A prayer for personal devotions or for use in corporate worship.

Introduction and General Life Update: Happy Fall, Everyone! The leaves here in Pennsylvania are beautiful and there is a chill in the air. I love Fall– and I especially love all things Pumpkin Spice. For me, summer is the time for being outside and enjoying the sunshine, but the frosty autumn breeze means that it is time to curl up with a blanket, grab a hot cup of tea, and write!

I haven’t been posting as often lately because of some health problems I had this summer, but I am happy to announce that I am back to writing. You might not see as many blog posts because I will be saving a lot of the devotional writing I’m working on for a future book that I hope to have published someday. BUT, if you enjoy fiction, you can keep an eye out for my debut novel! My very first novel, a Christian fiction romantic comedy, will be available sometime in 2022 (God willing and the creek don’t rise…).

In the meantime, I am honored that one of my favorite websites, Rev Gal Blog Pals, has accepted me as a writer. I have also recently joined the crew at Doxology (a very cool magazine published by the Order of St. Luke) where I will be editing a column entitled “Throwback Theology.”

I plan to share the parts of these pieces that I’m permitted to reproduce here on my blog and to continue sharing prayers and devotions. I hope to write more book reviews (especially Christian and theological books) in the coming months. Finally, I will always continue to write about the intersection of faith and disability.

And now, without further ado, I am happy to present to you a prayer for Fall! I hope it encourages you on your own faith journey and helps you connect to God.

May You Have Lots of Tasty Food this Season and May You Never Go Hungry,

–Rev. Rebecca

A Prayer for the Changing of the Seasons

Dear God of the Ages,

We confess that sometimes we are ungrateful. Let us take a moment to count our blessings and give you praise as the wheel of the year turns and the seasons change:

You are the Great Artist of the Cosmos and we praise you for the bright colors with which you paint the fall foliage. We rejoice in the bright crimson, burning orange, and blazing amber of the autumn leaves and the many hues of the sunset. We rejoice in the crisp crunch of the first frost and the smell of freshly baked pumpkin pies. Thank you for juicy apples and the laughter of children as they play in freshly fallen leaves.

We confess that sometimes we complain about the chill in the air, the shortening of the days, and the lengthening of the nights. We are uncomfortable with darkness, but we take comfort in the knowledge that you are present with us even on the bleakest night.

We give thanks for the harvest and for the food which fills our stomachs. Thank you for the ones who grow our food, for the hands that pick it, and people who place it on our table. Help us to be grateful every time we have a hearty meal to eat and a safe place to lay our heads at night.

O Gracious One, please put mercy in our hearts and help us a to remember those who are hungry, cold, and without shelter. May we share with them our bountiful harvest.

And, O Lord, if there should ever come a time in our lives when we are the ones who are without a roof over our heads, nourishing food in our stomachs, or safe place to sleep, may others show mercy on us as well.

We pray in Your Holy Name,
Amen.

About the author: Rev. Rebecca L. Holland, M.Div. OSL is an ordained elder serving in the Susquehanna Conference of the UMC. She is proud of her intersectional identity as a visually-impaired Filipino-American clergy woman. She is the author of Through My Good Eye: A Memoir in Verse, The United Methodist Church and Disability, and Hope for the Broken: Using Writing to Find God’s Grace. She blogs about faith, books, and disability awareness at BeckieWrites.com.

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This prayer was originally published on Rev Gal Blog Pals dot com. RevGalBlogPals encourages you to share our blog posts via email or social media. We do not grant permission to cut-and-paste prayers and articles without a link back to the specific post. For permission to use material in paper publications, please email revgalblogpals at gmail dot com.