with a bow to Br. Coyote, OEF
The Holy One for Blessing spoke
and gathered the dust from the Big Bang into
the most fabulous life form – Earth.
Earth was spoken into being:
Sister Water, Brother Air, Sibling Rock and Blazing Fire
shaped by the Voice into
rivers, plains, tundra, oceans, and highlands.
The Voice gives us
first single cells, viruses, and chains of DNA
and then it explodes into rats and cats, snakes and caterpillars
leaves, roots, seeds, and blossoms.
All the beings are intertwined into a fabric
ever changing, ever more beautiful
Each birth, flourish, fade, and decay
transformed into a yet more complex and fascinating
thread in the fabric.
The spinning, gathering of primordial dust – Earth.
How can we celebrate the wonder of the Creation –
seeds and honey, flight and burrow, chlorophyll and immunity?
Humans must and do dance, worship, praise
the Holy One who gives
the wondrous gift of
Earth.
Humans see the development, the complexity, the weave of the fabric and
weep in praise of the beauty.
For fifty years, some humans – many humans – have
marked, marched, rhymed, and reentered
the wonder of Mother Earth
And remembered the Holy one who have given us
dominion to see, celebrate, and care for
all that Earth is.
We are odd, undependable stewards
of this extraordinary blessing –
Earth our island home.
Among us are the powerful and indifferent
the marginalized, despised and struggling.
Some of us are entranced by a patriarchal, White-supremist domination.
We have forgotten that we are just part of a wondrous whole
and have become a dysfunction, a plague
that threatens the human community and the splendid fabric of Mother Earth.
Humans of darker colors, of different genders, with different talents
are harnessed to feed the trance.
Whales and rhinoceri and plants of many kinds are simply allowed to disappear.
The trance turns into a horror.
Today, as Franciscans, we affirm all the life of our planet.
We recall ourselves to give thanks for Earth
and we recommit ourselves
to care about and care for all that is Earth.
To care for the compost, source of new life.
To limit our burning of past life in automobiles and power plants.
To be intentional about our consuming of the bounty and
Not to destroy the boreal or rain forest.
To plant as many trees as we cut.
To not churn our forgotten consumption into the thriving community of the salty seas.
To inhale the breath that enlivens us, but not endless CO2 and toxic chemicals
To speak truth to power and to put ourselves on the line for our mother –
Earth.
May we stand up, turn up, speak up
to resist and dismantle the human creations that poison and pervert
the beauty and wonder of Earth’s ever-renewing multitude.
Earth Day
A day of praise and dance and wonder and blessings
A day challenging us to courage, creativity, resistance, recovery, and truth-telling.
May all humans – especially humans of wealth and power –
Shift our purpose to
Love and care and returning to being part of Mother Earth and her ways.
The Order of Ecumenical Franciscans, through its Council
announces, declares, engages in and meditates upon
Earth
And we recommit our deepest beings to stand up for and embrace Earth on this day!!
April 22, 2020
