People's Prayers: October 2025

Monday, October 6, 2025

Prayers of the People, In the Beginning, 1st Sunday of Season of Creation

For Sunday, October 12, 2025, Readings: Genesis 2:4-9, 15-25; Psalm/Azariah 1:1-22 ~ Canticle of the Three Young Men;* Hildegarde von Bingen,** John 1: 1-14

Welcome to the Season of Creation!

The Season of Creation originated in the Anglican Church of South Africa in 2008 and is designed for us to explore our faith from a Creation perspective. We are to realize our place in the order of God’s creating and to see and act upon the need to care for our entire life—support system— the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soil in which we grow our crops—not merely humanity, but our total environment, as it pertains to ALL life.

From the early days of the Season of Creation at The Episcopal Church of Sts. Andrew and Matthew [www.ssam.org], we established that “the primary aim of the events of the season is to enable adults and youth to celebrate and experience the inextricable link which binds together the destinies of all of God’s creatures.” It is a moment of pause to remind ourselves that God calls us to see “what great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions” and for us to renew our commitment to making real the biblical vision of the earth at unity with itself. It is a vision of human beings of all races, backgrounds and walks of life in local communities and among the nations of the earth, living together in love and peace with justice for all. "As disciples of Christ, we are called through our Baptismal Covenant, to be instruments for the healing of our broken world," and with a renewed commitment to personal and communal prayer and action.

We will use Biblical and other readings that pertain to the specific theme of each of the 6 weeks. The texts of the alternate readings used will follow the prayers on this page.

We open this Season "In the Beginning." Our inspiration begins with Professor Wangari Maathai, [1940-2011], a Kenyan environmental and political activist, Member of Parliament as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources, she was educated in the United States and in Kenya. In 2004, she was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She was honored for "her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace." Professor Maathai described the Book of Genesis as "the book for environmentalists." And she said, "If we had been created on Tuesday, there would have been nowhere for us to stand! God, with infinite wisdom, waited until the last day!"

Week One's Theme is: In the Beginning

In place of a Psalm this week, we are using The Prayer of Azariah which is contained in the Apocryphal Books of most but not all Bibles. This piece is from an addition to the Greek translation of the Book of Daniel. It is placed in Daniel Chapter 3 in the Greek texts and in the Septuagint edition at the end of Daniel after 12:13 following after the prose stories of Bel and the Dragon, and of Susanna. The Three Young Men, gifted and handsome youths are better known to us from Hebrew, by the names given to them during the Babylonian Exile, by Nebuchadnezzar’s Chief Eunuch, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego. The Greek Septuagint, their Hebrew names are pronounced in Greek as Ananias, Azarius, and Misrael.

*PSALM CANTICLE OF THE THREE YOUNG MEN [The Prayer of Azariah 1:1-22]:

¹And they walked about in the midst of the flames, singing hymns to God and blessing the Lord. ²Then Azari′ah stood and offered this prayer; in the midst of the fire he opened his mouth and said:

³“Blessed art thou, O Lord, God of our fathers, and worthy of praise;
    and thy name is glorified for ever.
⁴For thou art just in all that thou hast done to us,
    and all thy works are true and thy ways right,
    and all thy judgments are truth.
⁵Thou hast executed true judgments in all that thou hast brought upon us
    and upon Jerusalem, the holy city of our fathers,
    for in truth and justice thou hast brought all this upon us because of our sins.
⁶For we have sinfully and lawlessly departed from thee,
    and have sinned in all things and have not obeyed thy commandments;
⁷we have not observed them or done them,
    as thou hast commanded us that it might go well with us.
⁸So all that thou hast brought upon us,
    and all that thou hast done to us,
    thou hast done in true judgment.
⁹Thou hast given us into the hands of lawless enemies, most hateful rebels,
    and to an unjust king, the most wicked in all the world.
¹⁰And now we cannot open our mouths;
    shame and disgrace have befallen thy servants and worshipers.
¹¹For thy name’s sake do not give us up utterly,
    and do not break thy covenant,
¹²    and do not withdraw thy mercy from us,
for the sake of Abraham thy beloved
    and for the sake of Isaac thy servant
    and Israel thy holy one,
¹³to whom thou didst promise
    to make their descendants as many as the stars of heaven
    and as the sand on the shore of the sea.
¹⁴For we, O Lord, have become fewer than any nation,
    and are brought low this day in all the world because of our sins.
¹⁵And at this time there is no prince, or prophet, or leader,
    no burnt offering, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense,
    no place to make an offering before thee or to find mercy.
¹⁶Yet with a contrite heart and a humble spirit may we be accepted,
    as though it were with burnt offerings of rams and bulls,
    and with tens of thousands of fat lambs;
¹⁷    such may our sacrifice be in thy sight this day,
    and may we wholly follow thee,
    for there will be no shame for those who trust in thee.
¹⁸And now with all our heart we follow thee,
    we fear thee and seek thy face.
¹⁹Do not put us to shame,
    but deal with us in thy forbearance
    and in thy abundant mercy.
²⁰Deliver us in accordance with thy marvelous works,
    and give glory to thy name, O Lord!
Let all who do harm to thy servants be put to shame;
²¹    let them be disgraced and deprived of all power and dominion,
    and let their strength be broken.
²²Let them know that thou art the Lord, the only God,
    glorious over the whole world.”

For more information on the Apocryphal Books, here is one interesting source of information: https://www.bartehrman.com/apocrypha/

** Second Reading, Hildegarde von Bingen: Glance at the sun. See the moon and the stars. Gaze at the beauty of earths’ greenings. Now, think, What delight God gives to humankind with all these things. All nature is at the disposal of humankind. We are to work with it. For without it we cannot survive...The fire has its flame and praises God. The wind blows the flame and praises God. In the voice we hear the word which praises God. And the word, when heard, praises God. So all of creation is a song of praise to God.

Hildegarde von Bingen, now St. Hildegard was born 1098, Böckelheim, West Franconia [Germany]—died September 17, 1179, Rupertsberg, near Bingen; canonized May 10, 2012; feast day September 17) was a German abbess, visionary mystic, and composer. In 2012 she was proclaimed a doctor of the church, one of only four women* to have been so named. She is revered as a patron saint of musicians and writers. [From Brittanica online] Her music is still being used today and some can be found on YouTube with this link and by searching her name to find more: https://youtu.be/HYzPR0nwcmY

*The other women saints named Doctors of the Roman Catholic Church are Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, Therese of Lisieux.

All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution and edited for local use as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. For more information or comments, contact: Leeosophy@gmail.com

Prayers of the People: One out of Ten ~ 18th Sunday after Pentecost '25 RCL Yr C

For Sunday, October 12, 2025 ~ Readings: 2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c; Psalm 111, 2 Timothy 2:8-15,

Luke 17:11-19

But his servants approached and said to him, "Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, 'Wash and be clean'? So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean. [2 Kings 5:1-14]

…the Lord is gracious and full of compassion…The works of his hands are faithfulness and justice; all his commandments are sure. [Psalm 111:4b; 7]

Remind them of this, and warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening. [2 Timothy 2:14]

Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" [Luke 17:17-18]

In the reading from 2 Kings, servants asked Naaman if he might have agreed immediately to the healing ritual that Elisha prescribed if the activity had been more difficult. After all, a mighty warrior only does difficult tasks of great importance, not simple and ordinary things. Perhaps we, as ordinary mortals, feel the task of truly living into our faith through taking time to stop doing to just be in a few moments of personal prayer or reading over the previous Sunday Scriptures, or a page in a daily booklet of meditations, is just easy enough to get to sometime later on. We escape into checklists of giving money and attending church services as doing our basic duty, with perhaps a volunteer activity here and there. But in moments when we are looking for inspiration or feel a need to look beyond the ordinary, we often wander off to another river, rather than one before us. Once there we may not realize until too late that we are in over our heads by the lures of this temporary world, and yet, for now, swimming to God’s shore seems too easy.

We in this country fail, in epic proportions, to avoid wrangling over words,

especially in the midst of political or human divisions, attempting to out shout and out insult one another on social media, however muted or even anonymous we feel behind the computer or phone screen. We also fail to understand the reality that such arguing changes no minds, causes one’s own trenches to become deeper, and only ruins those who are listening [2 Timothy 14] as well as the one wrangling. But, of course, who of us will listen to the arguments of anyone we have already decided is wrong? Are we all ruined and in exile from one another and from God? The Letter to Timothy brings our focus back to do our best to present ourselves to God in all that we are, say, and do.

In the Gospel reading, 10 lepers who begged Jesus for healing were told to present themselves to the priest. After they did and realized they were all healed, they all went on their merry ways ~ except this foreigner. Only 1 out of 10, the Samaritan foreigner, turned back, in faith, to thank Jesus. How often do I forget to give thanks ~ true, sincere thanks for spiritual and other healing gifts to my soul?

For me, the readings this week seem to particularly mirror where I see my own conscious and unconscious behaviors and responses to upsets in my body, mind, and/or spirit. I am all-too-often in self-imposed exile from God. I do my own wrangling over words and thoughts, ignoring the wonders of Creation around me, complaining to myself about all the injuries from others (real and imagined), and celebrating only myself when wellness or some other good fortune occurs. Time to get out the NO WHINING banner, return from the exile I chose to choose again to be in the faith-filled life where I am planted, remembering why and for Whom I was created. Remembering that in the exercise of the faith I claim, I don’t need to be a mighty warrior saving the world, nor a self-absorbed couch potato drowning in hollow entertainment. Now is the time to realize that I don’t require my faith to be too difficult to acknowledge, to live in, or for me to be grateful. It is past time for my faith to be conscious again and to present myself to God in Christ, each day, directly, and through all that I think, do, and say. Now and always it is time for me to remember to whom I am faithful so as to be one who immediately turns to Christ in thanksgiving for all things great and small.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ Eternal God, shine again in the darkness that covers us in times of hardship and when we distance ourselves from You. Restore our conscious faith, that we may always give You thanks for healing us, in ways known and unknown, as we walk each day toward our salvation in Christ.

Gracious, Compassionate Lord

RESPONSE: We return to You with thanks and praise

~ Eternal God, open the eyes of the souls in all who hold political authority on and over the land and sea and in the air across your diverse Creation. Guide them to see you in every human face, every grain of sand, every field and star and ocean, and especially in themselves. Fill them with the desire to govern in all good faith, justly, and humbly. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

Gracious, Compassionate Lord