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Spiritual reflection to start the day with Fr Philip Blackledge of Holy Trinity Scottish Episcopal Church, Melrose.
Good morning. We are currently in the middle of a season of the church known as Creationtide. This is where we pay particular attention to our responsibility to be good stewards of God’s creation. As well as having an important environmental message, it’s also a way of recapturing something which is easy to lose in a very technological and industrial world.

Last year I went on sabbatical to try and understand the monks and the nuns who prayed and walked this land in very early times – such saints as Cuthbert and Boisil, who founded the very first monastery in the 6th century here in Melrose. It's actually quite difficult to do, to get back into their mindset. But one thing which really helped was – I started growing vegetables, and I’m so lucky to be able to do that. You notice the weather more, you worry about the soil – and you certainly worry about rabbits. In the days of Cuthbert, people would have prayed when they scattered the wheat seed, they would have prayed for rich soil, for rain and for sun, they would have prayed at Rogationtide and Lammastide, agricultural feasts now all but forgotten. They would have prayed as they gathered the harvest, as they threshed the wheat and milled It, their recipes for bread would have had prayers written into them, so that by the time the bread landed on the table, or the altar, it was as much prayer as it was bread.

It's hard when we’re removed from the land to feel it, but gardening does make you realise, that every carrot, bean and brassica is a genuine miracle, a sublime gift from God.

Almighty God we thank you for the miracle of growth, from the rain and the sun, the microbes and the insects that work in the soil, the pollinators, the miracle of seeds becoming plants, and the glorious cycle of life. May we commit ourselves to treading lightly on the earth, that we may honour you as you bless us in your everyday miracles. Amen.