Upper Room Inclusive Catholic Community - Liturgies, Rituals and Ministries: Moment of Oneness: Season of Creation 2020 - Week 2

September 9, 2020

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Opening/Centering Song: Here in this Place

https://youtu.be/sgkWXOSGmOQ

Opening Prayer: Spirit of the Abundant Earth, I live in the knowledge that I am of the earth, from the earth, and returning to the earth.

Tree of life rise up in me, rooting me deeply in the ground and inviting me to extend my branches far into the sky.

Spirit that rises like bread, knead me into the shape you desire for my life and allow me to be nourishment for others.

Blessings of the earth be upon me. May its taste, smell, and touch remind me of the abundance of God.

Christine Valters Paintner

Reading: Ecology & Our Coming to be Human Beings, Part III by Matthew Fox
July 28, 2020

Trevien Stanger, instructor in environmental studies at St. Michael’s College, writes: For some years now, I’ve made a conscious decision to define myself based upon what I do for my home, my watershed, my community, and my spirit: I plant trees. I am a Tree Planter. Let me explain. Like many of my fellow millennials (I was born in ’82), I grew up in what Buddhist scholar David Loy has called “the religion of the market.” As organized religion failed to bear much fruit for our parents’ generation, the fields of spirituality were left fallow for us.

Potawatami elder Robin Kimmerer asserts “We need acts of restoration, not only for polluted waters and degraded lands, but also for our relationship to the world. We need to restore honor to the way we live, so that when we walk through the world we don’t have to avert our eyes with shame, so that we can hold our heads high and receive the respectful acknowledgment of the rest of earth’s beings.”

As we restore this honor to ourselves and others, we can begin to feel our own “impeccable warrior” rise up to participate in what Joanna Macy has so aptly called “The Great Turning.”

I, for one, plant trees. Literally. When I look around at the apathy, the neglect, and the confusion amongst my generation and the ones coming up next, I feel compelled to act, and act I have….I’ve had a hand in planting just shy of 100,000 thousand trees over the past twelve years. I’ve planted trees alongside people on every stage of their journey.

But why trees, you may ask? While I could certainly retort with some significant reasons why trees are nevertheless so good for us and our communities (shade, fruit and nuts, erosion control, flood mitigation, clean air, green space, pollinator support, etc.), I argue that the revolutionary power of trees may also lie in the act of planting them.

What happens when you plant a tree? What happens when you wield a shovel in one hand (a human artifact) and a tree (a provisional mystery) in the other? What happens when you dig a hole (a Kali-like destruction) and plant a tree within it (an act of creativity)?

What happens when you learn about your local ecology not just as an observer, but also as a participant? What happens when you embrace the wildness of a tree-being and integrate it into the semi-wild streets and streams of your local community? What happens when you crack open your isolated sense of self and plant within your heart this symbol of our ever-branching inter-being?

What happens when you consider your actions in terms of your ecological and cultural legacy? What happens when you move beyond your concerns of today and inquire as to what type of ancestor you will be?

Nelson Henderson posits that “…one true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.”

Adapted from Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, Jennifer Listug, Order of the Sacred Earth, pp. 180-184.
Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 19-32

Prayers for Creation

We pray for our creation, the whole cosmos including our common home, and the intricate balance in every part of every ecosystem that sustains life on Earth.

We pray for all of the creatures on Earth, as we are all affected by extreme weather events, rising tides, and the changing climate.

We Pray for people who risk their lives to defend creation and for all who have lost their lives in the mission of protecting Mother Earth.

We pray for the Church, that we may truly model Jesus through the teachings found in Laudato Si and bring about ecological conversion, changing hearts and minds to lovingly care for creation.

We pray for social and ecological justice in our world so that we can right the wrongs that create poverty and degrade our common home.

We pray that we choose renewable energy and share the gifts of creation.

Closing Prayer: A 21st Century Lord’s Prayer

by Roger Courtney on November 4, 2012

Great divine spirit of love that is at the core of everything
and from which all life flows,

We acknowledge your healing and transforming power.

May the spirit of unconditional love and forgiveness flow through each of us and enable the realm of love to spread throughout the world.

Like the flowers in the fields, ensure that we have the basics we need to live
and give us the love and commitment to ensure that others have what they need too.

Give us the courage to acknowledge when we have done wrong,
to seek forgiveness from those we have hurt
and to forgive those who have hurt us,
so that we may be reconciled.

We acknowledge the power of self-giving love to transform individual hearts and the world.

We recommit ourselves to the unconditional love of others and the work of justice and peace.

Amen

Song, Holy Ground

https://youtu.be/s87pVeZa75Q