Friends Maia and Ken Tapp have created an awesome, prophetic work of art called The Prayer of the World.   Maia is a gifted poet and writer, the author of several books.  Many years ago, as she awakened more fully to her connection with God, she experienced inner leadings to visit particular places on Earth, places of wonder, places where wild creatures live.  She felt called to listen to the divine Spirit that created the world and which is always communicating with humanity through nature. In these places, she has heard a loving voice urging human beings to join in the ongoing prayer of the world.  It spoke to her in poetry, inviting us to recognize the sacred web of life and find our real place within this web.  

I am not hidden
I am splashing my color
all over the earth
       and I call to you     see me     open your eyes
       I ask you to call back the rainbow–
       the colors     the sounds     the presences
                 all form a web of life…

Maia’s words have been combined with amazing nature photographs by her husband, Ken Tapp, (and others), images that reveal the incredible beauty and variety of nature, its rhythms, its sacred dance of life, both in large landscapes and in minute details.

Photo by Ken Tapp

The Prayer of the World has been presented live in several different settings.  I experienced it in the Barn at Pendle Hill and at the 2016 summer Friends General Conference Gathering, where a showing was sponsored by the Earthcare Working Group.  Maia read out loud the words of the Prayer of the World and Ken Tapp’s images of the awesome splendor and the beautiful intricacy of the natural world were projected on a large screen.  Ken Jacobsen, with his guitar and voice, provided music.  More recently, it has been offered online.

Each time I’ve experienced the Prayer of the World, I’ve felt shaken out of a certain dull, habituated way of seeing this world to recognize God’s awesome handiwork.  Each time it has been breathtaking to appreciate more clearly the wisdom and healing power present in Creation.  The world is alive and calling to us in so many ways to wake up to the sacredness of our own nature and to our interconnection with Spirit and with all created things.  In the words of the Rainbow Psalm,

All is connected
in a living breathing web
      and I am the web
      the living pulse of energy
      that flows through all creation;

              each pulse a prayer…

The message of the Prayer of the World for humanity is an urgent one, calling us to consciously find our rightful and healing place in the sacred web of life.  

Prayer of the World: A Rainbow Psalm has now been published in book form.  For information about the December 2, 2021 online celebration of the publication of Prayer of the World: A Rainbow Psalm, go here: https://awholeheart.com/online-offerings/publication-of-prayer-of-the-world/  This free online event will be an opportunity to hear Maia tell her story of how she heard the voice of the divine speaking through the world and how she and Ken traveled to the places where she experienced these sacred revelations. 

To order a copy of the book, go here: https://smile.amazon.com/Prayer-World-Kathleen-Maia-Tapp/dp/1662905645/    For more information about Maia and Ken Tapp, go here: https://www.prayeroftheworld.org/about-us  The online website for Prayer of the World is here: https://www.prayeroftheworld.org/

Prayer of the World: Have you experienced moments when God communicated with you through your encounter with the natural world?  Have you glimpsed the sacred nature of all things?  How are you called to join the prayer of the world?

© 2016 and 2021 by Marcelle Martin    (This blog post is an update of an earlier one posted in 2016.)