Tonight I lost my heart's whole sense of you – 

I could not find you any way I turned. 

Even your swift impetuous words that burned 

into my mind were cold and palely blue

 

with the small death that any frail words meet 

within a moment too profound for them. 

The dusk was velvet, bending on a stem 

like a crushed flower soft and April-sweet. 

 

When suddenly, out where half-lights edge grey air, 

a kildeer lifted from a glassy pond, 

seeking the shadows of the field beyond, 

flying and crying with a wild despair. 

 

I lost you then. My thoughts like a kildeers flew 

over a bright pond where day was dying; 

the dusk held nothing save their lonely crying, 

and nothing mattered – neither love nor you.

 

 

 

When in the spring the flowers are blooming bright and fair,

After the gray of winter's gone;

Once again the lark begins its tuning

Back in the meadows of my home.

 

Lord, to my heart bring back the springtime,

Take away the cold and dark of sin;

Oh, refill me now, sweet Holy Spirit,

May I warm and tender be again.

 

Lord, make me like that stream that flows so cool and clear

Down from the mountains high above;

I will tell the world the wondrous story

Of the precious stream filled with your love.

 

Lord, to my heart bring back the springtime,

Take away the cold and dark of sin;

Oh, refill me now, sweet Holy Spirit,

May I warm and tender be again.

 

 

I cannot fail in this regard to remind the Catholic faithful of the motivations born of their faith. I encourage my brothers and sisters of other religions to do the same, since we know that authentic faith not only gives strength to the human heart, but also transforms life, transfigures our goals and sheds light on our relationship to others and with creation as a whole.

 

The Bible tells us: “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good” ( Gen 1:31). His is “the earth with all that is in it” ( Deut 10:14). For this reason, he tells us that, “the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants” ( Lev 25:23). Hence, “responsibility for God’s earth means that human beings, endowed with intelligence, must respect the laws of nature and the delicate equilibria existing between the creatures of this world”.(LD 61-62)

 

 

God of all feathered beings, 

Thank you for birds. 

Thank you for their early morning songs. 

I, too, lift a song to heaven when morning breaks. 

This song of praise. 

For redwing blackbirds. 

For robins bathing outside the window. 

For peacocks and cassowarys 

For the ostrich and the egret 

For the loon and the petrel 

For the pelican and seagull. 

 

Have You not gathered us the way a mother hen gathers her chicks? 

I pray for chickens who can't gather their chicks. 

Who live in cages the size of an innocent man's cell. 

Great God, the largest space they will know is the oven. 

How can we treat Your feathered world so cruelly? 

And Great God, how can baby chicks be thrown away? 

 

The morning song of a bird announces a newly dawning day, fresh, with new life. 

Great God, give us fresh spirits. 

Can we gather the baby chicks under our wings as we celebrate
Your creation? 

Your feathered beings, 

The woodpecker and the heron and the pigeon 

And yes, the chicken. 

 

God, You know my imperfections. 

I ignore the baby chick within. 

All that is fresh and new, and desires growth, 

Sometimes I ignore it or fight it. 

I am sometimes too fragile to allow the new within to survive. 

Create within me the ability to greet each day like Your birds. 

And to care for animals as You would, God, 

You who would gather us all within 

Your outstretched 

wings.   – Carol Adams