Thursday, September 4, 2009

Today's artwork is a Celtic mandala

This week's opening and closing prayers are from Sounds of the Eternal: A Celtic Psalter by J. Philip Newell

Opening Prayer

With you is the source of life, O God.

You are the beginning of all that is.

From your life the fire of the rising sun streams forth.

You are the life-flow of creation's rivers,

the sap of blood in our veins,

earth's fecundity,

the fruiting of the trees,

creatures' birthing,

the conception of new thought,

desire's origin.

All these are of you, O God,

and I am of you.

You are the morning's freshness.

A Reading from Romans 2:1-11

Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. You say, “We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.” Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. For he will repay according to each one’s deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.

Closing Prayer
In the gift of this new day,
in the gift of the present moment,
in the gift of time and eternity intertwined
let me be thankful
let me be attentive
let me be opened to what has never happened before,
in the gift of this new day,
in the gift of the present moment,
in the gift of time and eternity intertwined.