The Season of Creation originated in the Anglican Church of South Africa and was formalized in 2008. It is designed for us to explore our faith from a Creation perspective. For more information see: https://prayersofthepeople.blogspot.com/2024/09/prayers-of-people-in-beginning-1st.html We use Biblical and other readings that pertain to the specific theme of each of the 7 weeks of the Season. Alternate readings used are posted with asterisk.
Week
IV's Theme is:
The Saints Among Us
Today we celebrate the Feast of All Saints. What comes to mind when you think of a Saint? For many of us, I expect, the mind-image that arises is of someone many centuries and continents removed from our everyday place and time in this world; someone who is an example of complete perfection in every facet of life that is unattainable for us mere mortals, and, if we're honest, living a life undesirably difficult for us to accomplish. The word “saint” comes from the Greek word hagios [hay-gee-ose], which means “consecrated to God, holy, sacred, pious.” Yet many saints and Saints, the ordinary and the officially designated, are/were flawed humans with real human frailties and struggles, even, shockingly for some, a few sins, large and small, along the way. When and how then did their lives become so exemplary? The best discussion I have found is from Sister Joan Chittister*, which follows. This piece offers us some food for prayerful thought on ways we might discover our inner saint and seek to, at the very least, support the very basic tenets of the Greatest Commandment [Matthew 22:36-40, Mark 12:28-34, Luke 10:25-28].
*"For centuries the church has confronted the human community with role models of greatness. We call them saints when what we really often mean to say is "icon," "star," "hero," ones so possessed by an internal vision of divine goodness that they give us a glimpse of the face of God in the center of the human. They give us a taste of the possibilities of greatness in ourselves. What qualities will be necessary to live a life of integrity, of holiness, in the twenty-first century? What models of those values, if any, have been raised up to show us the way to God in a world that is more preoccupied with the material than with the spiritual, more self-centered than selfless, more concerned with the mundane than with the divine, more parochial than cosmic? (They) are male and female, Christian and non-Christian, married and unmarried, religious and lay, pragmatists and artists, named saint by a process or proclaimed saint by the people who lived in the shadow of their lives. They are people like you and me. With one exception, perhaps. In their eyes burn the eyes of a God who sees injustice and decries it, sees poverty and condemns it, sees inequality and refuses it, sees wrong and demands that it be set right. These are people for whom the Law above the law is first in their lives. These are people who did not temporize with the evil in one system just because another system could have been worse. These are people who saw themselves clearly as the others' keepers. These are people who gave themselves entirely to the impulses of God for the sake of the world."
Sr. Joan has not painted an easy picture of a lifestyle for our time-limited journey in earthly existence. There are choices to be made and sooner rather than later though there’s always an opportunity for us to seek God first above all else, to receive a blessing from the Lord and a just reward from the God of our Salvation. It requires some dedication, some intention, and some significant transformation. Jesus calls us to come out from our self-imposed tombs and unbind ourselves from the temptations that lock us away from our divine endowment. In that release we can change not only ourselves but the culture we live in. Author Parker Palmer** says it best, [We] can transform our culture only as we are inwardly transformed. So, let us begin, again, together.
*Sister Joan Chittister, Roman Catholic nun and former Prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, PA, an activist, author and speaker on a variety of subjects such as spirituality, religious life, peace, and justice among others. The excerpt is from: A Passion for Life: Fragments of the Face of God, Orbis, Maryknoll, NY, 1996
Leader: ~ O Lord of Hosts, O King of Glory, in these times of trial and travail, strengthen us to arise each day with inner peace, purity of heart, and complete trust in You. Fill us with humility, humanity, and hope by following the example and the actions of the Saints who have gone before, and the saints who live among us now.
~
O Lord of Hosts, our King of Glory, fill us
with the trust that You make all things among us new again. Endow and galvanize
us, who abide with You in love, with continued perseverance to exhort Local,
National, and Global Leaders not to pledge to falsehoods nor swear to frauds
but to move toward the just reward of all who work on Christ’s behalf. We
pray especially for: add your own petitions
~
O Lord of Hosts, our King of
Glory, deliver from distress all those in anguish from illness of body,
mind, or spirit, and infuse those who give them care with gentle and peaceful
hearts. We now join our hearts together to pray for those in need… add
your own petitions
~
O Lord of Hosts, our King of Glory, as You
wipe the tears of all who mourn, keep us all in the knowledge that earthly death
will be no more with the joy and gladness of all who live again in Your
Communion of Saints now and forever. We pray especially for… add
your own petitions
~
O Lord of Hosts, our King of Glory, we pause in this moment to offer You our
other heartfelt thanksgivings, intercessions, petitions, and memorials… add
your own petitions
~ O Lord of Hosts, our King of Glory, inspire the hearts, minds, and souls of all who lead us in Your Church, who encourage and remind us, through Word and Sacrament, how to lead faithful lives in and through Your grace and mercy. We pray especially for: add your own petitions
The Celebrant adds: God of us all, saints and
sinners together, set our hearts free from the prison of hate, the
emptiness of self-importance, and the mindlessness of earthly privilege. Guide
us each to claim our divine endowment of hope, grace, and mercy, as we strive
toward ascending the hill of the Lord to drink forever from the water of life.
We ask through Jesus, our Saving Lamb; in the Unity of the Holy Spirit; who
together with You are One God above all, through all, and in all, for ever and
ever. Amen.
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