¹²I knew that there is nothing good in them
– except to rejoice
and do what’s good in their lifetime.
¹³Also,
that all people who eat and drink
and see what’s good in all their work
– it’s God’s gift.

Lord God,
you feed us with the living bread from heaven;
you renew our faith,
increase our hope,
and strengthen our love.

Teach us to hunger
for Christ who is the true and living bread,
and to live by every word
that comes from your mouth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

⁹What’s the advantage for the worker, in what they toil over?
¹⁰I’ve seen the busyness that God has given (human beings) to be busy with. ¹¹He’s made everything fitting in its season;
he’s also put eternity into their hearts,
but so that humanity cannot find out
what God has done from the beginning until the end.

Eternal God and Fatther,
you create us by your power,
and redeem us by your love,
guide and strengthen us by your Spirit,
that we may give ourselves in love and service
to one another and to you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

To all – a season,
a proper-time – for all things
under the heavens:
²A time of birthing, a time of dying,
a time of planting, a time of uprooting what is planted,
³A time of killing, a time of healing,
 a time of breaking down, a time of building up,
⁴A time of crying, a time of having fun,
a time of wailing, a time of dancing,
⁵A time of throwing stones, a time of collecting stones,
a time of embracing, a time of staying far from embracing,
⁶A time of searching, a time of abandoning,
a time of keeping, a time of throwing out
⁷A time of tearing, a time of mending,
a time of being silent, a time of speaking,
⁸A time of being loyal, a time of being hostile,
a time of battle and a time of peace.

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

²⁴There is nothing better for a person
than that they eat and drink
and ‘show their soul’ good
in their hard work.
I have also seen that this is from God’s hand.
²⁵Because who eats
and who has enjoyment apart from Him?

²⁶Because to the person who is good before Him
He gives (godly)-wisdom, knowledge, and rejoicing,
and to the sinner
He gives the busyness of gathering and collecting
—to give to someone who is good before God.
This too is mere-breath, a chasing of wind.

Eternal Light, shine into our hearts,
Eternal Goodness, deliver us from evil,
Eternal Power, be our support,
Eternal Wisdom, scatter the darkness of our ignorance,
Eternal Pity, have mercy upon us;
that with all our heart and mind
and soul and strength we may seek thy face
and be brought by thine infinite mercy
to thy holy presence;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Alcuin (735-804)

¹⁸So I hated all the hard work that I have done
under the sun,
which I shall bequeath to the person who will be after me.
¹⁹Who knows whether they’ll be a worldy-wise person or a fool?
But they’ll be master over all the work that I have done
and the wisdom that I’ve exercised
under the sun.
This too is mere-breath.

²⁰So I myself turned round to letting my heart despair
about all the hard work that I have done
under the sun.
²¹Because a person may work hard
with worldly-wisdom,
with knowledge,
and with skill,
and they give their share from it to a person
who didn’t work hard for it.
This is also mere-breath,
and bad.

²²Because what does the person have for all their hard work
and striving of heart,
with which they worked under the sun?
²³Because all their days, their hard work is pain and vexation.
By night, too, their ‘heart’ doesn’t lie down.
This also is mere-breath.

Lord, you have given me so much,
I ask for one more thing –
a grateful heart.

George Herbert

¹²I turned to see worldly-wisdom, and madness-and-idiocy.
Because what will the person do who comes after the king?
That which people have already done.
¹³I myself saw that

There is profit for worldly-wisdom over idiocy,
like the profit of light over darkness.
¹⁴The worldly-wise person – their eyes are in their head,
but the fool walks in darkness.

But I myself also acknowledged
that one experience happens to both of them.
¹⁵So I said in my heart:
like the experience of the fool,
so it will happen to me, too.
So why have I then been exceedingly worldly-wise?
I spoke in my heart:
‘this is mere breath too’.

¹⁶Because there’s no remembrance of the worldly-wise person,
or fools
in the days to come
because already
they have been forgotten.
But how can the worldly-wise person die just like the fool?
¹⁷So I hated life,
because the action that occurs
under the sun is bad to me,
because everything is mere-breath,
a chasing of wind.

Be thou a bright flame before me,
Be thou a guiding star above me
Be thou a smooth path below me
Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me
Today – tonight -forever
Amen.

St Columba

⁴I made my achievements big.
I built houses for myself,
I planted vineyards for myself,
⁵I made gardens and parks for myself
and planted in them trees with every fruit.
⁶I made pools of water for myself,
to water from them a forest flourishing with trees.
⁷I bought servants and maidservants
and ones born in my household.
I also had livestock, both herd and flock;
I had more than all who were before me in Jerusalem.

⁸I also amassed for myself silver and gold
and the personal treasure of kings and provinces.
I made for myself male and female singers,
and the pleasures of the sons of man, girls and more girls. (?)
⁹I got big and increased more than anyone who was before me in Jerusalem;
also my worldly-wisdom stood by me.
¹⁰Nothing that my eyes asked for did I keep from them.
I didn’t hold my heart back from any rejoicing;
rather, my heart rejoiced in all my labour.
This was my share from all my labour.

¹¹But I myself turned my face to all the deeds that my hands had done
and to the labour that I had put into doing it.
Look, everything was mere-breath
a chasing of wind.
There was no profit under the sun.

O Love, O God who created me, in your love recreate me.
O Love, who redeemed me,
fill up in me whatever part of your love
has fallen into neglect within me.
O Love, O God, who first loved me,
grant that with my whole heart,
and with my whole soul,
and with my whole strength,
I may love you.

Gertrude the Great

¹⁶I myself spoke in myself:
‘Here, I’ve got big and increased in worldly-wisdom
above everyone who has been over Jerusalem before me.
My heart has seen much of worldly-wisdom and knowledge.

¹⁷I’ve given my heart to a knowledge of worldly-wisdom
and a knowledge of craziness and insight.
I’ve come to know that this, too,
was a striving after wind.

¹⁸Because
‘With an abundance of worldly-wisdom
there’s much frustration,
and one who increases in knowledge
increases in pain.’

Grant, Lord,
that we may hold to you without parting,
worship you without wearying,
serve you without failing;
faithfully seek you,
happily find you,
and forever possess you,
the only God,blessed now and for ever.
Amen

St Anselm

I, Qohelet, began to reign over Israel in Jerusalem.
I gave my heart to looking and exploring
with worldy-wisdom
everything
that’s done under the the heavens.

God gave
a bad business
to the children of Adam
to be busy with.

I looked at all the deeds done under the Sun.
There, everything is mere-breath,
a striving after wind.

Something crooked cannot be straightened
and what is missing cannot be counted.

Thank you, dear Jesus,
for all you have given me,
for all you have taken away from me,
for all you have left me.

Thomas More (c.1478-1535)