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Day 31 (October 1)

Psalm 98(97):5-9

Sing psalms to the Lord with the harp

with the sound of music.

With trumpets and the sound of the horn

acclaim the King, the Lord.

Let the sea and all within it, thunder;

the world, and all its peoples.

Let the rivers clap their hands

and the hills ring out their joy

at the presence of the Lord: for he comes,

he comes to rule the earth.

He will rule the world with justice

and the peoples with fairness.

A Psalm (Thomas Merton)

When psalms surprise me with their music
And antiphons turn to rum
The Spirit sings: the bottom drops out of my soul.

And from the center of my cellar, Love, louder than thunder
Opens a heaven of naked air.

New eyes awaken.
I send Love's name into the world with wings
And songs grow up around me like a jungle.
Choirs of all creatures sing the tunes
Your Spirit played in Eden.
Zebras and antelopes and birds of paradise
Shine on the face of the abyss
And I am drunk with the great wilderness
Of the sixth day in Genesis.

But sound is never half so fair
As when that music turns to air
And the universe dies of excellence.

Sun, moon and stars
Fall from their heavenly towers.
Joys walk no longer down the blue world's shore.

Though fires loiter, lights still fly on the air of the gulf,
All fear another wind, another thunder:
Then one more voice
Snuffs all their flares in one gust.

And I go forth with no more wine and no more stars
And no more buds and no more Eden
And no more animals and no more sea:

While God sings by himself in acres of night
And walls fall down, that guarded Paradise.

Musical Selection (John Michael Talbot)

He who created

The Pleiades and Orion

Turning darkness into the light of the dawn

And darkens day into the night

Who calls from the waters

Renews the world in the falling rain

And who strides the height of creation

He is the Lord the God of Hosts by name

He formed the mountains

And created the wind

And through His Spirit

Declares His thoughts to men

He formed the mountains

And created the wind

And through His Spirit

Declares His thoughts to men

He who created

The Pleiades and Orion

And who strides the height of creation

He is the Lord the God of Hosts by name

Meditation

God has united us to all his creatures. Nonetheless, the technocratic paradigm can isolate us from the world that surrounds us and deceive us by making us forget that the entire world is a “contact zone”.

The Judaeo-Christian vision of the cosmos defends the unique and central value of the human being amid the marvellous concert of all God’s creatures, but today we see ourselves forced to realize that it is only possible to sustain a “situated anthropocentrism”. To recognize, in other words, that human life is incomprehensible and unsustainable without other creatures. For “as part of the universe… all of us are linked by unseen bonds and together form a kind of universal family, a sublime communion which fills us with a sacred, affectionate and humble respect”. (LD 66-67)

Prayer

Loving Father and Creator of all, we come to you today deeply grateful for your creation.

As we look around us we are amazed at the greatness and majesty of all that you have made.

Nature around us speaks of your greatness—the vast expanse of the sky, the mountains, trees, lakes, and streams speak of your great design.

You have given us such beauty in the colors of the rainbow, the beauty of flowers and fields.

Words cannot adequately express the magnificence of all you have created.

We join in praise with the writer of the psalms when he says, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the Earth.”

May we show our love and reverence to you, our Lord, by caring for all that you have created.

We humbly give you praise and thanks. Amen. — Finding Solace

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