God of many names, one being: you slung stars to infinite galaxies in a universe whose outer limits are beyond our reach. You made this earth, so finely balanced, brilliant in beauty, breath-taking in wonder. You set our feet upon the ground and gave us eyes to see the sky, beating hearts and curious minds, busy hands to feel joy and work the planet for the good of all. Our failures are not your doing. Our triumphs tell of your glory. You are our true home.

Young people all over the world march to make a future possible on a planet with enough resources to nurture and sustain life from birth to old age for ages to come. We grieve the lateness of the hour and gird our strength for the challenges we face and must overcome. We pray not to dream but in waking to do what must be done. Their signs pierce our consciences: “Think or swim;” “Dead Planet Soon, Act Now;” “You had a future and so should we.”

We pray to thank you for the birds that still sing, pollinate, and spread the seeds of future life in every nation on earth; their numbers falling to our pesticides and the plunder of once profuse forests.

We pray thanking you for the journey from then to now, pleading for grace and mercy to move from here to there, that unknowable time when we will have either risen to the challenge or succumbed to the rising waters and the raging winds of our greed and folly.

In this meantime teach us to be kind, to hope, to care for one another, now, as if tomorrow depended upon us all—who we become and what we accomplish together.

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What is your prayer in the midst of our ongoing climate crisis?

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This episode was written and recorded by Michael Livingston. It was produced by Rev. Jim Keat. Background tracks include Trundle and Blue Blanket by Podington Bear.

Visit www.trcnyc.org/BeStillAndGo to listen to more episodes from all four seasons of Be Still and Go.