There is a danger ( a distortion) in our practice of our Christian faith that makes our prayer life so spiritual that it only concerns God and myself. It makes prayer to become like a child’s game with a long string – with only two people at either end of the string. This is shrinking the spiritual life to its being as thin as soup with nothing in it but flavoured hot water.
Now, God has become one of us. God has flesh, eats regular food and enjoys human friendship. The mystery of God walks the very same path on this earth as we do. And that means that God is very involved and concerned about the things we are concerned about on a daily basis.
This is why our prayer and worship always embraces the world. We pray with our eyes focused on the Holy Spirit and our hands holding on to the struggles of our world in all its complexities.
Within Christianity (with all its different traditions and identities) the past thirty years have seen the rise of the Season of Creation (September 01 until the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, October 4). This is a time of prayer and reflection about our care for the survival and thriving of the earth and all its life processes. It began as an ecumenical concern/practice and wants to include all Christiaens in their prayer for the thriving of the earth community – human, plants, animals, water soil and all the rocks).
This is prayer in the authentic Christian sense. It embraces God’s concern for the earth and every part of creation. Human concerns are part of the concern for the survival and thriving of the earth.
This year the chosen them is living water. It begins from the image in Ezekeil chapter 47 verses 9 and 12. It speaks of the work of God’s concern for the earth as the small stream that becomes a strong river. The work of God becomes living water for the earth and for humanity.
The image of water is very significant. Water is absolutely essential for any form of life. There are places in the world today where water is beomcing scarce. Without water no human, plant for bacteria will survive.
This season of prayer will help us focus on our need and concern for water, clean water for humans and water for our grain fields.
In our prayer we want to focus on the gift of water and what it means for all creation. We want to focus on preserving water for all living things. We want to pray over water and our responsibility to care for the well being of water.
The image of water will broaden our life on this earth. This concern will also take us closer to the very heart of God – who gifted us with water in the first moments of creation.
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