A Preface for Fall

The Lord be with you. And also with you.

Lift up your hearts. We have them lifted up unto the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give you thanks and praise.

Father, all-powerful and ever-living God,

we thank you for all times and season,

and now:

for Fall, so mellow, ripe, and wise.

We thank you for the apple and the pumpkin,

your bounty gathered into bins against the long winter night.

We thank you for this season all garmented in glory and gold ,

and then for the leafless limb and the barren bush

that calls to mind our exile, and fills us with our emptiness,

and make the heart yearn again for Emmanuel,

the Winter gift of God.

So we join the angels and saints....