An article from the Cathedral Times
by the Very Reverend Samuel G. Candler,
Dean of the Cathedral of St. Philip
(The following prayer was delivered by Dean Sam Candler as the Invocation for the Rotary Club of Atlanta, on Monday, March 16, 2009; the program that day was devoted to a study of carbon dioxide emissions.)
Gracious God, we thank you for the steady rain of the past several days, replenishing our city reservoirs, and bringing hope for fresh green growth in the crops and trees and flowers of our state. These gray clouds will give way to green.
We also thank you this time of year for the fun and frolic of St. Patrick's Day Celebrations. We remember a man who was actually abducted from his home country on the Continent, and then forced into slavery, far away in Ireland. With God's providence he escaped and returned to the continent, until strange and holy voices said to him, "We beseech thee to come and walk once more among us." Patrick heroically returned to Ireland, his previous prison; and he became the patron saint of a new and green land.
Remembering Patrick today, we are all green, green with hope and heroism. We pray for all among us who are determined to develop environmental and ecological stewardship in our industries and businesses; they witness to a new sense of green, a renewed hope in our future.Finally, we continue to pray for our economy. May the gray and gloomy clouds over our heads break soon. May we wake soon with the green hope of spring, sending new life into our economy, but a new life that is not like the old. May our renewed economy witness to moral integrity, careful accounting, and environmental responsibility; and may this city, this state, and this land be blessed by your grace.
AMEN.
The Very Rev. Sam Candler