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Rewilding our Souls

Hosanna, save us

4/13/2025

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Small white hepatica flowers among the dried brown leaves on the early spring forest floor.

Hosanna whisper the hepatica,
First ephemerals of the forest floor.

Hosanna groan the elder beach,
Succumbing to disease.

Hosanna sing the nuthatches,
Drowned out by the roar of traffic.

Hosanna proclaim the deadwood,
Offering life to others.

Hosanna spoke the oak,
Matriarch of this place.

Hosanna shouted the stones,
When the people were silent.

- Wendy Janzen

Inspired by Palm Sunday passage in Luke where Jesus says that if the people were silent, then the rocks would cry out, as I listened to the voices of the forest around me on a Sunday afternoon walk through Breithaupt Park. 

Hosanna means "save us."

​

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Forsaken Friday

4/7/2023

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Picture
A haiku written for Good Friday

O Forsaken One,
You know the depths of sorrow.
We sit with you now.


I see Good Friday pain, death, and sorrow mirrored everywhere... I saw this stump on a walk this week and the image caught me with its starkness. What have you seen that feels forsaken? Christ, the Incarnate One, is here in the world with us, in places of pain and woundedness. 
​
The invitation today is to witness it and sit with it.

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April 17th, 2022

4/17/2022

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Easter sunrise prayer

Divine Presence,
Midwife of spring:
Awaken us to your
presence within and
around us this
holy morning.

May we be alive
to the mystery
and wonder of
this new day, and
be reminded that each
sunrise is a 
proclamation of
resurrection. 

Amen.

​- Wendy Janzen

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It is finished

4/15/2022

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Picture
For Good Friday

It is finished.
Cut off. Ended.
No more. Lifeless.
It's body brought down, 
but for what reason? 
What threat? 
To what end?
Laying on the forest floor. 
Humbled.  
Hollowed.
Hallowed. 
It's story,it's legacy,
it's outpouring,
is not finished.

​- Wendy Janzen




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Celebration and Sorrow

3/29/2021

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Prayer for the Sixth Sunday of Lent

This is a day of conflicting emotions, 

God of passion and life.
We have come to a bend in the river,
a turning point in the narrative,
a juxtaposition of celebration
and impending sorrow. 

We too feel the strangeness
of life sometimes weighed 
down with the stresses of 
pandemic life, yet dotted
with joy and hope.
We pray for moments 
of relief, for times of
pleasure in life even 
in the face of challenge. 

Like a river in spring,
that sometimes overflows
her banks, flooding the
surrounding lowlands,
may love and joy overflow
into the low places 
in our lives. May we
delight in your never
ceasing goodness, 
bubbling and dancing
like water flowing
over rocks and obstacles. 

Pull us deeper into your 
current of life,
a river that is wide
with mercy and justice,
a river that carries
the full range of emotion,
a river that ebbs and flows
but never ceases.
Amen.
​
​- Wendy Janzen
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Fertile soil prayer

3/29/2021

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Prayer for the Fifth Sunday of Lent

Mothering God, 
who created Earth 
and formed 
rhythms and seasons 
and cycles:
I celebrate the 
coming of spring
once again. 

As the warming sun 
melts frozen earth into
mud and snowdrops bloom,
emerald moss invites me
to lay down my head 
and listen to earth’s heartbeat.
Give me pause here, 
God of mystery, 
to stop and ponder 
what lies beneath. 

Do not let me turn away
from examining the unseen
places deep within. What
secrets are hidden there?
What wisdom have you 
planted, what seeds of 
transformation are just waiting 
for the right conditions? 

Make of me fertile soil
where spring’s eternal 
lessons of regeneration
might take root and grow:
death is not the end
of the story, but rather
the place of new beginnings.

Amen.

- Wendy Janzen
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A year in the wilderness

3/12/2021

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Prayer for the Fourth Sunday of Lent

This has felt like

a year in the wilderness
O God. 
A year of wandering, sometimes
lost, often alone, facing
challenges we weren’t 
prepared for. 
There have been thorns
and snakes
and wild animals,
dark moonless nights,
endless days,
and clouds of dread, 
disorientation, and danger.

A year, already, 
of wandering
far away from
what was familiar, 
of wondering
what lies ahead.
God, in this wilderness
save us. Remind us, 
Wild Christ, that wilderness
can be a place of ferment, 
introspection, prompting
insight and transformation.
Teach us that 
facing our fears can 
sometimes be a 
remedy for our malaise.
Restore our sense of wholeness.
Heal our wounded spirits,
Reorient our lost souls.
Rescue us from trouble
and inject us with hope.

Amen.

- Wendy Janzen
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Glory be to the sky

3/4/2021

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Prayer for the third Sunday of Lent

Blessed Spirit of Wisdom,

In whom we live and move 
and have our being,
Bless to us this day the vast sky 
high above our heads, the sky
close in front of our faces,
the sky we breathe into our bodies.

We give thanks and praise today for 
the sky, which is ever changing, 
and yet never changes. 
We give thanks for
spaciousness and splendor, 
sunrise and sunset, floating clouds,
celestial bodies, and rainbows.

We give thanks for all that is 
unseen and invisible to us,
all that we are unconscious of, 
and all that we take for granted,
but that is vital for life. 
Broaden our understanding beyond 
our limited ways of knowing.
Deepen the arc of our wisdom
to align with the wisdom of heaven.
Expand our awareness of your
encompassing, embracing presence,
as present as the air in the sky,
even when we can’t see the signs.

Glory, sings billowing clouds,
Glory, sings aurora borealis,
Glory, sings daybreak.
Glory be to the sky.

Amen.

​- Wendy Janzen
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the forest is calling

2/25/2021

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Prayer for the Second Sunday of Lent

Creator of All,
Tree of Life, 

Spirit among us:
as we wander deeper into the 
wilderness of this season,
searching for paths among the 
woods, be our companion 
along the way less traveled.

The forest is calling us: 
come. Come, stand among us.
Come where light and shadow dance
as branches sway with the wind.
Come in wonder and worship, you
powerful and powerless, 
come, children and elders,
come, from all directions,
come, learn the secrets of life:
dormancy and growth, 
interconnection and community,
rootedness and reaching upward.

We confess our devotion to independence,
our belief we can go it alone, and
our me-first mentality.
Heal us from our short sightedness
so we might see the forest for the trees,
recognize our dependance on you, 
and our interdependence with all life
from mycelia to majestic pines.

Shelter us, O God, in the safety
of your strong branches.
Nourish and strengthen us, but
keep us humble of heart.
Tune our ears to your timbered voice,
and tune our hearts to praise.

Amen.

- Wendy Janzen
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From the Depths

2/19/2021

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Prayer for the First Sunday of Lent

​From the depths 

of our souls we call out
to the Source of all being:
deep calls to Deep,
hear our cries.
We are born of water,
watery wombs hold us
then spill us out into
this world of light. 

At times - like now - it is easy 
to feel like life has us
in over our heads.
We are treading water and 
growing very weary. 
The vastness of the sea,
with no shore in sight,
waves and storms,
sea monsters, real or imagined,
all threaten us.

Buoy us, O Presence.
Preserve us from the storms,
have compassion on us,
embrace us with mercy.
Hold us, so that we might stop
our striving, at least for a bit,
catch our breath,
regain our strength,
find hope in our waiting.
Calm our weary souls
that we might find true rest.

And,
when the time is right
invite us to dive beneath
the surface,
down to the deep,
and discover the
treasure that awaits.

Amen 

- Wendy Janzen


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    Reflections, poetry, prayers, photos, and resources  written by Wendy Janzen unless otherwise noted.
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