Last Sunday the SEEDS Community Garden held a “Holy Happy Hour” in the Caldera Garden. As my husband, Kirk and I walked up to the gathering, I took in the sights, sounds, and beauty of the evening we had been blessed with for the occasion. This time of year can be capricious when it comes to weather. We’d had a few soggy and stormy days prior. Sunday evening was perfect, what a friend of mine calls “zero weather.” Warm, partly cloudy, and a gentle breeze that is the set for feeling completely comfortable. The St. Alban’s spirit of hospitality was personified by the Seeds Committee members greeting us and steering us to tables laden with abundant savory and sweet treats. The community had brought creative dishes to highlight the gifts of the garden: a berry tart, herbed ice cream, and other delights. I felt the love and the open friendliness of this community that has welcomed me over the past two years. I commented to Kirk that it felt good to finally know people by name (I was struggling to read every nametag the year before!) Thank you to everyone who had a hand in organizing the Holy Happy Hour and to those who attended and filled the garden with joy. I wanted to share the blessing that I prayed for the occasion.
A Prayer for Blessing on the Land at Planting*
God of the Universe,
You made the heavens and the earth,
So we do not call our home merely “planet earth.”
We call it your Creation, a Divine Mystery,
a Gift from Your Most Blessed Hand.
The world itself is your miracle.
Bread and vegetables from earth are thus also from heaven.
Help us to see in our daily bread your presence.
Upon this garden
May your stars rain down their blessed dust.
May you send rain and sunshine upon our garden and us.
Grant us the humility to touch the humus,
That we might become more human.
That we might mend our rift from your Creation,
That we might then know the sacredness of the gift of life—
That we might truly experience life from the hand of God.
For you planted humanity in a garden,
and began our resurrection in a garden.
Our blessed memory and hope lie in a garden.
Thanks be to God,
Who made the world teeming with variety,
Of things on the earth, above, the earth, and under the earth.
Thanks be to God,
For the many kinds of plants, trees, and fruits,
We celebrate.
For the centipedes, ants, and worms,
For the mice, marmots, and bats,
For the cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers
We rejoice,
That we find ourselves eclipsed by the magnitude
Of generosity and mystery.
Thanks be to God.
*Claiborne, Shane; Wilson-Hartgrove, Jonathan; Okoro, Enuma. Common Prayer Pocket Edition (pp. 561-562). Zondervan.
Opmerkingen