What's in a name?

On the way home from church, a mom asks her first-grader, “How was Sunday school today?” 
Her first grader responded, “Great, we learned God’s name.” 
“They taught you God’s name? What is it?” 
Her son replied, “Howard.” 
“Really,” said mom, “How do you know that?” 
He answered, “Well we all said a prayer to him and it said……. Our father, who art in heaven, Howard be thy name.”

God’s name.
We have all been taught and learned on our own, much about God. Certainly by the time you are in grade school, if you were raised in an active Christian home, you would have learned the basics of our faith and the way to pray. Speaking the name of God, which is not Howard, and invoking the titles of Jesus, would have been among the first lessons. As you grew, it was most likely assumed that you not only knew the names and titles of God, but also what they mean. This is incredibly important because knowing these things dramatically informs prayer. 

Most often in the New Testament, the Greek descriptive title theos, meaning “God,” is used to refer to the Father. Theos is the Greek translation of the Hebrew elohim, which is a general term meaning "deity" or "gods." In both the New and Old testament the Hebrew and Greek words, commonly used otherwise, were appropriated by Hebrews and Christians and capitalized to address only the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. The actual name of God, found in the Book of Exodus, was revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai:
Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.  (3:13-15)
 
Now, the journey to Yahweh, God’s name as we know it, is a bit complicated, but in a nutshell:

"Yahweh" is considered to be the pronunciation of the Hebrew name "YHWH" (written with the letters Yod, Heh, Waw, and Heh), which is derived from the Hebrew word "Ehyeh" (meaning "I am") found in Exodus 3:14, where God reveals himself to Moses as "Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh" (meaning "I am who I am") - essentially, the name "Yahweh" is understood as a verbal form of "to be" based on the root of "Ehyeh". (Center for Hebraic Thought)

Since it was determined that the name of God was too sacred to speak, Elohim (pronounced Eloheem) with a capitol “E” was most, but not exclusively, used.

Elohim then, translated as Theos, was also used nine times in the New Testament to refer to Jesus. John’s Gospel begins with this very term:
 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God (Theos), and the Word was God (Theos)."

"In the beginning was the Word”

Davar is Hebrew for word. Davar was used generically in the Old Testament as it referred to a statement or a thing, but it was also used specifically in relation to God. The Word (Davar) of God was often personified as an instrument for the execution of God’s will. Psalm 33:1 accounts, “By the word (Davar) of the Lord the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their lights.”  When Davar was used in this way, the Jewish people would understand that the action of God was synonymous with God’s self. 

Davar is translated as Logos in the Greek. In Greek philosophy, the term Logos was used to describe the intermediate agency by which God created material things and communicated with them. In the Greek world view, the Logos was thought of as a bridge between the transcendent God and the material universe. Greek’s would understand the term Logos as the mediating principle between God and the world.

Through the revelation of the Word, John (and others) spoke of Jesus as the Davar, Logos, Word, by combining and superseding the religious and philosophical principles of both the Hebrew’s and the Greek’s. Jesus himself invited His followers to exercise their faith-filled imagination having been exposed to His divine transcendence. More than the personification of God’s revelation or the mediating principle, Jesus was the perfect revelation of God’s self in the flesh. He was both the Theos and the Logos, as he clarified for Phillip: “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, "Show us the Father"?'"  (John 14:9)

To deepen our prayer life and grow closer to God, next week we will define Emmanuel, El-Shaddai, Adonai, Abba and a few others.  

In Jesus’ Holy Name,
Fr. Bill+



​

Happy New Year!

Dear Creator Family,

As I think about the coming New Year, I trace the line of my life through the past one. It surprised me, as I sat thinking about this, that my line waivered so and in some places disappeared. Well, it didn’t really disappear, rather it is in those places that I have obscured it to myself because I don’t want to see.
I know, from the many conversations I have had in my lifetime, that many people, Christians among them, simply don’t believe in Adam and Eve, the apple and the whole “garden thing.” But obscuring the Creation story gives us license to ignore the details, and ignoring the details sets us free in blissful ignorance. So many changes flowed from that first bite, in that first moment. Changes we read about in Holy Scripture and know about deep in our being, were set in motion as ripples in the flow of time and heartbeats in the span of a life.
As people of faith, we do not run from such things. Knowing that Jesus paid our debt and that the Holy Spirit dwells in us, we are already free to be hands and feet of Christ in the world. We are called by that shinning light on the hill, led by hope and bolstered by divine love.
I have often said that we, human beings, need an excuse to act, to grow, and to change. What better excuse do we have than the turn of the year? Metaphorically, the new year is the harbinger of reform or repose. Rationally, it is an empty bucket to which we can add our individuality.
I offer you, my Creator Family, the following prayers and reflection, with hope and love. May these words inspire and enfold you. May they lift you to resolve and open you to self-emptying. I pray for you all that these words utter and more; the presence of God made manifest in your spirit and soul.  
​
Prayerfully,

Fr. Bill†

 I am the New Year.
I am the New Year. I am an unspoiled page in your book of time.
I am your next chance at the art of living.
I am your opportunity to practice what you have learned about life during the last twelve months.
All that you sought and didn't find is hidden in me, waiting for you to search it again but with more determination.
All the good that you tried for and didn't achieve is mine to grant when you have fewer conflicting desires.
All that you dreamed but didn't dare to do, all that you hoped but did not will, all the faith that you claimed but did not have-these slumber lightly, waiting to be awakened by the touch of a strong purpose.
I am your opportunity to renew your allegiance to Him who said, "Behold, I make all things new."
- Author Unknown
Pondering in Our Hearts - A Christian Reflection
Early on in his Gospel, Luke twice mentions Mary doing something extraordinary, namely, pondering something "in her heart." The first occasion is after the departure of the shepherds at the Nativity; the second is when she and Joseph discover the child Jesus speaking with the Temple elders. Luke's phrase is telling. For Mary to "ponder" something "in her heart," is not simply for her to remember the details or get her facts straight. Rather, it seems more a way to take in something in its totality and to let it sink down deep, into the heart, the place where it can change you.
Were we to be like Mary, how might we ponder in our hearts what we ourselves have seen and heard this past Christmas season so that, before it closes, we might learn something more from it than we did the first time through? Something which might just sink down deep and somehow change us.

Perhaps these questions might be of some help.
What was the best, the greatest, gift you received this year - not the brightest gift or the shiniest or the fastest or the most expensive gift, but the best gift, the greatest gift? Who gave it to you? And do they even know they did?

What was the best gift you gave this year, one that may have cost you a little or one which may have cost you a lot. And the little or a lot that it might have cost you might not have been money at all.

If there was something you did in the last several weeks which was just what someone else needed, just when they needed it, just what was it?

If there was one time when all your troubles, your cares and worries, seemed to you far, far away - what was that time? And what chased your troubles away?

If there was one glance you had of someone else that allowed you to see them fresh, as if for the very first time, yet see them as well radiant with all that they mean to you - what was that time? And who was that person?

Was there ever a time - perhaps in a crowd and surrounded with people or perhaps by yourself - that it struck you that you are a lucky, lucky person? What was that time? Who were those people around you, if people there were? And what seems to have brought that feeling on?

If you said one thing exactly right, exactly true and straight from your heart, just what exactly did you say? And to whom did you say it? And why?

If within the last few weeks you brushed a tear from your eye secretly so that no one else could see it, why did that tear come? And what did that tear mean?

When do you feel the proudest? The happiest? The most content? Indeed, the most yourself?

If you could look back over the many, many moments of this tender season now ending and pick out one moment from among them all - just one -pick the one where somehow you knew in your heart that it was all true: the angels indeed did sing, the shepherds indeed did worship, the kings indeed did bring their gifts and bow low - and all of this because at that one moment you felt almost held aloft by kind and mighty hands; and if you could take that one moment and hold it in your heart forever, take it out and gaze upon it from time to time as if to look upon a kind of snow globe, just what would that one moment be?
- Fr. Michael Graham, S.J.​

Drenched in Holiness
Dear God,
On this day I ask You to grant this request,
May I know who I am and what I am,
Every moment of every day.
May I be a catalyst for light and love,
And bring inspiration to those whose eyes I meet.
May I have the strength to stand tall in the face of conflict,
And the courage to speak my voice, even when I'm scared.
May I have the humility to follow my heart,
And the passion to live my soul's desires.
May I seek to know the highest truth
And dismiss the gravitational pull of my lower self.
May I embrace and love the totality of myself,
My darkness as well as my light.
May I be brave enough to hear my heart,
To let it soften so that I may gracefully
Choose faith over fear.
Today is my day to surrender anything that stands
Between the sacredness of my humanity and my divinity.
May I be drenched in my Holiness
And engulfed by Your love.
May all else melt away.
And so it is.
- Debbie Ford

I recently saw a plate proclaiming in the center, The 12 Days of Christmas, surrounded by cartoon-like caricatures of turtle doves, maids, pipers, and all the rest. The plate was pretty, colorful and stylish, in a whimsical sort of way. It suggested a light hearted, trivial approach to an arbitrary rhyme set to a random number–in a song. If they only knew…

To understand the inspiration for the writing of such a limerick, we have to go way back to 567. The Council of Tours met to discuss and address issues of the church. Amidst the many considerations, establishing the date of Epiphany was of the most importance. For good reasons, such as emphasizing the number twelve, the 6th of January was chosen, thereby making official the 12 days of Christmas. They wrote, "the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany is a sacred and festive season, and established the duty of Advent fasting in preparation for the feast." From this not-so-humble beginning rose prayer, song and rhyme extolling the Holy Season of the Child.

In 1780, a copy of French song lyrics (without music) were printed in England, in a local paper. The song was quickly put to music of many and varying types which led to the tune we know. Derived from a 1909 arrangement of a traditional folk melody by English composer Frederic Austin, this became the standard that lasted the ages. But, what does it all mean?

Underneath the colorful imagery of brides and French hens lies a code of sorts, common images linked to profound Christian truths. The Monks who are attributed with writing this poem-song, were hiding faith in plain sight. A teaching tool and a clandestine proclamation, the 12 Days of Christmas would be said and sung, even as it is today, proclaiming Jesus even by those who didn’t know it.
 
A Partridge in a Pear Tree
The partridge in a pear tree represents Jesus, the Son of God, whose birthday we celebrate on the first day of Christmas. Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge, the only bird that will die to protect its young.

Two Turtledoves
These twin birds represent the Old and New Testaments. So, in this gift, the singer finds the complete story of the Christian faith and God’s plan for the world. The doves are the biblical roadmap that is available to everyone.

Three French Hens
These birds represent faith, hope, and love. This gift hearkens back to 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter written by the Apostle Paul. It also represents the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Four Calling Birds
One of the easiest facets of the song’s code to figure out these fowl are the four Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
​
Five Gold Rings
The gift of the rings represents the first five books of the Old Testament, known as the Torah or the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,   Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Six Geese a-Laying
These lyrics can be traced back to the first story found in the Bible. Each “egg” is a day in Creation when God “hatched” or formed the world.
1.    God created the heavens and the earth
2.    God created the sky and seas
3.    God created the land and plants
4.    God created the sun, moon, and stars
5.    God created fish and birds
6.    God created land animals and man
  
7. Seven Swans a-Swimming
It would take someone quite familiar with the Bible to identify this gift. Hidden in the code are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: Prophecy,  Ministry, Teaching, Exhortation, Giving, Leading, Compassion. As swans are one of the most beautiful and graceful creatures on earth, they would seem to be a perfect symbol for spiritual gifts.

8. Eight Maids-a-Milking
As Christ came to save even the lowest of the low, this gift represents the ones who would receive his word and accept his grace. Being a milkmaid was about the worst job one could have in England during this period; this code conveyed that Jesus cared as much about servants as he did those of royal blood. The Eight Maids represent the eight Beatitudes, from Matthew 5:3-10:
Blessed are…
1.    The poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
2.    Those who mourn:  for they shall be comforted.
3.    The meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
4.    Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness:  for they shall be filled.
5.    The merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
6.    The pure in heart: for they shall see God.
7.    The peacemakers: for they shall be called children of God.
8.    They which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

9. Nine Ladies Dancing
These nine dancers were really the gifts known as the fruit of the Spirit. The Fruits of the Spirit include: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness,    Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control.

10. Ten Lords a-Leaping
This is probably the easiest gift to understand. As lords were judges and in charge of the law, this code for the Ten Commandments was fairly straightforward to Christians.
1.    Thou shall have no other gods before me
2.    Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image
3.    Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain
4.    Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy
5.    Honor thy father and mother
6.    Thou shalt not kill
7.    Thou shalt not commit adultery
8.    Thou shalt not steal
9.    Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor
10.  Thou shalt not covet

11. Eleven Pipers Piping
This is almost a trick question, as most think of the disciples in terms of the dozen. But when Judas betrayed Jesus and committed suicide, only eleven men carried out the gospel message. Therefore, the Eleven Pipers Piping signify the 11 Faithful Disciples: Simon (whom He named Peter),  Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, son of Alphaeus, Simon, who was called the Zealot,  Judas, son of James, and faithful Matthias, his replacement.

12. Twelve Drummers Drumming
The final gift is tied directly to the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. The drummers are the 12 points of doctrine in the Apostles’ Creed. 
1. I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
2. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
3. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
4. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
5. He descended into hell. On the third day, He rose again.
6. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
7. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
8. I believe in the Holy Spirit,
9. the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints,
10. the forgiveness of sins,
11. the resurrection of the body,
12. and the life everlasting.

It is a joy to know that as we sing and hear the 12 Days of Christmas we are participating in the proclamation of life and salvation through Jesus Christ!

Praying you are having a blessed Christmas season,

Fr. Bill†

The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the
moon give light to you by night; but the LORD will be your everlasting
light, and your God will be your glory.”
Isaiah 60:19

The earliest known mention of Christians observing the Nativity on 
December 25 is in a Roman calendar for the year 336. By the middle of 
the 5 th century, most of the churches both East and West were keeping 
the feast on this date. In the northern hemisphere at least, the December 
date made sense pastorally and theologically, if not historically. 

Mid-December (21-23) is Yuletide—the Winter Solstice.  During the 
preceding months in the northern hemisphere, the sun has moved further
south and the days have grown darker and colder. Pagan peoples marked
this period of the waning sun as a time of foreboding, a time when old 
“ghosts” (troubles of the past) could be dealt with and exorcised in 
apprehension of Yule. The Winter Solstice marked the change from 
darkness to light as the sun began its long journey northward.

Pastorally speaking, the growing Christian church recognized some of 
the traditions of the yule season as positive and hopeful. The concern for
familiarity after conversion and the striking similarity to Christian 
theological realities, made December 25 th  perfect for the "Christ's-Mass"
celebration. The pagan rites pointing toward new life with the new light 
were Christianized to reveal the One  True Light. Nature worked in 
tandem with the revelation of God made manifest as the Light of new 
life in the Christ child—who pierced the darkness.

​Spiritually speaking, the coming of God in the flesh is indeed the dawn 
of a new light, the dawn of this new creation, where, as God did in the 
beginning (Gen. 1:3), God speaks into the darkness and illumines it with
the radiance of his Word.

Like all celebrations of the Church, the Nativity simultaneously looks 
back into history and forward into the promised life to come. History 
and future promises, in fact, come together in one liturgical celebration, 
where they are realized as one present reality. We experience this every ​

Sunday during the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist, preceded by 
contemplative prayer, envelopes us as the moment of light. Jesus' Body 
and Blood shed for us on the Cross and offered to us at the altar unites us
to Jesus at the spiritual level and manifests the light of the incarnation 
within us. Advent is our time to embrace this reality as we exercise old 
ghosts anticipate new life.

Christmas is the celebration of God’s Incarnation in you; his coming to 
lay in the manger of your heart, to illumine the darkened soul and body 
with his wisdom and glory. If we take Christmas at all seriously, we have
to take its inner, spiritual meaning seriously. And if we take this spiritual 
meaning seriously, we have to take Advent seriously, because Advent is 
precisely the time when we prepare our souls and bodies to receive the 
Lord.

The world's commercial emphasis encourages us—no, demands— that 
we forget about this season of preparation and focus.  It would have us 
begin the Christmas celebration before its due time. Unprepared, and 
unable to perceive its true significance, we are pressured to celebrate a 
phantom. 

Advent teaches us that the Christian life consists first in purgation, and 
only then, illumination. First, there is a barren desert, and only then a 
Promised Land; first a cross, and only then a life redeemed. As with Job 
(1:9), every Christian will eventually face the long trek of faith through 
the desert, where the pleasures and consolations of this world fail and 
only God’s grace can suffice. This is the practice of the Advent season, 
given us as a gift from the Church’s storehouse of spiritual wisdom.

Advent is not a time for bright lights and feasting. It is not a time for 
indulgences of the flesh, the kinds of indulgences that serve to 
strengthen the hold of spiritual darkness and ignorance on our souls. 
Advent is a time to clear away distractions, to reaffirm our commitment 
to follow Christ not only away from the throne of glory into the flesh, 
but from the flesh into intercessory suffering on behalf of all. Advent is a
time of self-emptying, that we might be filled not with a glory of our 
own making, but with the spiritual glory of God.​

As much as possible, then, deny the glitter of the marketers, the 
advertisers, the media-genies, the pushers of goods and superficial good 
times. Instead, dig deeply into your faith, entrusted to you that it might 
bear fruit. The Church, where her teaching is sound, asks us to practice 
Advent by fasting, by almsgiving, by self-scrutiny and confession, by 
spiritual study, and by vigils of prayer. If you must, set up your 
Christmas decorations as you anticipate the coming of Christmas, but do
not lose Advent in the process. The time for celebrating will come, but 
now is still (in every sense of that term) the time of growing darkness in 
which, soon we receive the Light.

Embracing the darkness,
​
Fr. Bill 
​

Everyday is Thanksgiving Day for Christians!
 
“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (1Thes. 5:18)
 
         The famous landing of the Mayflower at Plymouth in Massachusetts in 1621 was followed by a celebratory meal, Thanksgiving, in which new friends were made and hope was restored. This feast lasted three days and as recounted by pilgrim Edward Winslow, it “was attended by 90 Wampanoag Indians and 53 Pilgrims.” Most Americans recall this “first Thanksgiving” with pride, as an icon of ‘where-with-all’ and the example of working together in peace. After a tragic winter of death and fear, the kindness and generosity of the native peoples made this celebration a true salvation celebration!.
 
But there was another “first Thanksgiving”!
 
In the 1600’s, every nationally- sponsored ship of exploration and discovery bore the responsibility to honor God when success was at hand and petition God when trouble was near. The Christian faith was as much a staple of colonization as the sails were a part of the ship. Our some-time tragic history of forced conversions and purges bear sad witness that our faith was often proclaimed by those who had little understanding of what Christianity is truly about. Still, no matter what came next, every ship’s landing was inaugurated by a liturgical moment  of prayer and proclamation thanking God for divine provision.
 
 On December 4, 1619, the Good Ship Margaret landed at what is now Berkeley Plantation with 35 settlers. Upon landing, Captain John Woodlief,  the crew and passengers, per instructions from the Virginia Company, “immediately conducted a religious ceremony of Thanksgiving.” This was not a feast. There was no cornucopia overflowing with fruits and vegetables, no fat turkey or bowl of cranberry sauce, this was a simple and (hopefully) sincere liturgical moment of devotion and praise. On land that was to become the State of Virginia in the United States of America, this was The First Thanksgiving.
 
There is no doubt that we have room for both of these Thanksgiving accounts. The simple beauty and directness of the Virginia landing Thanksgiving speaks to faith responding directly to God from a gathered community. The celebration Thanksgiving of Plymouth tells of faith in action reaching beyond itself to embrace the possibility yet unhoped for. The common thread that binds these two observances is the belief that God is sovereign and present, caring and leading, ever guiding us for the good.
 
 Thanksgiving has been celebrated nationally on and off since 1789, with a proclamation by President George Washington after a request by Congress. It was Abraham Lincoln, in 1863, who proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens", calling on the American people to also, "with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience .. fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation...". Lincoln declared it to take place on the last Thursday in November.
 
A Somber note to our Thanksgiving remembrance.
 
No telling of the Thanksgiving story would be complete without recognizing the tragedy that accompanied the ship full of British colonizers. With them came many diseases like smallpox and yellow fever that the Native American people had not encountered.
 
Once prosperous and thriving, the Wampanoag suffered enormously at the hands of these diseases during a period known as the “Great Dying,” which lasted for three years. Through the years that followed, as people celebrated with thanksgiving the founding of our new nation, an estimated 56 million Native American people died from violence and extreme exposure to a plethora of unknown deadly pathogens. 
 
This staggeringly large number means Thanksgiving Day is a time for mourning for many people. Our founding celebration should always remind us and bring us closer and draw us to prayer. We are all God’s children, so as you pray prayers of Thanksgiving on this special day, include a prayer for the lost souls and for those who mourn. Without the help of the Wampanoag people, the United States would not be what it is today.
 
‍On a deep level, perhaps the truest spiritual meaning of Thanksgiving Day is the awareness that each moment is sacred. Each opportunity for discovery—of new lands, new people, new information, new ways of seeing the world, history and  the self for people of faith,  of Thanksgiving is that everything can regenerate and restore. Even within bleak and devastating moments, there is a glimmer of hope, and we can always look to God to guide us. 
 
However you celebrate your Thanksgiving Day, with turkey or order-out-Chinese, surrounded by family or blissfully bingeing on NetFlix, this National Holiday with all its accumulation should ever be a reminder to us of God. Every day is a thanksgiving day to God; Thanksgiving Day is no exception.
 
“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (1Thes. 5:18)
 
 
While reading Psalm 24, Hila Ratzabi, a Jewish poet, writer, and editor, felt inspired to write a poem for feasting on Thanksgiving Day. The Psalm, written by David, looks beyond our false claims of ownership and authority to God’s rightful ownership of everything. Verses 1 and 2 proclaim,
 
1 The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
    the world, and all who live in it;
2 for he founded it on the seas
    and established it on the waters.
 
She wrote about her poem,
 
[The Prayer] begin(s) by acknowledging that this land belongs to no one. We then honor the ancestral Native peoples who cared for this land, followed by our own immigrant ancestors who endured hardship to come here. We then thank those who cooked our meal, and those who planted and harvested the food we eat. Finally, we state our commitment to sustaining the land for future generations.
 
This Land Belongs to No One
By Hila Ratzabi
 
“The earth is God’s, and all its fullness;
The world and those who dwell upon it.”
—Psalm 24
 
This land belongs to no one
but God. The Earth was here
before us and will endure
after we are gone.
Let us walk gently
upon this precious earth,
taking only what we need,
leaving little waste,
nurturing the soil,
revitalizing the land
to sustain future generations.
 
This land we dwell upon today
is the ancestral land of the Mattaponi,
Pamunkey and Chickahominy peoples.
 
We acknowledge their historical roots
in this place, the many generations
who were stewards of this land.
We hear the echoes of their prayers
to the Great Mother Earth
and seek to learn from their wisdom.
 
We acknowledge the history of pain,
disease, and bloodshed
the Native peoples’ endured
when they were colonized.
Though we can’t reverse the course of history,
let us not ignore it.
Let us look history in the eye
and accept its painful truth.
Let us honor the memory of those who died on this land,
who lost their sovereignty.
Let us honor the Native people who, to this day,
keep their sacred traditions and culture alive
and seek to reclaim, reassert, and revive their sovereignty.
 
Our ancestors came to this country
from all over the world,
often enduring hardship
that laid the foundation for our freedom.
We acknowledge their sacrifices
so that we could enjoy better lives.
 
We are grateful for the bounty we enjoy today,
the abundant variety of foods this earth provides.
We acknowledge those who cooked this meal,
and set this beautiful table.
We acknowledge those who planted
and harvested this food,
many of whom are immigrants.
We send them blessings for safety and freedom.
 
We commit to sustaining this earth
so it will continue to sustain us,
our children and grandchildren.
We commit to give more and take less
from this fragile earth.
                                           Amen,
In all things Thanksgiving!
Fr. Bill+