Rebecca: George,
do you know what I think, do you? I think maybe the moon’s getting nearer and
nearer and there’ll be a big ‘splosion.
George: Rebecca,
you don’t know anything. If the moon were getting nearer, it’d be in all the
newspapers.
Rebecca: George,
is the moon shining on
George: Well – prob’ly is.
Rebecca: I
never told you about that letter Jane Crofut got from her minister when she was
sick. He wrote Jane a letter and on the envelope the address was like this: It
said:
Jane
Crofut . . .The Crofut Farm . . .Grover’s Corners . . .
George: What’s funny about that?
Rebecca: But
listen, it’s not finished: . . .The
George: What do you know!
Rebecca: And the postman brought it just the same.
George: What do you know! from Thornton Wilder’s Our Town
“Adorote Devote”
(Birth)
Imagine Nothing. Not space.
Not darkness. Not even a vast emptiness.
But Nothing….. Now imagine Everything.
“Galactic Music”…….
(Galaxies)
In a stupendous explosion of
light, heat and energy the universe erupted into existence 13.7 billion years
ago. Everything that ever was, is, or will be, was compressed into a single
point.
This massive fireball
continued expanding, eventually cooling enough for the very first atoms to
form. If the expansion had been altered just one-millionth of one percent, the
entire universe would have collapsed. This suggests a profound wisdom at work
in the universe.
Then…. a hundred billion
galaxies swirled into being.
And God said, “This is very good.”
And God said, “This is very good.”
Praise God in the highest
heavens;
praise him beyond the stars.
Praise him, you bodhisattvas,
you angels burning with his love.
Praise him in the depths of
matter;
praise him in atomic space.
Praise him, you whirling
electrons,
you unimaginable quarks.,
Praise him in lifeless
galaxies;
praise him from the pit of black holes.
Praise him, creatures on all
planets,
inconceivable forms of life.
Let them all praise the
Unnamable God!
Psalm 148
“God Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens”
Each galaxy gave birth to a
hundred billion stars which erupted in cosmic explosions…. … supernovas! Their
sacrificial death gave birth to billions of new stars, one of which was the
star we call our sun.
And God said, “This is very good.”
And God said, “This is very good.”
I have been in love more
times than one,
thank the Lord. Sometimes it
was lasting.
Sometimes it was all but
ephemeral, maybe only
an afternoon. And, oh, have I
mentioned
that some of them were men
and some were women
and some were trees. Or
places. Or music.
Or clouds, or the sun
which was the first, and the
best, the most
loyal for certain, who looked
so faithfully into
my eyes, every morning. Such hunger
to give of itself – I imagine
this is how it all began.
Mary Oliver
“This Land of Bursting
(Solar System)
After the formation of the
sun, a wisp of debris swirled itself into a necklace of nine spinning planets,
the jewel of which was the swirling mass of molten lava that was to become our
own …our own…the earth.
“Blue Boat Home”
(inst)
(Earth..water and plant life)
This tiny planet suspended in
delicate balance began to clothe herself in beauty and elegance and wonder. It
was the birth of life!
“God so loved the world”
“God so loved the world”
Have you ever tried to enter
the long black branches
of other lives –
tried to imagine what the
crisp fringes, full of honey,
hanging
from the branches of the
young locust trees, in early summer,
feel like?
Do you think this world is
only an entertainment for you?
Never to enter the sea and
notice how the water divides
with perfect courtesy, to let you in!
Never to lie down on the
grass, as though you were the grass!
Well, there is time left –
fields everywhere invite you
into them.
Mary
Oliver
“Blue Boat Home”
( Animal Life)
For millions of years every
morning on earth has dawned on a world of greater biological diversity than the
day before. In our endless journey around the sun, our sweet and generous earth
has brought forth an ever-increasing expression of complexity and sophistication.
Look!
Look at anything – a duck’s
foot, a banana,
a horse’s muzzle, the human
ear –
and see that God will create
anything.
He’ll stop at nothing.
If we judged nature by common
sense,
we wouldn’t believe the world
existed.
Nothing could be so
far-fetched as a single giraffe.
Life is meticulously created,
abundantly, extravagantly,
and with elegance by a power
that is
unfathomably secret, and
holy, and fleet.
God creates with wild
exuberance,
with inexhaustible energy.
And the Creator loves
pizzazz!!
Annie Dillard
“Lamanja”
(Human Beings)
Right into the heart of its
immense celebration the universe produced its next surprise, a being who arose out of the earth itself and
possessed the remarkable ability to reflect on its own existence. We are the
universe in human form.
“We are earth become conscious.”
“We are earth become conscious.”
I Think God might be a little prejudiced.
For once He asked me to join
Him on a walk
Through this world.
And we gazed into every heart
on this earth,
And I notice he lingered a bit longer
Before any face that was
Weeping,
And before any eyes that were
Laughing
And sometimes when we passed
A soul in worship
God too would kneel
Down.
I have come to learn: God
Adores His Creation.
St
Francis of
“Inst solo” (pictures of
human beings)
(music under)
The country of the
mockingbird is where I now want to be,
“Thank you.”
“Yes.”
The days when the snow-white
swans might pass over the dunes
are the days I want to eat
now, slowly and carefully
and with gratitude.
“Thank you”
“Yes.”
The hours fresh and tidal are
the hours I want to hold
in the palm of my hand
“Thank you”
“Yes.”
“Such grace.”
“Thank you!”
The gate I want to open now
is the one that leads into
the flower-bed of my mind,
“Thank you”
“Yes.”
“Thank you, yes”
(choir)
Every day the slow, fresh
wind,
“Thank you”
“Yes.”
“Thank you, yes.”
(choir..build)
The wing, in the dark, that
touches me.
“Thank you, yes!” (all readers)
“Thank you, yes!” (choir..build)
“Thank you, yes!” (people join!)
Mary Oliver
Gospel Response:
“Open the Eyes of My Heart”
Will you teach your children
what we have taught our children?
That the earth is our Mother?
What befalls the earth –
befalls all the children of the earth.
This we know, the earth does
not belong to humans.
Humans belong to the earth.
All things are connected like
the blood that unites us all.
We did not weave the web of
life, we are merely a strand in it.
Whatever we do to the web –
we do to ourselves.
Chief Seattle
“Blue Green Hills of Earth”