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New every morning is your love, great God of light, and all day long you are working for good in the world. Stir up in us desire to serve you, to live peacefully with our neighbors and all your creation, and to devote each day to your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

"A Liturgy for Morning Prayer," Upper Room Worshipbook

Used by permission from the Book of Common Worship, © 2018 Westminster John Knox Press. All rights reserved. This prayer appears in “A Liturgy for Morning Prayer” in Upper Room Worshipbook.

 

Today’s Reflection

Note: This week’s New Every Morning is structured differently to follow the format of our featured title, Rally: Communal Prayers for Lovers of Jesus and Justice, which addresses issues of social justice through a compilation of reflections and call-and-response prayers known as litanies.

I’ve never been a very good gardener. In all my efforts to have a beautiful, full garden, I often end up with half a crop at best. Some vegetables never see the surface. In other words, I’m still learning. But while gardening requires research and work, it’s also a deeply spiritual practice. It requires a gentle spirit, conversations with dirt and seedlings, and a lot of prayer. When my two children sing to our seeds, the ones that are deep in the dirt waiting to be born, they are learning that the Earth listens. She listens and she speaks. She tells stories. She fosters life again and again for us, and we are stewards of that life, lives that belong to the goodness of God.

—Kaitlin Curtice, “Stewards of Our Home: A Litany for Our Interdependent Relationship with All of Creation,” Rally: Communal Prayers for Lovers of Jesus and Justice, edited and compiled by Britney Winn Lee (Fresh Air Books, 2020)

Today’s Question

What does creation teach you about God? Join the conversation.

Today’s Scripture

For as the earth brings forth its shoots,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise
to spring up before all the nations.
—Isaiah 61:11 (NRSV)

Today’s Litany

ONE: We acknowledge the indigenous peoples who have always cared for the land. We acknowledge that we must learn from them, honor their stories, and pay attention to a deeper kind of relationship. May we dig deeper.

ALL: Because we are dust to dust.

ONE: We hope for a future in which we are hospitable because the Earth is hospitable. We long for a future in which our relationship is born out of constant connectedness, so that when we care for one another, we are caring for her. May hospitality be our future.

ALL: Because we are dust to dust and the Earth has always taken care of us.
Because we are dust to dust, we will recognize our place in this world.
Because we are dust to dust, we will choose, every day, to remember.
Amen.

—Kaitlin Curtice, “Stewards of Our Home: A Litany for Our Interdependent Relationship with All of Creation”
Submit your prayer to The Upper Room.

Something More

The final litany from Rally was written by Britney Winn Lee in the beginning days of the global pandemic. This prayer reminds us that hope endures; goodness prevails; people surprise us; and love cannot, has not, will not fail. Watch and listen.

Lectionary Readings

(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

Transfiguration Sunday

Looking for lectionary-based resources? Learn more about The Upper Room Disciplines.

2 Comments

  • robert moeller Posted February 26, 2022 6:41 am

    Without God there is no creation. We are given that e ability to create some things, art, music,buildings , but not life, We reproduce. We plant the seed. We don’t have the ability to determine any aspects of what we hope for. What happens is very much beyond our control. It is a great mystery. What we do when the child is born can be good or bad, just as our relationship with God is also left to us. We can turn to God or reject God.
    -8 here and sunny, think we have 8” of new snow. A busy morning with the annual condo association meeting.

  • Ally Posted February 26, 2022 7:01 pm

    God is beauty. Our creation and the ways God made His children creative reflect God’s beauty and creativity. The beauty of God’s world increases and beautifies my faith and sometimes helps me believe when I doubt.
    Robert, stay warm as you can. Praying for Julie and that we hear from her soon. Prayers for Jill, little Roger, and Larry’s trip home. prayers for Lou and her family. Praying for the people of Ukraine and the courageous in Russia who have protested their leader’s actions. God, protect them. I’ve to all.

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