Bless Our Earth, O Lord

O God,
you love our earth;
from sunrise to sunset
you fill land and sea with riches;
the hills rejoice at your touch;
the valleys shout for joy,
yes, they sing.

Open our eyes
to your resplendent world,
that we may care for the earth
as our companion in creation.

May the pure song
of air, water, and trees
broaden our minds,
lift up our hearts,
and guide us to you.

Our resplendent world in its form and functioning
is what enables us to have such a splendid sense of God.

Any degradation of the earth in its primary functioning
inevitably affects our sense of the divine,
just as we lose the full range of our thinking
when we lose our experience of the great birds in flight,
our experience of the animal or vegetative world,
our experience of the rivers and the sea,
or our experience of atmospheric phenomena.

Thomas Berry, CP