Do not conform to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is
—his good, pleasing and perfect will. — Romans 12:2
O Lord, renew our minds and with that clarity set us toward your perfect will.
The news cycle of manmade events is of this world. War’s horror and calamity seems omnipresent and worsening. We hear the alarming news that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has sent troops to Russia. These patterns are old ways of being. At the same time, we receive mundane news in the form of magazine inserts with advertisements for the holidays weeks and months away. We are pressed to focus on Cyber Days and Black Fridays. Forgive us our attachment to things and ways of being, the pattern of this world that harms and hurts, that destroys and annihilates, that deadens the mind, bringing misery and despair. God, help us to discern, to wake up and to seek your will.
Help us to know your perfect and pleasing way. We find it so easy to distance ourselves from one another, from the land, the waters once abundant, pure and nourishing … from the natural cycle of life. During this week’s prayers a full moon shines and is now waning. The Algonquin and Cree tribes call it the Travel Moon. Animals migrate and the geese overhead know the season and do not seem to rush. Also known as the Dying Grass, Sanguine, and Blood Moon, this is the time when native peoples acknowledge the fields as they are cleared for animals to glean and be hunted.
We raise the peoples of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela as the dry season is finishing but a second year of record drought continues with smoke and fires, stranded boats, fish dwindling, and hydroelectric dams severely impacted.
We are thankful for the work in California, USA where the No Net Loss of Wetlands bill has been passed, safeguarding ecosystems for millions of birds, critical watersheds, and shorelines that call for the continued involvement of community stakeholders across borders and homelands.
Sukkoth, a 7-day holiday celebrated this week in the Hebrew month of Tishrei honors the gathering in and sheltering in the temporary huts that were the Israelites homes during the forty years of wandering in the wilderness.
We are tested and asked to discern as the news this week calls us to bear witness. We read and see images from central Gaza, Palestine of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital parking lot in flames. A strike from Israel has caused the burning of huts and tents once sheltering displaced civilians. We mourn for the dead; a youth whose dreams to be a doctor were snuffed out. Entire lineages of families are no longer. Lord have mercy. Transform our hearts.
We mourn as the Hariri hospital, Beirut’s main government hospital in Lebanon reports the rising death toll from four to thirteen killed and 57 injured from an airstrike out of Israel meant for a Hezbollah target. Christ have mercy.
We pray for the people of Cuba as they endure a second national power outage in one week due to Hurricane Oscar on their eastern shore. Sustain them through the disaster, and fortify the hospitals and injured and those who give all manner of care. We pray for those impacted by hurricanes Helene and Milton as the long recovery phase of cleanup and reconstruction and the accounting of the losses may exhaust and drain. Keep disaster relief in our minds, renew our benevolent nature.
We hear that Masih Alinejad, a human-rights activist speaking out against Iran’s repression of women, was saved from assassination. Members of an Eastern European criminal organization with ties to Iran have been charged. We pray for and raise up those voices calling for justice. Renew our courage to speak out.
We rest in your creation. The pattern of the seasons endures. This is the Dakota nation’s Drying Rice Moon to prepare for winter. Also, it is the Falling Leaves Moon of the Anishinaabe tribe, the Freezing Moon time of the Ojibwe, and the Haida’s Ice Moon referring to the increasingly cold temperatures.
As we set these prayers before you Creator. Clear our minds. Help us to see a way past the fog of war. Renew our ability to take action in the midst of the smoke and ash of climate disruption. Your Good News from Paul to the Romans is our transforming good news today two thousand years later. May we be eager and joyous in refreshed minds. May we discern with compassionate hearts what renews and restores. Give us eyes to see the pattern of this world. Strengthen our faith as Paul enjoins us to: “… be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Amen.
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