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All in Good Faith
Love all God's creation - the whole of it. Every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything you will perceive the mystery of God in all. Once you perceive this you will begin to understand it better every day and you will come at last to love the whole world with an allembracing love.
(Dostoevsky)
The planters of groves and fruitful trees, And they who build causeways and dams, And wells construct, and watering-sheds, And to the homeless] shelter give: Of such as these, by day, by night, Forever merit give.
(The Buddha: Samvutta-Nikaya)
Chaos and confusion are daily increasing in the world. They will attain such intensity as to render the frame of mankind unable to bear them. Then will men be awakened and become aware that religion is the impregnable stronghold and the manifest light of the world, and its laws, exhortations and teachings and the source of life on earth.
(Words of 'Abdu'l-Baha)
0, Thou, Creator of Our Mother Earth, the Water and the Plants, O Mazda, grant me Eternal Perfection, through Thy most Holy Spirit. Do grant me strength and stability, O My Lord, and reveal to me the Lord's teachings.
(Yasna)
Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has made the world lacking in naught, but has produced therein goodly trees wherewith to give delight unto the children of men. Blessed art thou, who has given the wisdom of thy hands to flesh and blood, that beautiful cities might rise to thy glory. Blessed art thou, who has created joy and gladness, mirth and exultation, pleasure and delight, love, brotherhood, peace and fellowship, O Lord our God, King of the Universe.
(A Hebrew Prayer)
We thank you, Lord, for all the ways in which you have shown yourself to us. We thank you for your presence in nature: for the song of a bird, the lilt of a mountain, the colour of a flower, the joy of animals with their young. We thank you for your coming through other humans; for the laughter of children, the care of mothers, the love of families, the concern of neighbours, the thoughtfulness of friends. We thank you for coming to us in the small things of life: for washing up, for lessons, for leisure, for imagination, for play. We thank you for the kingdom of God within us.
(Frank Whaling) Hey man! Everything belongs to God. And don't you dare go round abusing it. For you are responsible and accountable for all that has been created. (New version of Psalm 24 written by young people at an Environmental
Workcamp in 1991)
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