Let us pray (in silence) [that we may love God in our hearts and in our actions]
Pause
O God,
the joy of union with you is your gift,
may your compassion direct our hearts;
through Jesus Christ
who is alive with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
The above ancient prayer is used by Roman Catholics and Episcopalians/Anglicans and others. It has a long, shared history which you can find here with commentary and reflection: Ordinary 23. The above is my rendering – it is a new addition of mine – and it is intended to go into my Book of Prayers in Common. If you have ideas about it, please let me know.
Update: in preparing for next week’s resources, I discovered I had, six years ago, assigned this ancient collect (which is not fixed to any particular Sunday) to next Sunday! So here’s a different translation, commentary, and reflection.
Many people focus on creation during the month of September – a “creation season” concluding on the feast of St Francis on October 4.
This site is committed to the three year lectionary (RC) and its derivative, the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). Rather than departing from that lectionary, resources have been provided on this site for a “creation reading” of our shared biblical texts. This approach takes seriously the claim that our relationship with creation is a thread throughout the Bible.
A creation reading of the lectionary for the Sunday between 4 and 10 September:
The First Testament readings and psalms has creation like clay in the potter’s hand. We are known and formed – my inward parts – you knit me together in my mother’s womb. They speak of land, heaven, and earth, life and death, trees planted by streams of water. The gospel speaks of calculating the cost and simplifying our lifestyle.
Resources off this site:
Textweek
Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary
