November 2023
Dear Church Family,
We have reached the time of year when our earth grows quiet. I have noticed that many garden stores where we purchased our summer flowers are now closed for the season.
It is the time of year when our earth begins to rest.
The busyness of the spring planting, the summer growth
and the fall harvesting are now past.
We are surrounded by gentle beauty at this time of the year,
the leaves turning orange and red, and falling softly to the ground. The geese flying south, and the small animals getting ready for the winter months which lie ahead.
We are not to be hurried or rushed at this time of year.
It is a time to breathe in the cool air of fall, and to quietly
give thanks for the gifts of this season.
We may be enjoying being outside in our garden, cleaning it up for the winter, raking leaves, and cutting back the older flowers which gave us so much pleasure in the summer.
We may be remembering the beauty of the spring flowers, and we may be planting some spring bulbs which promise to be lovely when the warm weather returns.
Or we may simply be sitting upon a park bench watching children playing in the sunshine with their friends.
As we enjoy this season, let us be reminded of the abundant blessings of creation.
Here is a prayer for this season.
The World Needs a Healing Spirit.
Holy One, Child of Life, Spirit of Creation,
our hearts travel across the land, reaching out to meet you in prayer. In your presence we find mothers with empty cradleboards whose children were taken away to residential schools or to be placed in foster care.
We find people crouched in bombed-out basements in Ukraine.
We find the stumps of old growth forests and the underground roots of young trees.
We find your church: generations of people, praying, loving, longing for peace and justice, doing our very best to serve you. We meet in spirit with survivors, soldiers and refugees, leaders and people of the land, grandparents and children.
By your grace may our prayers be a healing spirit, resting and soothing in ways we will never know but in ways we trust to your mercy. Amen.
Wendy Maclean, Brockville Ontario.
Gathering Pentecost 2 2023 The United Church of Canada
Blessings and Peace. Reverend Kathleen Mowat
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