• From Earth Prayers, here is a Native American (Ute) prayer giving thanks for the teachings available throughout nature.

Earth teach me stillness
as the grasses are stilled with light.
Earth teach me suffering
as old stones suffer with memory.
Earth teach me humility
as blossoms are humble with beginning.
Earth teach me caring
as the mother who secures her young.
Earth teach me courage
as the tree which stands all alone.
Earth teach me limitation
as the ant which crawls on the ground.
Earth teach me freedom
as the eagle which soars in the sky.
Earth teach me resignation
as the leaves which die in the fall.
Earth teach me regeneration
as the seed which rises in the spring.
Earth teach me to forget myself
as melted snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me to remember kindness
as dry fields weep with rain.

Earth Prayers: 365 Prayers, Poems, and Invocations for Honoring the Earth by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon is a devotional masterwork for anyone who is alert to the beauties and bounties of the universe. You will find yourself turning to his paperback repeatedly for inspiration and enlightenment.

  • From Forty Nights, here is a "Blessing for Responsibility"

May God bless us not with clean air alone,
— But the will to keep our air clean.

May God bless us not with a vision of a healthy planet alone,
— But with the will to do all in our power to restore and maintain our planet's health.

May God bless us not with a change of heart in the great world leaders alone to save our planet,
— But with a change in our own heart to use our own power to save the planet.

May the blessing of God not bring to us saints alone,
— But make of us saints greater than any we imagine.

Forty Nights: Creation Centered Night Prayer by Daniel McGill offers services for individual or communal use modeled after the Liturgy of Hours and alert to the link between the earth environment and human prayer. These night devotions bring together psalms, Christian prayers and hymns, and the writings of mystics and naturalists, with ample selections from many other religious traditions.

The Green Devotional: Active Prayers for a Healthy Planet by Karen Speerstra is, as the author suggests, "a little book of ecosophy, because it contains a selection of today's wisdom about the Earth — secular and sacred, ancient and current." The thematic categories are Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Time, Space, and Essence.

More Prayer Books on Nature

  • Honoring the Earth: A Journal of New Earth Prayers by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon mixes a crosscut of prayers and observations about taking care of the Earth and doing our best to see she is respected and treated properly.
  • Organic Prayer: A Spiritual Gardening Companion by Nancy Roth presents the practice of "organic prayer" which enriches our contemplation of God and our attempts to live in harmony with the good Earth. This paperback is overflowing with down-to-earth prayer exercises such as communing with a tree, working with the weather, and making a pilgrimage in the place where you live.