7:00pm EST
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Meeting ID: 815 0755 1772
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Reader 1: In the beginning God created the heavens and Earth. Earth was barren, with no form of life. Darkness covered the abyss while a mighty wind swept over the waters.
The entire cosmos began as a pinprick - a sextillion ton pinprick that erupted as a single ultimate density of being, thundering forth into the beauty of existence. From this nourishing abyss flared forth all that ever was, is now, and ever will be
God said, “Let there be light, and there was light. God saw how good the light was. God then separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day” and the darkness, “night.”
Particles named photons bathe the day with scintillating waves – an electromagnetic spectrum from radio waves to gamma rays – some will be detectable by the human eye.
Reader 2: the second day, God said, “Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters to separate one body of water from the other.” And so, it happened: God made the dome, and it separated the water above the dome from the water below it God called the dome, “the sky.”
Primordial heat from Earth dissipates, the lighter gases float into the stratosphere. Erupting volcanoes spew elemental gases into the air – nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide, helium, neon. Trapped in Earth’s troposphere by gravity, gases, most notably oxygen, make life, as we know it, possible.
Reader 3: On the third day, God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin so that the dry land may appear. And so, it happened: the water under the sky was gathered into its basin and the dry land appeared. God called the dry land Earth, and the basin of the water – SEA.God said, “Let Earth bring forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on Earth that bears fruit with its seed in it. And so, it happened: Earth brought forth every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on Earth that bears fruit with its seed in it. God looked at this new creation. It was good.
One thousand million years ago, vegetation transformed the energy of Sunlight into food for animals to eat. Sunlight to plant food to oxygen - photosynthesis – life, as we know it, is possible.
Reader 4: On the fourth day, God said: “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night. Let them mark the fixed times, the days and the years, and shed light upon Earth.” And so, it happened: God made two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night.
Our Sun transforms four million tons of itself into energy each second of every hour and day – without ceasing. Sun’s energy is poured into every plant, every animal, every living thing. . . our Sun . . .one of 300 billion stars in the Milky Way . . . pours itself out with flagrant generosity sustaining all life on Earth.
Every night, a sphere of soft light waxes and wanes reflecting our Sun ~ moonlight.
God also made the stars placing them in the dome of the sky, to shine on Earth, to rule the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God looked at what was done.
Luminous spheres of plasma, clouds of gas and dust gather in vast islands, held together by gravity to form countless galaxies of stars and nebulae.
Reader 5: On the fifth day, God said: “Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures, and on Earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky.” And so, it happened: God created the great sea monsters and all kinds of swimming creatures with which the water teems, and all kind of birds. God saw how good it was, and God blessed them saying, “Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the seas; and let the birds multiply on the earth.”
Ocean dwellers from worms to whales, sky flyers, reptiles, dinosaurs flourished in the lush Jurassic period with its warm, wet climate 200 million years ago.
Reader 6: On the sixth day, God said: “Let Earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals of all kinds.” And so, it happened: God made all kinds of wild animals, all kinds of cattle, and all kinds of creeping things of Earth. God saw how good it was.
And the animals came – out of the depths, onto the land, into the sky. They came by fin, and foot and feather to live, to thrive to breed, to die.
God said: “Let us make humans in our image, after our likeness. We will let them care for the fish in the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.” Humankind was made in God’s image; God made men and women. God blessed them saying: “Have children; fill the earth and take care of all the living creatures. Watch over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth.”
Fossil specimens give evidence that anatomically modern humans developed in Africa, 350,000 years ago. Some humans migrated out of Africa 70,000 years ago. Humans have children, nearly eight billion people fill the earth today.
Reader 7: On the seventh day, God said; “See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over Earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food; and I have given the green plants as food for everything else that breathes: the animals of the land, and the birds of the air.” God looked at everything that had been made and found it very good.
A human being is part of the whole, called by us “Universe” . . . The human experiences the self as separated from the rest. This is an . . . optical delusion of consciousness, a kind of prison . . . our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” Albert Einstein
We humans are cousins to everything and related to every non-living thing in existence. There is no “us and them.” There is only one universe, one home, one exquisite creation.
Reader 1: And on this day...
Fashioned by the nurturing energy of our loving God, enfolded in the ever-widening circle of compassion and wrapped in God’s immutable, inexplicable love - Behold our ever - expanding universe.
Amen.
Compiled from various sources and paraphrased by Sr. Mary Navarre 2020
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