Jurgen Moltmann - A Prayer to the Triune God

God, creator of heaven and earth

it is time for you to come,

for our time is running out

and our world is passing away.

You gave us life in peace, one with another,

and we have ruined it in mutual conflict.

You made your creation in harmony and equilibrium.

We want progress, and are destroying ourselves.

Come Creator of all things,

renew the face of the earth.

Come, Lord Jesus,

and brother on our way.

You came to seek

that which was lost.

You have come to us and found us.

Take us with you on your way.

We hope for your kingdom

as we hope for peace.

Come Lord Jesus, come soon.

Come Spirit of life,

flood us with your light,

interpenetrate us with your love.

Awaken our powers through your energies

and in your presence let us be wholly there.

Come Holy Spirit.

God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

Triune God,

unite with yourself your torn and divided world,

and let us all be one in you,

one with your whole creation,

which praises and glorifies you

and in you is happy.

Amen.

The end prayer from Moltmann's smaller book on pneumatology, The Source of Life. The Holy Spirit and the Theology of Life (London: SCM, 1997), 160. This wee book isn't a mere distillation of The Spirit of Life. It has several quite substantial new pieces of lectures and reflections following the publication of the larger volume. I think the last line of this prayer is theologically naive in the best sense of both words - a happy creation. I wish...and so I pray. 

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OK. I enjoyed the Buechner week - and thanks for the comments on my bit of playful prayer-making with Moltmann's titles on Sunday's post. So how about you blog readers who left comments, or others who have favourite passages in Moltmann, providing some food for thought over the next week or so?

Here's the suggestion:

1. Choose a passage from any of Moltmann's 8 books in his Contributions Series - well, preferably from these 8 titles. (Titles are on Sunday's Post). Type it out and email it to me. I'll then format it and post it with your name and the reference for the extract.

2. Don't make the quotation too long - say 200 words at the outside.

3. Feel free to add a brief comment on why it is important to you.

4. I've already got several passages in reserve but much more fun and likely to be more interesting if others contribute as well. Use the email available on the blogsite.

Comments

[chris]

Darn. My departing Rector took away with her the copy of the Trinity book which had me weeping over a page and inspired the poem here I think I'll need to start acquiring some of my own....