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2019 Novena For Creation

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Day 1 – A Litany of Gratitude for <strong>Creation</strong><br />

Consider praying today at the Alki Beach Founders Pylon, the birthplace<br />

of Seattle.<br />

It IS good, this beautiful, created world. It sustains us, inspires us,<br />

comforts us. We are called to care respectfully and tenderly for this,<br />

our common home—for ourselves and for generations to come. Let us<br />

show our gratitude by responding to this call with our whole beings.<br />

“Among the many acts of gratitude we owe to God, it may be accounted<br />

on to study and contemplate the perfections and beauties of<br />

the work of His creation. Every new discovery must necessarily raise<br />

in us a fresh sense of greatness, wisdom and power of<br />

God.” (Jonathan Edwards)<br />

REFLECTION:<br />

Eleven-hundred years ago, what is now Alki beach still<br />

lay beneath the waters of Puget Sound. A magnitude 7<br />

earthquake around 900 A.D. lifted Alki above the water line<br />

and made it the place where so many people today can experience<br />

the wondrous interface of land, sea and sky.<br />

That event symbolizes another important aspect of<br />

creation: Today, many scientists believe plate tectonics —<br />

the cause of that long-ago earthquake — is one of the factors<br />

that made Earth a place where simple life could become<br />

more complex, a place that would eventually become<br />

home to us.<br />

Let us show gratitude to our Creator by responding to<br />

the call to “care for our common home.”<br />

Contributed by Vince Stricherz<br />

Help us respond to this call with courage and compassion.<br />

Holy One, may we be more loving in all we do<br />

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