Your creation is groaning, Living and Loving God.
Your creation is groaning as your created ones continue to live in ways that damage the natural world and one another.
Your creation is groaning, and so we turn to you with our cries of pain, certain we will be heard.
- We cry out today for the 30 migrants feared dead in the deadly Western Africa-Atlantic migration route off the Canary Islands as your children continue to flee war, hardship, and violence.
- We cry out for the frustration of the rescue teams attempting to reach the missing Titan submersible off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
- We cry out for the pain, sorrow, and fear of the 37 people injured in a large explosion in central Paris, France.
- We cry out for the more than 40 people, mostly students, who died in an attack on a secondary school in Uganda, with 6 students believed abducted.
Your creation is groaning, Holy One, as we, the created ones, continue to neglect our responsibility for stewarding this amazing and beautiful planet.
- We cry out today for the people of South Africa, where power shortages are resulting in a lack of clean, safe water.
- We cry out for the hundreds of sea lions and dolphins being killed by toxic algae along the coast of southern California.
- We cry out for the people of Beijing, China, which has recorded the hottest June in 60 years.
- We cry out for the people of Texas, USA, where – during a record-breaking heat wave – a deadly tornado has killed 4 and injured 10.
Your creation is groaning, Beloved Creator, and yet even in the midst of our failures and failings, there are the gifts of good news.
- We rejoice in Swiss voters backing a new climate bill designed to cut fossil fuel use, even as glaciers melt.
- We rejoice in new life in unexpected places as a mother gives birth on board an express train in Kenya, aided by a doctor and nurse who were also onboard.
- We rejoice in the courage and commitment of the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, as she is leading the global fight to reform the international financial system in order to give poorer nations access to monies to combat climate change.
Lift us up in our pain and failure, Divine Love, and fill us with the strength and determination to do what needs to be done to bring healing and hope to this world you have created and placed in our care.
Lift us up, and fill us with an ongoing awareness that we have been called to be co-creators with you rather than agents of violence and destruction.
Lift us up, even as your heart may be breaking over the ways in which your children continue to live.
Lift us up…ever and ever.
Amen
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