An Early Spring Prayer for the Beeing

Mo Gobnait*,

Holy honey woman in the line of Brigit,

Little smith who walked the land as prayer,

follower of the white deer tracks,

Wild lands dweller at forge and well,

saint-protectress of the heart-hive of bees.

As the earth wakes from winter into spring and symbols of hope are everywhere,

we ask for a blessing on the waking bees whose hum calls us back to Creation,

and whose gathering of pollen, freely offered by the spring flowers,

by snowdrop, and crocus, by primrose, and by daffodil,

reminds us to trust that the earth can provide everything that we need.

We give thanks for the beautiful creation that we have been invited to share in,

for the intricate web of life that holds us and all our brothers and sisters in

abundance and beauty.

May the pollen gathering of the bees remind us that we are held safely in the Holy One’s generous hand, and may their return after winter sleep revive in us the knowing that we live a Resurrection Life grounded in hope that can break through winter’s frozen ground. May our fear of lack and ingratitude for the simple things melt away with the last frosts. Let us see that we already live in a land flowing with milk and honey.

Mo Gobnait,

Holy honey woman in the line of Brigit,

Little smith who walked the land as prayer,

follower of the white deer tracks,

Wild lands dweller at forge and well,

saint-protectress of the heart-hive of bees.

We come before you in grief and gratitude for all that we have done and do not do

to live in harmony with the web of life.

As our fruit trees begin their journey to blossom,

may we remember the essential role of bees and other pollinators

in producing so much of the food we eat,

not just the wild honey which fed John the Baptist in the wilderness,

but in ways which might not be so easy for us to see.

Let us come deeper into awareness of the intricate relationships woven into

Creation, that we might learn love and serve it better.

Let the bees inspire in us the hope that we too can bring to flower the barren places in ourselves and in our wounded world.

Mo Gobnait,

Holy honey woman in the line of Brigit,

Little smith who walked the land as prayer,

follower of the white deer tracks,

Wild lands dweller at forge and well,

saint-protectress of the heart-hive of bees.

May we follow the example of the hive in knowing that our greatest service

is to work not for ourselves, but tirelessly for the common good of all creation.

May we too strive in the dark and secret places of our hearts to

shed light on our own complicity in not speaking out, in refusing to change through

fear, through tiredness, through stubbornness, through greed, and through

self-entitlement, knowing that in the perfect society of the honeybee all

have equal worth and know their power in working for the good of all.

We ask forgiveness for all the ways in which we give up hope,

letting go of the belief that the honey of love can change everything in an instant, that everything has already changed.

We ask that you help us take the tattered pieces of our battered hope to be shaped into

a honeycomb; strong and beautiful, perfect of form, that might sweeten the lives of our community, the poor, the vulnerable, the oppressed, and any who have given up, lost faith in the possibility of good, or who are afraid to speak. Let justice be the sweetness on our tongue and the medicine we offer to a broken world.

Mo Gobnait,

Holy honey woman in the line of Brigit,

Little smith who walked the land as prayer,

follower of the white deer tracks,

Wild lands dweller at forge and well,

saint-protectress of the heart-hive of bees.

Let us remember the holiness of bees; that it was once believed that their hum

spoke the secret name of God, that the souls of the dead left their bodies as bees, that the tears of Christ on the Cross transformed into bees as a symbol of Risen Life, that beauty can come even from the darkest of journeys.

Let us treasure the Beeing** as a precious messenger of beauty, joy, good work, generosity, and abundance, in a world so often lacking in all of these.

Let us do all that we can to ensure that our bee family thrive by being mindful of our own actions and by speaking out against anything that threatens their wellbeing; the use of pesticides, the mowing of wildflower meadows, the proliferation of monoculture farms, the loss of orchards and wild places, and the hubris that tells us we can do it without them.

Let us speak truth to power for the Beeing and for all who cannot speak for themselves, that the holy Word might become as wild honey in our mouths.

Mo Gobnait,

Holy honey woman in the line of Brigit,

Little smith who walked the land as prayer,

follower of the white deer tracks,

Wild lands dweller at forge and well,

saint-protectress of the heart-hive of bees.

Hear the prayers of our hearts for our sister and brother bees, for the world, and for our part in it.

Aho mitake oyasin, for all our relations, amen, blessed be, Inshallah.

*Saint Gobnait, also known as Mo Gobnat, is the 6th Century Celtic saint of bees and beekeepers. Her Feast Day is 11th February. Like Saint Blaise, whose Feast Day is on 3rd February, she has much in common with Goddess-Saint Brigid, and it may be that they are one and the same. More about the weaving of holy threads soon.

** The 'Beeing' is a name for the collective consciousness of honeybee kind on our planet. See the work of the Natural Beekeeping Trust , who say "Each beeing, each hive is a little universe, completely evolved, perfect like a star", for more.