Join Pastor Lyndsay on Tuesday, October 6 at 7:00 p.m. as she shares a special autumn reflection based on this poem by Joyce Rupp.

Autumn Prayer of Acceptance

Gracious God of every turning season, your earth teaches me by her natural turning from one season to another. As she enters into the dying and rising cycle, she welcomes the changes. May I be open to the teachings of this season of autumn, and turn, as autumn does, toward opportunities for my spiritual transformation.

When I accept only the beautiful and reject the tattered and torn parts of who I am, when I treat things that are falling apart as enemies, walk me among the dying leaves. Let them tell me about their power to re-energize the earth’s soil by their decomposition and decay.

When I fear the loss of my youthfulness and the reality of my aging, turn my face to the brilliant colours of October trees. Open my spirit to the mellow resonance of autumn sunsets. Brush your love past my heart with the beauty of golden leaves twirling from autumn trees.

When I refuse to wait with the mystery of the unknown, and when I struggle to control rather than to let life evolve, wrap me up in the darkening days of November. Encourage me to enter into the stillness and silent mystery, to wait patiently for wisdom and clarity.

When I grow tired of using my gifts to benefit others, take me to the autumn fields where earth freely yields the bounty of her summer. Let me become aware of how she allows her land to be stripped clean so her faithfulness will be a source of nourishment.

When I resist efforts to warm a relationship that has grown stale by my chilly indifference or resistance, let me feel the first hard freeze of autumn’s breath in the death that this coldness brings to greening things.

When I neglect to care for myself, and become totally absorbed in life’s activities, let me see how the animals gather sustenance and provide for their winter time. Take me inside the caves of those who hibernate and remind me to contemplative nature.

When I fight unwanted and unsought changes and when I seek to keep things just as they are, place me on the wings of birds flying south for another season. Gather their spirit of freedom into my heart. Let me be willing to leave my well satisfied place of comfort for the discomfort of the long flight into the unknown.

We thank you, God of transformation,for all these lessons that the autumn earth teaches me.

A prayer written by Joyce Rupp, printed in “Out of the Ordinary”; Joyce Rupp, Editor; Ave Maria Press; 2000