many times and over so many years to resolve our conflicts by our own powers and by the force of our arms. How many moments of hostility and darkness have we experienced; how much blood has been shed; how many lives have been shattered; how many hopes have been buried… But our efforts have been in vain.

Now, Lord, come to our aid! Grant us peace, teach us peace; guide our steps in the way of peace. Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: "Never again war!"; "With war everything is lost". Instill in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace.

Lord, God of Abraham, God of the Prophets, God of Love, you created us and you call us to live as brothers and sisters. Give us the strength daily to be instruments of peace; enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our brother or sister. Make us sensitive to the plea of our citizens who entreat us to turn our weapons of war into implements of peace, our trepidation into confident trust, and our quarreling into forgiveness.

Keep alive within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation. In this way may peace triumph at last, and may the words "division", "hatred" and "war" be banished from the heart of every man and woman. Lord, defuse the violence of our tongues and our hands. Renew our hearts and minds, so that the word which always brings us together will be "brother", and our way of life will always be that of: Shalom, Peace, Salaam!

Amen.

Prayer authored by Pope Francis . . .

The God who is Before Us:

(Artist: Caravaggio)

The God who is Before Us:

Third Sunday of Easter 2026 

April 19, 2026

www.johnpredmoresj.com | predmore.blogspot.com

 

Acts 2:14-33; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35

 

The story about the two who are their way to Emmaus reveal something fundamental about God. God is always before us. God is always in the future leading us forward. The Psalmist echoes it by telling us that God will show us the path to life. It is something that will happen in the future. Even Peter in the first reading speaks about God’s foreknowledge of the events of human cruelty. In the second reading, Peter says, “God was known before the world’s foundation but revealed in the final time for you.”

 The Emmaus walk reminds us that we are on a journey through life, one that is to be shared with others. We learn a great deal when we listen meaningfully and break bread with one another. The Gospel tells us, “their minds were opened,” they experienced a raising of consciousnesses, and it is a model that we are to follow. This disposition of openness is a key to a fulfilling life of meaning and trust.   

We see many instances in Scripture where God is ahead of the people to lead them forward. God leads the Hebrews from slavery into the Promised Land; God leads Israel as a pillar of cloud of fire. Jesus calls people to follow him, and as the Good Shepherd, he always goes before the sheep. Notice that God does not push us forward from the back; God invites us from the front. It does not mean that we know where we are going. We simply take one more step onward.  

What does this mean for our relationship with Christ? Our traditional prayers focus upon the Christ of the past, the Jesus of Nazareth who has been raised. The new focus upon the Christ who is still ahead of us, the Christ who is still becoming, shows that he is growing toward his fulfillment at the end of time. Christ is presently both with us and up ahead of us, beckoning us forward, inviting us to grow in love, as an individual and as a collective Body of Christ. 

 When we break bread with one another, we open ourselves to a grander way of thinking and feeling. As we listen to and share stories, our hearts are converted to the stories of other people, just like the Disciples on the way to Emmaus. We begin to shift our thinking, through the Eucharist, from a restrictive mindset to one that is more open and inclusive. Therefore, our spirituality can no longer be self-focused or self-enclosed. As a community of faith, we develop a collective spiritual life in which we turn outside of ourselves to the needs of others. We begin to see ourselves as new creations and no longer as individuals who want to develop one’s own prayer life. We see that we are part of a greater Body, to a new life connected with the Risen Christ. We pay attention to the divine project that God through Jesus has begun in the Resurrection. As Christ was raised to new life, we were raised with him.

 We now need to learn to act and think in a new way. It is not I who lives but the Christ within me. We need to act as members of Christ, the Christ who is calling us to evolve and to love as one body. The Christ who is to come is calling us toward him. We are invited to walk with him and to work with each other and with Christ to transform the earth. This forward movement to the God who is ahead impels us forward to a greater love, to a world that is still becoming, to a world that is striving to reach its fullest potential. Let’s walk on this journey with the Christ who is to come so we can make possible a transformed future for our world. When we break bread with one another, may we come to this moment in which our eyes are opened and we see the Christ in each of us called forth as one as brother and sister and friend. 

 

 

"Knot in Your Life"

 

"Knot in your life"!

The Knots Prayer

 

O God,
please untie the knots
that are in my mind,
my heart, and my life.

 

Remove the have nots,
the can nots and the do nots
that I have in my mind.

 

Erase the will nots,
may nots, might nots
that find a home in my heart.

 

Release me from the could nots,
would nots, and should nots
that obstruct my life.

 

And most of all, God,
I ask that you remove from my mind
my heart and my life all of the ‘am nots'
that I have allowed to hold me back,
especially the thought
that I am not good enough. Amen.

Author Unknown . . .

To Dare or Not To Dare . . .

 

Dare to declare
who you are. 
It isn’t far from
the shores  of silence
to the boundaries of speech.
The road is not long
but the way is deep.
And you must not
only walk there.
You must be prepared
to leap.

Composer, Mystic: St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098 – 1179) 

Seeing Is Believing!

 

 

Seeing God

We cannot see you
and yet in so many ways we have seen you,

We cannot touch you
but we have experienced and felt you.

You have been in the full moon
and the early morning mist,
the bright blue sky
and the cool night air
after a scorching day.

You are the rock
that anchors us in uncertain times,

You are the hope
that keeps us going on a road with few signposts,

You are the presence
when we feel disoriented and estranged.

You are the compassion
that knits us even to strangers,

You are the justice
that tugs at our complacency,

You are the joy
that unexpectedly overwhelms us,

You are the love
that banishes all fear.

We praise you for revealing yourself to us
in all these ways -
and for Christ, your full revelation.

~ Suellen Shay

Thresholds: A Book of Prayers, 2011