October Twenty-Twenty-One

 

October invites us into the present moment. Don’t hurry through nature’s most glorious sermon. Know that change will come - the turning toward the winter of things. The seasons are the earth’s liturgy of life and death, and October is that liturgy’s thanksgiving of abundance, of harvest, of slanted light. Of coming to rest in the grace of change. -Diana Butler Bass 

blessed are we, remembering that the world is not ours to shoulder alone.

help us put one foot in front of the other

as best we can.

God, today, give us strength to go on,
give us hope to see a future,
give us joy to make it not simply bearable…
but beautiful. -Kate Bowler 

O Extravagant God, in this ripening, red-tinged autumn, waken in me a sense of joy in just being alive, joy for nothing in general except everything in particular; joy in sun and rain mating with earth to birth a harvest; joy in soft light through shyly disrobing trees; joy in the acolyte moonsetting halos around processing clouds; joy in the beating of a thousand wings mysteriously knowing which way is warm; joy in wagging tails and kids' smiles and in this spunky old city; joy in the taste of bread and wine, the smell of dawn, a touch, a song, a presence; joy in having what I cannot live without- other people to hold and cry and laugh with; joy in love, in you; and that all at first and last is grace. -Ted Loder, Guerillas of Grace  

Eternal one- Silence from whom my words come. Questioner- From whom my questions arise; Lover- of whom all my loves are hints; Disturber- In whom alone I find my rest; Mystery, in whose depths I find healing and myself; Enfold me now in your presence; Restore me to your peace; Renew me through your power; And ground me in your grace.  -Ted Loder, Guerillas of Grace