Month: March 2020

This poem is a part of my reflection on the Covid-19 virus.

A POEM DURING A MODERN PLAGUE

Every morning upon rising
Routinely searching my vital signs
As a poverty stricken person
Searches pockets for spare change.
The grim news reports,
The skyrocketing death tolls,
Mausoleums more populated
Than the emptied churches,
Many desperately seeking God
From the confines of their dwellings.

I remember the time, early in life,
When I use to peer from my window
Into the darkness outside
For the headless Dullahan at the reins
Of the Cóiste Bodhar (coach-a-bower),
Its four black black horses
Powerfully pulling the death coach
Up to my front door, as I ruminate
On the words of Yeats, casting
A cold eye on life, on death.

Life, death, such separate entities,
Or so it seems, on the surface.
Yet, forty-two years of lessons
By grieving families have only
Taught me the oneing of life, of death.
As the beloved Anchoress of Norwich
Gazed out the window of her cell
Upon her nation devastated by
The Black Death and war,
So I gaze out my window on a world
As broken by plague and political violence,
And am comforted by the word of Christ
To this simple Middle Age mystic,
“All shall be well, and all shall be well,
And all manner of thing shall be well.”

(c) 2020, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.

I don’t know what it was about last week. It was a hard week to post anything on this blog. It was not so much about the stay at home order by Governor Walz. Ruthie and I, with all our injuries have had a lot of practice staying at home, and not by choice. Ruthie is up to close to a year and half of staying at home due to the injuries she received after having been run over by a pickup truck. I have been at home for over 9 months from the time I fell down the steps at Suel Printing company, with surgeries spaced over three months.

Covid-19 has turned into a 21 century version of the Black Plague that decimated all of Europe in the Middle Ages. As the Black Plague turned Europe inside out, so has Covid-19 done the same to our modern society with all its sophistication and technology.

I spent a part of last week calling and talking with those isolated by this worldwide illness. You can almost smell the fear of people in the air. We all like to be in control. We all like to think that we control our own destiny. It is something in which we take great pride, isn’t it? Covid-19 has revealed what an incredible myth, what an incredible hoax this kind of thinking truly is. It is very humbling and frightening to know that something so microscopic as a virus can bring down someone in the peak of health.

Before our retirement, Ruthie and I spent our careers ministering to many who were sick and many who were dying. Ruthie’s ministry was as a nurse to the elderly and chronically ill in nursing homes. My ministry was in a parish setting. We are not strangers to death. I have personally danced rather closely with death on four different occasions in my life. We reflected about how nature has a way of culling old life so as to allow new life to happen. Prairie fires and forest fires occur naturally in nature, the blackened plant life absorbed into the soil, fertilizing it, and out of its dead ash new vibrant life sprouts. Over and over again, the Phoenix rises from its ashes to live again.

What makes humanity think that the same cannot occur to us? Plagues have historically visited and devastated human populations. The Bubonic Plague (aka Black Death), Typhoid, Smallpox, Yellow Fever, Cholera, Measles, Spanish Flu, Encephalitis, London Flu, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, Polio to name just a few. This has been a recurring, tragic part of human life.

The other thing Ruthie and I have talked about is the extraordinary courage of nurses, nurses aides, doctors, EMT’s, law enforcement. So often we lay the mantle of bravery and courage upon soldiers who storm beachheads under extreme fire from enemy weapons fired from secured and fortified positions. Our medical personnel can be numbered among our heralded heroes and heroines as they minister to those critically afflicted and those dying from this invisible enemy.

So often during times like these, churches are filled with people seeking solace and some sort of certainty. The churches were filled following 9/11. Denominations that previously had damned one another as heretics gathered together for mutual prayer. Somehow, something as tragic as terroristic attacks opened our eyes, minds, and hearts to the fact that we all worship the same God. We found mutual comfort in our gathering to pray.

It is paradoxical that the mutuality for which we long in our worship communities is being denied us. What a cruel trick it is that in gathering together to pray, we might actually be condemning ourselves to death. It redefines the meaning of the word church. The word Church no longer is isolated to just a church building. The word Church goes beyond a mere building. In our forced isolation, we, as families, are rediscovering the ancient tradition of the home church. That wonderful anchoress of Middle Age Norwich, Julian, wrote that God is closer to us than our souls. God is not confined only to a church building, but rather God is more attached to us than our very soul.

As Julian looked out of the window of her little cell attached to St Julian’s Church in Norwich, England, she looked out on a city ravaged by war and disease. Rather than be overwhelmed by the horror that lay outside her cell, she was at peace. Christ appeared to her in a mystic vision and told her, “All shall be well, all shall be well, and all matter of things shall be well.” As we look out the windows of our homes upon our world so broken by the Covid-19 virus, let the reassurance spoken to Julian by Christ resonate in our ears. “All shall be well, all shall be well, and all matter of things shall be well.”

I completed composing this musical prayer this morning. I think we are all feeling a sense of fear and uncertainty as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. So many have been their source of income. So many have gotten sick. And most tragically, so many have lost their lives. So, if you are feeling weighed down by all this, I invite you to listen to this song.

One form of music that is able to express the losses in life so succinctly is the Blues. I composed this song as a Blues. I can safely say that I have been channeling my George Gershwin in this song. I call it “The Book of Job Blues”.

In 2012, I composed settings of two psalms, Psalm 92 and Psalm 8. I composed these for the praying of morning prayer at a Franciscan Day of Reflection. Over the past two weeks, I have re-composed these two hymns as piano pieces.

The first song is entitled “We Do Well To Your Name”.

I have dedicated this musical prayer for Ruth Weinandt who is a colleague in pastoral ministry at the New Prague Catholic Community. She is a wonderful person of compassion and care.

This second song is entitled “From The Lips of Babes and Children”. It is a setting of Psalm 8, re-composed for solo piano.

I have dedicated this musical prayer for my Franciscan colleague, Mary Higgins, whose ministry stretches way beyond the parish boundaries of the New Prague Area Catholic Community.

We are immersed in a time of great stress and uncertainty. May praying Psalm 92 and Psalm 8 bring a little break from worry, and may listening to this music assist you in relaxing in the loving embrace of God.

I recently did an Ancestry DNA test to look at my ancestry. It revealed I am 43% Polish/Slavic (makes sense my dad was a 100% Polish), 27% Irish (Connaght), 9% Norwegian, 8% German, 7% British, 4% Swedish, 1% Baltic, and 1% Finnish. I commented to my Aunt Mary (who is incredibly Irish) that apparently the “Swedish Joints” I have are the only thing I got from the Jernstrom side of the family (my maternal grandfather). In spite of the heavy DNA presence of Slavic Europe, that pesky 27% of Irish (my maternal grandmother) is the one that has had the most influence in my life. Probably explains why I started an Irish folk group in high school aptly named “The Irish Tipplers” (comprised of myself, Doug Meuwissen, Steve Snyder, Bob Windorksi, and Jeff King).

On St Patrick Day in St Paul, we didn’t play in the bars downtown. Rather we played in the big bank lobbies, and picked up gigs at the homes of rich bankers and lawyers. We had kind of a standing gig at some lawyer’s home in Forest Lake ($20 a piece, all the booze and food you could drink and eat … we did have a designated driver back then).

Having been a student of Irish traditional music (books, recordings of numerous Irish musical groups (Dervish, Danu, The Chieftans), harpists like Grainne Hambly, Janet Harbison, Mary O’Hara and others), the folk artists (primarily the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem), I have tried to compose music influenced by these sources.

Many of the Irish traditional bands put jigs, reels, ballads into a set. So that one set of 5 or 6 minutes may have a jig segueing into ballad into a reel, giving you the impression of one song. I submit two songs for this St Patrick’s Day. The first is a prayer song I composed in memory of a great man, Bob Murphy, husband of my cousin Greta, who died from Parkinson’s several years ago. The second is a prayer song I composed for my beloved mother-in-law Rose Ahmann (Burg-McNeily) who use to host a big St Patrick’s Day at the family farm. The third song is a prayer song I composed for my daughter-in-law, Olivia Reyes Wagner.

The one thing that this music reveals is the mix of my DNA (above). The songs start with a strong Irish reel or jig then moves into a distinct Northern European/Slavic middle section, then goes back into jig or reel that started it.

I composed this song for Bob Murphy in May/June of 2016. It begins with a stylized jig that came to me while I was driving one day, segues into an Irish musical decorated slower middle section that evolves almost into a Beethovenesque moment, then back into the Irish jig. For some reason I composed it in Sonata-Allegro form (theme 1, theme 2, development in which both themes appear, then back to theme 1). It was not intentional but serendipity.

This second Irish influenced song for Rose Ahmann was composed in February of 2018. It is a jig, again followed by a Beethoven/Mozart influenced middle section, and then back to the jig. I remember my beloved bride, Ruth, telling me she really liked the middle section … must be the German in her ancestry coming out.

This third song I composed for Olivia Wagner (Reyes) in 2016. It has a very Irish kind of melody. Of course, Olivia, who ancestry is 100% Filipino, would on the surface to be the less likely person, in terms of ancestry, to be Irish. However, Irish men, known to behave whilst in Ireland, sexually misbehaved all over the planet once they left the Emerald Isle. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a hint of Irish in her ancestry. While the melody might be Irish, the rest of it is strictly Northern European based on the musical form, variation on a theme.

HAPPY ST PATRICK’S DAY!

The stark reality of this world plague has struck home in the lives of many Americans this past week. As a 6 on the Enneagram, I felt overwhelmed this past Wednesday as the dire news of COVID-19’s impact on human life was revealed. While it is easy to find scapegoats to blame, for instance a political leader blaming others and other nations for the plague, or the lack of a much needed response to produce the tests needed to detect the virus, that is energy uselessly wasted. it neither eliminates nor prevents the spread of the virus, and, as importantly, the spread of anxiety and fear of the virus.

In 2017, I composed six musical prayers for my six grandchildren (one of whom was a miscarriage) as a Christmas present. One of these musical prayers was a Nocturne (music for night). People who listened to this song told me that in listening to the song, they felt a great sense of peace.

I offer this song today to those who may be feeling overwhelmed by the anxiety and fear of this virus that is now spreading throughout our communities. I hope that it can bring a moment of peace to your lives.

Peace,

Deacon Bob Wagner

Today the symbol of life-giving water, both in a physical and spiritual sense, is present in this Sunday’s scriptures.

In the first reading, we hear the story of the Israelites complaining that they will die of thirst in the desert. Instructed by God, Moses strikes the rock in Horeb with his staff, and water pours out of the rock for the Israelites to drink. We hear a parallel story about water in the Gospel the familiar story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus asks her for a drink of water from the well. There follows a conversation between the woman and Jesus about the defined differences between Samaritans and Jews and the cultural social distancing that existed between them. Jesus then tells her that he can offer her water in which her thirst will be satisfied for ever. “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:5-42, NAB) Of course, the woman asks Jesus to give her that water so that her thirst would be satisfied and she would never have to draw water from the well ever again.

This Gospel story is packed with so much it can be hard to focus on just one part, however, I would like to focus on the story of the life giving water about which Jesus speaks. I would like to build on that which I have homilized for the past two weeks of Lent.

In the readings of the first Sunday of Lent we hear the story of Adam and Eve and the fall of humankind. In their quest to become gods, like God, they eat from the tree of knowledge only to find in their nakedness, that they already had the divine presence of God dwelling in them. Their greed blinded them from discovering that divine presence within them.

In the readings of the second Sunday of Lent, we hear the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus. On the top of that mountain, the divine presence of God was revealed in the person of Jesus as a bright, dazzling light. This divine light dwells within us now. The Gospel challenges us to reflect on our lives and find that impedes that divine light within us.

The focus on that everlasting water about which Jesus speaks stands out for me this year more than ever. Upon hearing this story over the years of my life, I always thought that this everlasting water was something from which one could only draw after our human life ended. This year I have come to an entirely different conclusion, namely, that this water is already available for us from which to draw. This well of everlasting water is not some physical entity that exists outside us. This well from which we can satisfy our thirst for ever dwells within us.

Paul in his letter to the Romans speaks of this everlasting water. “The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5-8) Paul goes on to say that this love, this grace of God, was not earned by us. Rather, God’s love and grace has been poured abundantly into our lives freely by God.

Jesus calls upon us to draw deeply from this well of grace in our lives now in the present. Don’t wait for some future time, but draw deeply from this well of God’s never-ending grace in our lives. At times of crises, like we are experiencing right now during this COVID-19 pandemic, we are to draw frequently from this water of God’s love and grace and drink deeply of it. This well will sustain us during the crises in our lives and will sustain us into everlasting life.

The time is now to drink deeply from the well of God’s love and grace within us.  As Marty Haugen wrote so beautifully in the fourth verse of his hymn, “Gather Us In” (© GIA Publications, Inc,) “Not in the dark of buildings confining, not in some heaven light years away, but here in this place, new light is shining, now is the Kingdom, now is the day.”

My friends, let us not put off drawing from the love and grace of God in ourselves. Let us tap into that love and grace immediately. It is a well of love and grace that will never be depleted, but will only grow all the more as we continue to drink deeply from it.

As the Coronavirus rages around the world, I empathize with the many who have fallen ill and those who have died from the illness. The way the president and his administration have dismissed so off hand those who are sick, especially those on the cruise ship off the coast of San Francisco, has troubled me greatly. This afternoon and evening, I composed a musical prayer for these people and all who are suffering from illness and injury.

John Michael Talbot once said at a conference that music is the language of the Spiritual Realm. As you listen to this short piece of music, think of someone you know who is suffering at this time from an illness and/or injury and offer it as a prayer to God for them.

The music is called “Prelude For Those Who Are Suffering.”

Peace,

Bob

So here we are again, the second Sunday of Lent, and, as we do on each second Sunday of Lent, we hear the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus.  Jesus appears to his disciples as he truly is. The fullness of Jesus’ true nature is briefly revealed to them. While we don’t know the subject of the conversation between Jesus and the prophets in both Matthew and Mark’s account of the story, in Luke’s account of this story, Moses and Elijah are relating to Jesus the suffering and death he will endure when he reaches Jerusalem. However, this is alluded to in Matthew and Mark’s stories when Jesus tells the disciples NOT to say anything about the Transfiguration until after Jesus has died and rises from the dead. So how does this impact you and me?

Scripture tells us that we are made in the image and likeness of God. The radiance of light revealed in Jesus at his Transfiguration is a part of our lives, too. In fact, God’s radiance is present in all of Creation.

St Francis of Assisi believed in the universality of God present in all things, mineral, air, water, animal, and human. His beautiful Canticle of the Sun, is all about the glory of God being revealed in the Sun, the Moon, the rain, snow, wind, earth, fire, and all of created life. God is incarnate in all the world around us, but God is especially incarnate in you and in me. It is this that is revealed to the disciples on Mount Tabor at the transfiguration of Jesus, the fullness of God’s incarnation in Jesus.

God’s incarnation, that dazzling whiteness revealed in Jesus, God reveals in your life and mine. That incarnation came with us in our birth. We didn’t earn it. We can choose to acknowledge and accept it. We can also choose to reject it.

As this is revealed to its fullness in Jesus’ death and resurrection, so often, the same is revealed to us in our own paschal mystery, our own suffering and resurrection. We need not seek out suffering. No one escapes some form of suffering in life. For some of us it may come in the form of an injury or an illness, physical, emotional, and mental. We experience suffering in the loss of relationships in our lives, for instance, the loss of a loved one or spouse in death, or the loss of a spouse and significant people in the process of a divorce. It may be the suffering associated with the loss of a job, or having to relocate to a different community. Our suffering may come in a loss of health.

Whatever form suffering may take in our lives, it has a way of stripping away the non-essentials in our lives. When our lives are stripped down to the essentials by our sufferings, we find our lives transformed and transfigured. We discover, by necessity or coercion, that which is truly important in our lives. The stripping away of the non-essentials allows the glory of God’s presence to shine all the more brightly in our lives.

So, for this second week of Lent, something upon which to reflect is doing an interior search of ourselves for the presence of God in our lives. Is there something, some non-essential in our lives that is covering up or clouding the revelation of God’s glory in our lives? If we have undergone some suffering in our lives, in whatever form that may have taken, how has that suffering pointed to something greater in our lives? How has our suffering revealed the glory of God in our lives?

God does not will anything evil in the world. God does not will people to suffer. God did not will Jesus to suffer and die. In his suffering and in his death, Jesus revealed his solidarity with all of humanity. Suffering is a part of life. Suffering will come to all of us. What is important when suffering occurs in our lives is to not ask the question, “Why?” or, “Why is God being so cruel to me?” The question to ask when we undergo suffering is, “As God was revealed to the world in the suffering and death of Jesus, how is God being revealed in my own suffering?” Jesus’ path to the glory of the resurrection was through his suffering. Let us also be reassured that ultimately, our own suffering will lead to the same glory.

Today is the feast of my family’s first dog, FloydRMoose (a play on Fliedermaus). He was such a tiny little thing when we got him from the breeder but quickly grew into the 170 pound Great Pyrenees. Great Pyrs, like many large breeds, do not live very long. Pyrs are especially prone to cancer. We discovered a large lump on his back right leg. It ended up being bone cancer. Though smaller dogs can have a leg amputated and get around on three legs, it doesn’t work that way for the large breeds. The Vet said that the cancer would eat through the bone of his leg and the leg would shatter. It was on this day, when I brought him to the Vet to be put down. Ruthie came from work to the Vet’s just before the Vet gave him the lethal injection. I was holding this great big beautiful dog when he closed his eyes and died. Crushed emotionally by his death, I called in to the parish at which I worked and took the day off. Ironically, that same night as I was driving up to pick Luke up from school, a teenager crossed the medium strip on the highway and hit me headon. The collision sent my car into a frozen corn field. I had to be cut out of the car. As I was pulled from the car the one thing I was worried about was cussing (everybody on the ambulance crew knew I was a deacon). It really hurt like hell when I was pulled out of the car, but I didn’t cuss. I found out later by the surgeon who worked on me that the folks at North Memorial Hospital were fearful that the shock of that break would kill me. I lost 40% of the use of my right hand in that accident.

The events of that day on March 7th have had a ripple effect on my life. I still mourn the death of that beloved Moose of a dog. The injuries of that day eventually led to multiple surgeries on that leg, and on my right leg.

I decided to create a morning and evening prayer honoring the feast days of the animals we love. Here is the morning prayer I put together. I borrowed from multiple sources for intercessions, and the concluding prayer. The psalms are taken from the Inclusive Bible translation. The Lord’s Prayer reflects the changes that Pope Francis has recommended.

HYMN

Canticle of the Sun (or Praise of the Creatures)

Most high, all powerful, all good Lord!
All praise is yours, all glory, all honor, and all blessing.

To you, alone, Most High, do they belong.
No mortal lips are worthy to pronounce your name.

Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures,
especially through my lord Brother Sun,
who brings the day; and you give light through him.
And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars;
in the heavens you have made them bright, precious and beautiful.

Be praised, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air,
and clouds and storms, and all the weather,
through which you give your creatures sustenance.

Be praised, My Lord, through Sister Water;
she is very useful, and humble, and precious, and pure.

Be praised, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
through whom you brighten the night.
He is beautiful and cheerful, and powerful and strong.

Be praised, my Lord, through our sister Mother Earth,
who feeds us and rules us,
and produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs.

Be praised, my Lord, through those who forgive for love of you;
through those who endure sickness and trial.

Happy those who endure in peace,
for by you, Most High, they will be crowned.

Be praised, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death,
from whose embrace no living person can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin!
Happy those she finds doing your most holy will.
The second death can do no harm to them.

Praise and bless my Lord, and give thanks,
and serve him with great humility.

Saint Francis of Assisi (1182–1226)

Antiphon 1: From the lips of infants and children

you bring forth words of power and praise, O God.

PSALM 8

Yahweh, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your Name in all the earth!
You have placed your glory above the heavens!
From the lips of infants and children
you bring forth words of power and praise,
to answer your adversaries
and to silence the hostile and vengeful.

When I behold your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars which you set in place
what is humanity that you should be mindful of us?
Who are we that you should care for us?
You have made us barely less than God,
and crowned us with glory and honor.

You have made us responsible
for the works of your hands,
putting all things at our feet
all sheep and oxen,
yes, even the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, the fish of the seaand whatever swims the paths of the seas.

Yahweh, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your Name in all the earth!

Glory to …

Antiphon 1: From the lips of infants and children
you bring forth words of power and praise, O God.

Silent prayer

Antiphon 2: Ourland will be filled with knowledge of God.

CANTICLE ISAIAH 11:1-8

Then a shoot will sprout from the stump of Jesse;
from Jesse’s roots, a branch will blossom:
The Spirit of Yahweh will rest on you
a spirit of wisdom and understanding,
a spirit of counsel and strength,
a spirit of knowledge and reverence for Yahweh.

You will delight in obeying Yahweh,
and you won’t judge by appearances,
or make decisions by hearsay.
You will treat poor people with fairness
and will uphold the rights of the land’s
  downtrodden.
With a single word you will strike down tyrants;
with your decrees you will execute evil people.

Justice will be the belt around this your waist
faithfulness will gird you up.
Then the wolf will dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard will lie down with the young goat;
the calf and the lion cub will graze together,
and a little child will lead them.

The cow will feed with the bear;
their young will lie down together.
The lion will eat hay like the ox.
The baby will play next to the den of the cobra,
and the toddler will dance over the viper’s nest.
There will be no harm, no destruction
anywhere in my holy mountain;
for as water fills the sea,
so the land will be filled with knowledge of Yahweh.

Glory to …

Antiphon 2: Ourland will be filled with knowledge of God.

Silent Prayer

Antiphon 3: We praise you, O God on high.

PSALM 148

Alleluia!

Praise Yahweh from the heavens;
praise God in the heights!
Praise God, all you angels;
praise God, all you hosts!
Praise God, sun and moon;
praise God, all you shining stars!

Praise God, you highest heavens;
and you waters above the heavens!
Let them praise the Name of Yahweh,
by whose command they were created.
God established them forever and ever
and gave a decree which won’t pass away.

Praise Yahweh from the earth,
you sea creatures and ocean depths,
lightning and hail, snow and mist,
and storm winds that fulfill God’s word,
mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and cedars,
wild animals and cattle,
small animals and flying birds,
rulers of the earth,
leaders of all nations,
all the judges in the world,

young men and young women,
old people and children
let them all praise the name of Yahweh
whose name alone is exalted,
whose majesty transcends heaven and earth,
and who has raised up a Horn for God’s people
to the praise of the faithful, the children of Israel,
the people dear to God! Alleluia!

Glory to …

Antiphon 3: We praise you, O God on high.

READING – ISAIAH 65:22B-25
For the days of my people will be like the days of a tree, and my chosen ones will enjoy the fruit of their labors. They will not labor in vain or bear children doomed to die; for they and their descendants are a people blessed by God. Even before they call upon me, I will answer; and while they speak, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed side by side;
the lion will eat straw like an ox. Serpents will be content to crawl on the ground; they will not injure or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says Yahweh.

RESPONSORY

Everything in all creation cries aloud.
Everything in all creation cries aloud.

To the One seated on the throne and to the Lamb
All creation cries aloud.

Glory to God the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Everything in all creation cries aloud.

CANTICLE OF ZECHARIAH

Antiphon: Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth each kind of living creature, each kind of livestock and crawling thing, and each kind of earth’s animals!”

Blessed are You, Yahweh, the God of Israel,
for You have visited Your people,
You have set them free,
And You have established for us a saving power
in the House of Your servant David,

Just as You proclaimed,
by the mouth of Your holy prophets from ancient times,
that You would save us from our enemies
and from the hands of all those who hate us,
and show faithful love to our ancestors,
and so keep in mind Your holy covenant.

This was the oath You swore
to our father Abraham,
that You would grant us, free from fear,
to be delivered from the hands of our enemies,
to serve You in holiness and uprightness
in Your presence, all our days.

And you, little child,
you shall be called Prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Savior
to prepare a way for him,
to give his people knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the faithful love of our God
in which the rising Sun has come from on high to visit us,
to give light to those who live
in darkness and the shadow dark as death,
and to guide our feet
into the way of peace.

Glory to …

Antiphon: Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth each kind of living creature, each kind of livestock and crawling thing, and each kind of earth’s animals!”

INTERCESSIONS (composed by Dr Stacy Smith)

God of the sun and the moon, of the mountains, deserts and plains; all Creation gives you praise.

God of the mighty oceans, of rivers, lakes and streams; all Creation gives you praise.

God of all creatures that live in the seas and fly in the air; all Creation gives you praise.

God of every living thing that grows and moves on this sacred Earth all Creation gives you praise.

O God, you have entrusted humanity with caring for this Earth which you have created,  help us to bring the world into your marvelous light.

O God, you call us to love and respect the world and to repair what we have damaged, help us to bring the world into your marvelous light.

O God, you care for what you have made good and holy, help us to bring the world into your marvelous light.

Give us the wisdom and the passion,  help us to bring the world into your marvelous light.

THE PRAYER OF JESUS

Our Father, who are in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our sins,
As we forgive those who sin against us.
Do not let us fall into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the Kingdom, the power, and the glory
are yours, now and forever.
Amen.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

O God, every animal, in every forest, field, and home, belongs to you, and is under your loving care. May your blessing be upon our pets and in your steadfast kindness. Keep them safe from all harm. Show forth your eternal love and mercy to N. whose companionship and friendship he/she provided to us. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen. ( prayer from Saintland.com)

DISMISSAL

May God bless us, protect us from all evil
and bring us into everlasting life. Amen.