Always look ahead

Editors Gary Schmidt and Susan Felch have gathered poems, essays, and stories which celebrate the wonders and blessings of summer. Here are two prayers by James Vanden Bosch on the spiritual practice of grace.

A Prayer
God of grace, grant us the further gift of noticing your grace every day.

In renewing sleep,
in food and drink,
in the dark sky and the fragile grass,
in the life of the senses,
in the passions of the mind,
in the love of a friend,
in the embrace of the family,
in the blessings of work and play,
in the breath of life,
may we feel the favor of your bounty.

God of grace,
grant us the further gift of responding to your grace every day.

In gratitude for your gifts to us,
in valuing the gifts you have given to others,
in valuing the gifts that others are,
may we live lives that are graceful in return.

Bless us with graceful lives today and always —
lives that honor the source of grace,
lives that accept gifts humbly,
lives that pass the grace along,
lives alert for signs of grace and glory
throughout your great creation.

Make all our goings graces.

Amen.

— James Vanden Bosch

A Prayer
God of creation, God of the seasons,
bless your creatures with seasons of delight.

Lord of the Sabbath,
you who have established the rhythms of life, establish in us also the rhythms for human prospering; grant us the good sense to enjoy Sabbath rest in this season.

Grant us, moreover, wisdom to know that there
is a time to play,
a time to cease from our labors,
a time to sense majesty in a blue sky,
richness in green grass,
love in faithful friends,
and joy in our being.

Grant us, then, blue skies this summer, and green grass;
grant us faithful friends and the time, strength, and spirit for play.
Grant us the wit to know the goodness of this creation, which, blind, defiant, or ungrateful, we despoil.

Send our roots rain; send our hearts ease,
so we may show in our lives
that we can live rightly in this season of our lives
and see it as if for the first time,
in wonder, in awe, and in a spirit of thanksgiving.

Amen.

— James Vanden Bosch