‘As the Creator loves the creation, so the creation loves the Creator’
Sunday 26th July 2025, led by Julia Chalkley
Rose, photo by Julia Chalkley
Gathering
We take a few moments to feel the ebb and flow of our breath, the one breath of the universe and to connect with our sense of place. Turn your attention outwards and become aware of the sounds furthest from you, of the expanses around and above you; sense the ground beneath your feet.
Readings
As the Creator loves the creation, so the creation loves the Creator.Creation was fashioned to be showered and adored, to be gifted with the love of the Creator. The whole world has been embraced by the kiss of the Creator. God has given everything to the creation.
Hildegard of Bingen
Eriugena held that all things proceed out of God and are destined to return into him. The principle that everything and everyone returned back to their source in God was particularly important to him. He found it strongly confirmed in the opening verses of the Book of Ecclesiastes where there is a sense that for all the apparent vanity and futility of life there is a pattern with the sun and wind returning to the place where they arose and the rivers running back onto the sea which is never full. As he put it, ‘gyring in a gyre the spirit goes forth and then comes back to its own place’.
Eriugena, Irish theologian c. 815-877
The point of travelling is not
To arrive but to return home
Laden with pollen you shall work up
Into honey the mind feeds on
Lines from ‘Somewhere’ by R. S. Thomas
Individual contemplative time (15 minutes)
We will spend 15 minutes in the Garden or in your own space at home. Let the words of Hildegarde of Bingen above resonate with you as you let your attention rest on the gifts of the Creator, and note your response.
Regathering
If you would like to, please share in a few words any particular response you have had.
Concluding readings
My Lord be praised by Brother Sun
Who through the skies his course does run
And shines in brilliant splendour
With brightness he does fill the day
And signifies your boundless sway.
My Lord be praised by Sister Moon
And all the stars that with her soon
Will point the glittering heavens.
Let wind and air and cloud and calm
And weathers all, repeat the psalm.
By Sister Water then be blessed
Most humble, useful, precious chaste.
Be praised by Brother Fire:
Cheerful is he, robust and bright
And strong to lighten all the night.
By Mother Earth my Lord be praised
Governed by you she has upraised
What for our life is needful.
Sustained by you through every hour
She brings forth fruit, and herb and flower.
From Canticle of the Creatures, St Francis of Assisi (as published by the Society of St Francis, 2010)
7Praise the LORD from the earth,
you sea monsters and all deeps,
8fire and hail, snow and frost,
stormy wind fulfilling his command!
9Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!
10Wild animals and all cattle,
creeping things and flying birds!
11Kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of the earth!
12Young men and women alike,
old and young together!
13Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
his glory is above earth and heaven.
Psalm 148: 7-13
Closing Prayers
Together we shoulder the responsibility for the world we will leave behind.
Together we work to create hope for the future generations of humans and non-human kind.
It is time for us to rise our voices.
It is our legacy and we reclaim it.
Lines from a poem read at the Miners’ Festival Service, Durham Cathedral July 11th 2026
Let all the people praise thee, O God:
Yea, let all the people praise thee.
Then shall the earth bring forth her increase:
And God shall give us his blessing.
Psalm 67: 3,6
Crown shyness, image by Bart on Unsplash
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