Opening Prayers/Prayers of Adoration on God’s Design

My dear King, my own King, 

without pride, without sin, 

You created the whole world, 

eternal, victorious King.

King of the mysteries, 

You existed before the elements,

before the waters covered the ocean floor; 

beautiful King,

You are without beginning and without end.

King, You created the land out of shapeless mass, 

You carved the mountains and chiseled the valleys, 

and covered the earth with trees and grass.

King, You measured each object 

and each span within the universe: 

the heights of the mountains 

and the depths of the oceans;

the distance from the sun to the moon, 

and from star to star.

And You created men and women

to be Your stewards of the earth,

always praising You for Your boundless love.

Celtic Psalter, 9th Century, Quoted in Celtic Daily Prayer, Northumbria Community Trust, 2002.

O God, whose reason rules the world, 

who formed the starry heights above, 

timeless, time’s chain far forth you hurled, 

unmoved, gave all things power to move. 

Prevailed on by no outside cause

to fashion all reality;

ideas of love and mental laws 

molded the noble world we see.

Your nature perfect beauty, 

thus you made the world in tenderness

with sights and sounds to conjure us 

to love the source of loveliness.

You named the primal elements 

of earth and water, air and fire, 

and balanced out their influence 

that none might lower be or higher. 

O Father, give me power to climb 

and wash in fountains filled with light, 

weighed down no more by things of time, 

lit by your shining in the night.

The sight of you begins our day, 

with you its evening we shall spend; 

you carry us, and lead the way, 

the journey, and the journey’s end.

Boethius, Translated by Michael Counsell, Ed, 2000 Years of Prayer, Morehouse Publishing, 1999.