The Prayer Thread is a collection of teachings and practical prompts to help as we learn to pray in community. This text was originally delivered on April 17, 2026 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
First, we must acknowledge the coniferous family—pine, cedar, spruce, all the greens that held steady through the white of winter and remained firm and true, the darks of their greens expressing the depths of faithfulness. They are like meal prayers and Sunday liturgies and gratitude. The simplicity of their steady faithfulness helps in the hard, barren seasons.
Also, let us honor the lichen family. Fungi, moss, and all the greens that cover the ground and the bases of trees. They, too, remain beneath the blankets of snow and hold up to the bitter winds. Their brightness and variety in shades of green delight the eye and the heart. They are like the joys of consolation that follow on the heels of seasons of desolation. Though hidden, they were there all along. The persistence in their annual re-emergence strengthens our minds, hearts, and souls.
Next, let us pay attention to plants and flowers, especially those in the family of bulbs. Hidden in the dark and cold, at the first hint of warmth and new sun, tender shoots of fragile green push up and burst forth, some offering the first colors beyond the greens of spring, such as crocus and daylily and tulip and daffodil. These are like the fires of conversion, sometimes quick and bold, sometimes steady and emergent, always turning. Turning from dark to light, turning from stagnancy to new life, turning from cold to warmth. These are the active habits and disciplines of prayer that draw forth the latent goodness underneath and within. Patience, kindness, gentleness, compassion, understanding all require some effort and disciplined attention in order to turn toward the good, in order to blossom into Love.
Finally, let us heed the spring green that comes forth in the buds of the deciduous tree and shrub families. Tight, closed up, and embryonic, buds start off small and vulnerable. They don’t dare open and release until the roots have sent the life-giving juices of sap up the mighty trunks. Over time they unfold into the fullness of leaves, smattering creation with all shades of green well into the summer. Greening buds are like the customs and practices of prayer handed down over time through traditions. They are the forms of prayer that have been tested and tried, and when proven life-giving, they give shade to seekers and delight of insight to thinkers.
Oh the shades! Oh the expressions! Oh the life-bearing nuances of the greens of spring! May our own lives of prayer bring forth, burst out, and generously share in the Spirit of Life of the Holy one!
