A Prayer for Students of Biology and Allied Health

praying your way through the university #1

I’ve been tasked with helping to integrate faith into the various programs of the College of Online Learning at Evangel University, and I’m going to do it with prayer. I’ve written prayers for General Studies, Allied Health, Behavioral Health, Criminal Justice, Humanitarian Relief, and (of course) Church Ministries. The others are forthcoming. You can read the full introduction to these prayers here.

Students will be invited to pray along with their professors as they study.

The prayers are modeled on a medieval art form called a florilegium which means “flower-gathering.” Each phrase of the prayer comes from a passage of Scripture (I’ve footnoted them). Each Scripture is like a flower from a different plant that, when brought together, creates a new and uniquely beautiful “bouquet.” They have a trinitarian structure, and (generally) follow the timeline of the Scriptures, moving from Creation and the OT, to Jesus, to the Spirit and the life of the world to come. The hope is that students will learn to pray in trinitarian fashion, and that they’ll get some biblical literacy while they do.

If you share this prayer, please link this page for the Scripture references.

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A Prayer for Students of Biology and Allied Health

Father Almighty,

You are the creator of heaven and earth.¹

You give to all humankind life and breath and everything,

For we are your offspring.²

You command the morning,

And you behold the gates of deep darkness.³

You pierce the nose of Behemoth,

and draw Leviathan with a fishhook.⁴

Before you formed us in the womb, you knew us.⁵

Jesus Christ,

You are the firstborn of all creation:

by you and through you and for you all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.⁶
You care for the lilies and the ravens,⁷

And we are the sheep of your pasture.⁸

All of your creation eagerly awaits the revealing of your children.⁹

Holy Spirit, Lord, Giver of Life,

You hovered over the face of the deep.¹⁰

Open our ears to hear creation’s groaning,¹¹

And teach us to groan with all of creation with groanings too deep for words.¹²

Behold, there is new creation.¹³

May the water of life that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb well up in us,¹⁴

That through the study of and care for your creation,

We might bear the first fruits of the Spirit.¹⁵

To the Lord of all the earth—

Amen

1. Genesis 1:1

2. Acts 17:25, 29

3. Job 38:12, 17

4. Job 40:24-41:1

5. Jeremiah 1:5

6. Colossians 1:15

7. Luke 12:24-27

8. Psalm 79:13

9. Romans 8:22

10. Genesis 1:2

11. Romans 8:22

12. Romans 8:26

13. 2 Corinthians 5:17

14. Revelation 22:1, John 4:14

15. Romans 8:23