Prayer and Reflection on Water

A Reading:

Water is the only substance occurring naturally in solid, liquid and gaseous states. In time it can dissolve any other substance on the planet. It is made up of two abundant elements, hydrogen and oxygen. One burns, the other aids combustion. Together they quench our thirst and douse our fires.

Apparently, no one has ever seen a water molecule. The formula H2O is simple, the reality is complex. People who have made x-ray studies have observed that the atoms in water are so intricately laced they resemble, in miniature, what has been described as entire rivers from the headwaters to the sea.

A single water molecule is tied together by billions of tiny bonds. One of the great mysteries of water is the way in which the hydrogen atoms are attached to oxygen. Most molecules, when they assemble themselves, adapt a regular geometry coming together at 45, 60, or 90 degrees.

In the case of water, the two hydrogen atoms always rest against the atom of oxygen at an angle at 104.5 degrees. Always. This has been described as the angle of life. This is the secret of why this is not a frozen, bleak planet. Water has so many unique attributes. The more one knows the more mysterious it becomes.

And we are water. About 70 percent of the human body is water. Roughly 150,000 pounds of it passes through us in our lifetimes – 75 tons. Water is the blood of Planet Earth. It is the great climatic regulator. Without it there would be no climate. If as Vernadsky said, water is life, the quality of water should be the first order of business. Analyzing the problems can only take us so far. What is needed is to create a generation of people committed to becoming stewards of the water.

By John Todd: (Excerpts) - Reprinted from TIMELINE, a bimonthly newsletter of Foundation for Global Community, 222 High St., Palo Alto, CA 94301.

Second Reading: A Litany -- Ashes, Stones, and Flowers

For vibrant lives suddenly and shamelessly sacrificed we lift up the ashes of our loss, O Source of LIFE.

For lives that continue, haunted forever by the pain of absence, we lift up the ashes of remorse, O WELLSPRING OF COMPASISION.

As we cast these ashes into the troubled water of our times, Transforming One, hear our plea that by your power they will make fertile the soil of our future and by your mercy nourish the seeds of PEACE.

Name those who have entered Eternal Life

(the people cast ashes in silence into water)

For the ways humanity pursues violence rather than understanding,

we lift up the stones of our anger.

Just as water wears away the hardness of stones, so too may the power of your compassion soften the hardness of our hearts and draw us into a future of justice and peace.

For our addiction to weapons and the ways of militarism we lift up the stones of our fear, O Source of LIFE.

Name those who have died violently in wars, etc.

(the people cast stones in silence into water)

For sowing the seeds of justice to bloom into harmony, we cast these flowers into water, O Source of PEACE.

Just as water births life in a desert and gives hope to the wounded, so to may the power of your nurturing renew our commitment to PEACE.

Name those who have perished for lack of water

(the people cast flowers in silence into water.)

For our neglectful indifference to those who lives are indubitably altered by the ravaging power of water.

Name those who have suffered loss of loved ones, possessions, health,

etc.

(the people cast flowers in silence into water.

AMEN.

Adapted from: Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Director of the Shalom Center, www.shalomctr.org, and the author of Godwrestling - Round 2 and other works on spiritual renewal and public policy.