Although the prayer book suggests Morning Prayer canticles for each day, you can say or sing any canticle you want -- who's going to stop you? I usually let my fancy or my thoughts about the events of the world take me to the one that attracts me. Full disclosure: there are times when I choose a canticle because it is brief.
But there are other times, like today, when I choose the longest one we have in the book. Privately, I call it "The Weather Canticle", and I use it when the weather outside is amazing in some way: amazingly windy or rainy or snowy, or just amazingly beautiful.
Today is Saturday, and the book suggests my Weather Canticle for Saturdays. But I would have chosen it anyway, no matter what day it was, because I hear rain on the roof and I see the drops of it on the windowpane, and I know it is greening everything that has been asleep all these long, cold months.
It begins with God in the firmament of heaven, and takes us all through the creation, each part of it in order of its coming to be: from the heavens and the weather to the land and the plants and the animals (including us), and then to the Church everywhere, and more than the Church -- it just says the "People of God." And then it ends with God again, the glorious and fully visible Trinity.
Ahh. Inside, candles lit, on a day when I don't have to rush off somewhere. Outside, rain on the roof and plants growing. A long soak in the Weather Canticle. How good is the creation, how lovely.
It is only this morning that will be indoors and quiet. Rich's mom died this week, and the funeral is this afternoon. Let's have the congregation stand on the porch, he said, as Helen carefully arranged a drawing of lilies on the cover of the service bulletin, and we'll dig the hole near there, so everyone can see without getting wet. I'll hold an umbrella over you when you're putting them in.
That'll work, I said. The memorial garden is showing its spring beauty late this year, like all the gardens in town. But all of it will be along soon, nourished by the remains of everyone interred there, two new ones this week alone.
They are in heaven now. Only a little ash remains here, mixed with the earth and making it rich and good: they themselves live another life, one we don't know much about. They have gone home to where it all began for them. For us. For everyone and everything.
Canticle 12 A Song of Creation
Benedicite, omnia opera Domini Song of the Three Young Men, 35-65
Invocation
Glorify the Lord, all you works of the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
In the firmament of his power, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
I The Cosmic Order
Glorify the Lord, you angels and all powers of the Lord, *
O heavens and all waters above the heavens.
Sun and moon and stars of the sky, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
Glorify the Lord, every shower of rain and fall of dew, *
all winds and fire and heat.
Winter and Summer, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
Glorify the Lord, O chill and cold, *
drops of dew and flakes of snow>
Frost and cold, ice and sleet, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
Glorify the Lord, O nights and days, *
O shining light and enfolding dark.
Storm clouds and thunderbolts, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
II The Earth and its Creatures
Let the earth glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
Glorify the Lord, O mountains and hills,
and all that grows upon the earth, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
Glorify the Lord, O springs of water, seas, and streams, *
O whales and all that move in the waters.
All birds of the air, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
Glorify the Lord, O beasts of the wild, *
and all you flocks and herds.
O men and women everywhere, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
III The People of God
Let the people of God glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
Glorify the Lord, O priests and servants of the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
Glorify the Lord, O spirits and souls of the righteous, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
You that are holy and humble of heart, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
Doxology
Let us glorify the Lord: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
In the firmament of his power, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
|
|
