Morning Blessing Canticle

 


Morning Blessing Canticle

 

Praise to you O my Lord as I stand on Monument Moor, on a beautiful summers day.

For the dew in the grass ears and on the wildflowers,

For the urban meadow back lit so beautifully by the morning sun,

For colour and intense sap green, the grasses glow and grow as I watch.

For a group of back birds and thrush hopping over each other to get to the ground bugs.

For the places where we live, as I look over the redbrick back-to-backs

of Quarry Mount and bless the homes of all the people there and childhood friends.

 

Praise to you O my Lord for schools and shops and houses and crossings

for dog walkers and bike riders, van guys and mums with children in buggies

and school kids at the bus stop, for women in summer dresses with lunch bags in the hands

and tradesmen in shorts and caps, for people with rucksacks and handbags and shoppers.

 

Praise be to you O my Lord as I stand on Monument Moor

and I think of the history around me

the old crossroads on Woodhouse Moor that was judgement seat and gallows

and I think about and pray for all the people now in prison and on death row,

I pray for judges, juries and guards.

 

Praise to you O my Lord for Spring and regrowth

As I stand there and pray a slight breeze wafts blossom perfume

from Hawthorne, Cherry, and Elder trees now in full leaf

each one smells has its own special spice

I pray for nature, agriculture the ecology,

I pray for all the famers and harvesters, and the food they produce

I pray for the tenders, weeders and gardeners

that care for plants and trees and the creatures that inhabit them.

 

Praise to you O my Lord for my family and our Friscan community,

I pray for my colleagues, the ones I love the ones who challenge me

I pray for the students and the building staff

I pray for the good of the place I work in

I pray that my endeavours today will be for the good of all

That my actions and words be beneficial and upbuilding,

that I treat everyone fairly and with Love

clean slate everyday.

 

Praise to you O my Lord for the work of our hands that gives us dignity and identity

and a place in the world in which to be love for You God.

I go on with my walk and I pray for people in the student digs and the fast-food places

In the pubs and the Quaker house, the engineering department

and the Sixth Form College in a Convent

and finally, I walk through the revolving door ready for another day.  

 

Amen

[Image of Marsden statue on Monument Moor Leeds - wiki commons. Poem first published in the Bripper, Maltfriscan newsletter, July 2021].

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