Praying with the Birds: Finding God in Evening Vespers

Praying with the Birds: Finding God in Evening Vespers January 29, 2025

The weather determines if I observe evening prayer or vespers on the back deck of my house. This Autumn, I noticed something that I could not remember happening before. Along the fence in the backyard, one tree loses all of its leaves in November. It is that time when I can get the best view of the birds that stop there on the way to and from my bird feeders. Once the winter took hold and the sun began to go down around 5:30 in the evening, many birds (mostly robins) landed in the top branches and faced west. They are there catching the last part of the warm sunlight. Coincidentally, I am doing the same for my prayer time.

Birds of Prayer?

One Easter morning, my congregation made our way up the hill into the cemetery for the Sunrise service. I was helping one of our older ladies, along with another gentleman, get up the hill. The other helper said, “The birds are making a lot of noise.” The lady we were helping said, “They are up praising the Lord this morning.” I jokingly told her I would grant her that claim, but they had no way of knowing it was Easter.

There is plenty of research on why birds vocalize, including calls for a mate or warning other birds of danger. For a birder, this is all interesting. The research on why human beings enjoy bird songs often leads us to conclude our positive responses are, as a hunting species, the noises meant dinner. I agree with that conclusion. However, I do not depend on hunting for food. My response when seeing the birds involves something else.

Connecting to Something Interesting

Do I believe the birds keep prayer times or pray at all? No. If I learned they did, I would not be surprised. Various animals have ritualized behaviors. Bonobos, for instance, shake the tree limbs during a rain storm. No one can say why they do it. They stop when the storm stops.

Humans have the most ritualized behaviors. We can know the meanings behind them. Rituals connect us to more than we are aware of. Christians use oils, bread, wine, and water in their rituals.  We connect then with the fruit of the earth as well as the life-giving elements of it. The bread is the body of Christ. The wine is the blood. Scripturally speaking, blood is the life. All our rituals are about our connection to what we see in the Creation. Oil and wine are ancient medicines, as well as food.  Water is a necessary mineral. It falls from the sky and comes from the ground, too.

Birds of Care

Birds are fascinating creatures. I held a rooster against me as I moved him to a new coop. He looked up at me. I thought about how angry he looked—he may have been. His job was to protect his hens, and he was good at it. When a hawk flew overhead, he would extend his wings, holding the hens back in the covered area of the coop.

Birds live precarious lives and enjoy it. The cooper’s hawk in our neighborhood never bothers the robins during their sunset ritual. It may not want to get tangled among the limbs while stretching its talons to grab one. Rabbits and mice may be better fare. I can’t ask to find out, unfortunately.

I just enjoy them all as my neighbors. In a few hours, we will all be back out there. I will be in Vespers prayer. They will be doing their ritual. We will be distant companions for a brief time.


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