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For the benefit of our hundreds of employees of all 
faiths and for the benefit of some 2000 customers of 
all faiths we republish here from The American Florist 
of a recent date an invocation particularly fitted to 
our trade. 
O God, the beneficent architect and maker of our earth, 
we begin this conference by bowing our hearts in humble and 
grateful acknowledgement to Thee for the rich profusion and 
infinite variety of flowers, trees, and foliage which Thou hast 
spread over the earth, filling it with beauty and fragrance and 
loveliness. 
Bless and inspire the inventive genius, the art, the skill, 
the study of these craftsmen and students of Thy handiwork— 
these who seek to preserve for us and unfold to us all the 
variety and beauty of Thy flowers, and who, through their 
ceaseless study and industry also discover and transplant for 
our enjoyment and use the pleasure, plants and flowers that 
grow in other climates and other lands. 
Bless them in the name of the sick whose rooms they seek 
to brighten and cheer with theirs and Thy handiwork; in the 
name of the mothers and wives whose wedding days and 
birthdays they make joyous and sweet by their creative arrange- 
ments; in the name of every son and husband who has dropped a 
single rose on a mother’s grave in token of his love and esteem. 
To these craftsmen, and to all of us who contemplate 
the beauty and wonders of nature, may there be given that 
enlightenment of mind to see every tree and flower and plant 
as a reflection of Thy own beauty and loveliness from which 
they came, and discern in them a disclosure of Thy infinite 
solicitude and care and love for the happiness of man. 
Thus, we humbly beseech Thee that there may be de- 
veloped in us that reverent attitude of the poet, Joyce Kilmer, 
which made him see in every branch, a tree’s lacy arms lifted 
in prayer to its God; and that may be cultivated in us that 
appreciative heart of the scientist, Louis Ampere, who after 
hours spent in research and study, and contemplation of nature’s 
secrets, continuously exclaimed—‘How Great God is, How 
Good God is.” May every tree, and flower then point and lift. 
our minds, like chaste steeples of Gothic cathedrals, to You 
our Father, our Destiny, Our Creator, in a spirit of reverence, 
and gratefulness, and adoration. 
Through Christ Our Lord. Amen. 
Invocation delivered by the Very Reverend A. A. Lemieux, 8.]J., 
President of Seattle University at the Northwest 
Florists Convention, on October 6, 1952 
