Day 557 Friday September 24th 2021

Our upcoming liturgy on Sunday the 26th emphasizes that the infusion of the energy of the Great Spirit includes all of creation, both living and inert.

Cultivating Evolutionary Spirituality

Our last liturgy emphasized our acknowledgment of the “presence of the Holy Spirit in us and in all living things.”

Last week, Diarmuid O’Murchu led us in a workshop suggesting the deconstruction of the theological paradigms we grew up with and a reconstruction of a new paradigm.

This new paradigm recognizes the Holy Spirit, or the Great Spirit as indigenous peoples refer to the divine energy that permeates everything in Creation. It is clear we are in a time of great transition where our religious institutions are being challenged to align theology with modern science.

In this Sunday’s liturgy, we hope to expand on this concept that the Great Spirit (Holy Spirit) is the energizing force that ignited the “flaring forth,” (big bang) leading to an exquisite evolutionary process that has led to ever and ever more complex organisms, including us.

This liturgy emphasizes that the infusion of the energy of the Great Spirit includes all of creation, both living and inert. We literally are made of stardust. It hopefully, acknowledges the unpredictability and the element of surprise that the Spirit throws our way and encourages us to be co-creators with the prolific divine Creator.

It acknowledges the great wisdom and experience that indigenous peoples gift us and encourages us to reexamine our rituals and ceremonies. The transition to a new paradigm challenges those who wish to live an adult spirituality with many questions. Let’s explore some of these questions during our liturgy on Sunday.

Native American Prayer

Oh, Great Spirit

Whose voice I hear in the winds,

And whose breath gives life to all the world,

hear me, I am small and weak,

I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes ever behold

the red and purple sunset.

Make my hands respect the things you have

made and my ears sharp to hear your voice.

Make me wise so that I may understand the things

you have taught my people.

Let me learn the lessons you have

hidden in every leaf and rock.

I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother,

but to fight my greatest enemy - myself.

Make me always ready to come to you

with clean hands and straight eyes.

So when life fades, as the fading sunset,

my Spirit may come to you without shame.

(translated by Lakota Sioux Chief Yellow Lark in 1887)

published in Native American Prayers - by the Episcopal Church.