Cindy Shebley via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) - back to school

Special Occasion: Back to School

Cindy Shebley via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) - back to school

Prayer: Kyle Oliver for prayr.cc
Image: Cindy Shebley via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

On the first day of last semester—September 5, 2017—I wrote the following words on the subway. Creative Commons Prayer was born.

Dozens of prayers, thousands of views, and 24 Patreon supporters later, I’m thrilled to share it again on my first day of the new semester.

Thanks for being part of such a joyful source of meaning making in my life and others’.

Prayer for Back to School

God of Solomon the wise and just,
God of Luke the learned,
God of the School Sisters and even the Scholastics,
God of each one teaching one:

You inspire your people with visions of the deserts rejoicing in bloom. You water us for growth, nothing less than the full stature of Christ.

You draw us into mystery. We can always say more. We could never say enough.

Bless those who give and receive your wisdom, and bless our variety of gifts:
Bless the voracious readers.
Bless those who work in clay.
Bless tinkerers and doodlers and thinkers-out-loud.
Bless flashcards in the backseat.
Bless labs and gyms and study groups and storycircles.

Bless those who know that sitting still is heresy,
and those who know that stillness is divine.

Bless induction and deduction and expansion and distillation
and even devil’s advocacy in its proper time,
always as a tool and never as a weapon.

Bless us as we sift and winnow and rejoice and play around and butt heads and make music. Bless our filling of napkins and composition notebooks as font and offering.

Let the final word always be this:
you are One-and-All.

Amen.

Related Prayer

31. For Schools and Colleges (BCP, Public Domain)

O Eternal God, bless all schools, colleges, and universities [and especially ___________], that they may be lively centers for sound learning, new discovery, and the pursuit of wisdom; and grant that those who teach and those who learn may find you to be the source of all truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Related Media

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Poster: Raphael’s School of Athens

Every dorm room needs one, and it’s back to school time

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