Call to Worship (in the words of Hildegard of Bingen, in Scivias, The Way of Knowing)
I, the firey life of divine essence,
Am aflame beyond the beauty of the meadows.
I gleam in the waters.
I burn in the sun, moon, and the stars.
With every breeze,
As with invisible light that contains everything,
I awaken everything to life . .
I am the breeze that nurtures all things green.
I encourage blossoms to flourish with ripening fruits.
I am rain coming from the dew that
Causes the grasses to grow with the joys of life.
We come to worship the Holy One
God who is I will be, who I will be,
the name that
Is aflame beyond our naming
Beckoning us into life. CES
Prayer of Approach (unison)
Every day, every passing second
Your grace, like water,
Is on the move
Bringing new life,
Baptizing your creation
Immersed in your Spirit,
May we move within the cycle of your love,
Giving our lives, like water
To those who thirst.
Listen to music for the sung response for the Prayers of the People here
Prayers of the People
Holy One
Creator
Shaper and namer of life,
from dust and breath,
from air and water and the divine desire,
solitary or in community we sing:
Sung response:
I have called you by your name, it is mine
I have gifted you and cause you now to shine
I will not abandon you, all my promises are true
You are gifted called and chosen you are mine. More Voices 161
When we look to your creation
the parts of its whole
the mist over the marsh
the turning of leaves
and the wild, sweet rising of the birds,
But also, the melting ice cap
the gutted landscape of mines
and the slick of oil on the waters
When we look to creation
We know our need to rename
forgetting that you have called us all beloved.
And we sing:
I have called you . . .
When we look to one another,
those beside us
those at home. at school and at work
Those in print and those between the lines
Those severed from habitable homeplaces
Those we are named by and whom we are called to name
with the echo of your naming, beloved
When we need courage and compassion we remember and we sing
then we sing: I have called you by your name . . .
We hold now aloud or in silence those who are nameless to us
and those whose names are known
We hold silently those who are in our own hearts in a particular way
Here you may pray aloud those concerns that are present in the world at this moment and then . .
And then we sing.
I have called you by your name . . .
We give thanks that you have named your whole creation good
and we pray to live within it, remembering that name.
