It would be infinitely lonely to live in a world without blessing. The word blessing evokes a sense of warmth and protection; it suggests that no life is alone or unreachable. Each life is clothed in raiment of spirit that secretly links it to everything else. Though suffering and chaos befall us, they can never quench that inner light of providence.
-John O’Donohue in To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings
This week I was invited by a friend to participate in a ceremonial beginning, or maybe it was an ending? It was both an ending and a new beginning and it was such an honor to be invited, via Zoom to watch and participate. I was struck by the importance of rituals and blessings. Special chairs, readings, and rocks moved an average Wednesday afternoon meeting from normal to sacred.
Blessings of hope, encouragement, belief, courage, and peace were pressed-maybe literally into a rock. As I watched I thought about how much that simple, plain rock now means. Spoken blessings transformed matter into a message.
A blessing is not a sentiment or a question it is a gracious invocation where the human heart pleads with the divine heart.
-John O’Donohue in To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings
I’ve learned to appreciate the power of blessing in the pews of an Episcopal church. Spoken blessings were not a part of my vocabulary in my experience prior. There are blessings for 13-year-olds. The blessing begins with the 13-year-old sitting on one side with their parents and ends with them being welcomed to the other side of the pews with the other teens and young adults. There are blessings for new drivers, prayers for safety, and wisdom that ends with a key chain being pressed into their hands. Those are a few of the special blessings.
But every service begins and ends with blessings. “And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve your as faithful witnesses..”1 Just words, but words that are ordered and ordained to impart a sense of something larger. Words that are spoken, again and again, that in the repetition that instead of becoming rote, become more meaningful.
Blessings call our hearts upward and outward. Blessings ground us and give us wings. My kids are back in in-person school. A few years ago we started reciting a blessing, that I recently realized was being written onto their hearts. As they started back to in-person school my daughter asked “will we say the blessing?” So, most mornings as they leave our door to go to school together we say:
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you wherever He may send you. May he guided you through the wilderness and protect you through the storms. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
Celtic Book of Prayer
There have been days where the storms of friendships and misunderstandings have assailed them. Other days the playground has felt like a wilderness. On those days I love that my kids in the deepest part of their spirits know that they were blessed and that when they reach the end of the wilderness and the storm eases, rejoicing will come. It’s deeper than words and not even something they know, but I know their hearts know. Blessings, simple words hold power.
John O’Donohue’s book To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings is a wonderful compendium of blessings. He explores the power of blessing and says blessings help us cross thresholds-times of change and transition that are a part of being human.
The quiet eternal that dwells in our souls is slient and subtle; in the activity of blessing it emerges to embrace and nurture us. Let us begin to learn how to bless one another. Whenever you give a blessing, a blessing returns to enfold you.
John O’Donohue
Blessing is a practice. Something that we can practice and learn. As I wrote the first part of this and spent some time reading O’Donohue’s book I read a blessing that I knew a friend needed. Instead of snapping a picture of the page and sending it, I recorded myself reading the blessing and send a text.
Did I feel funny recording myself reading a blessing? Yes.
Did it matter to the person who received it? Yes.
Did it result in other people being touched by the words of the blessing? Yes.
Did simple words ripple out and help others I don’t know. Yes.
When I think about what it means to live smaller and deeper. Learning to bless with our words seems an important part.
Practice offering small, in the quiet of your soul blessings. Offer a blessing as you cook dinner: May this meal bring nourishment to body and soul. Offer a blessing when you see a tree, hawk, spring flower anything in nature that catches your eye: (my kids and I often say) “I bid you peace.” or “The Christ in me bows to the Christ in you.”
For Belonging
May you listen to your longing to be free.
May the frames of your belonging be generous enough for your dreams.
May you arise each day with a voice or blessings whispering in your heart.
May you find a harmony between your soul and your life.
May the sanctuary of your soul never become haunted.
May you know the eternal longing that lives at the heart of time.
May there be kindness in your gaze when you look within.
May you never place walls between the light and yourself.
May you allow the wild beauty of the invisible world to gather you, mind you, and embrace you in belong.
-John O’Donohue (To Bless the Space Between Us)
(You could choose one line and let it be a blessing in your life this week!)
ideas.poems.quotes.songs that sparkled for me this week.
(I try and pay attention to words or phrases that stand out to me in my reading and listening. There is a spiritual practice called Florliledgium that is collecting short, interesting pieces {words that “sparkle” up} and putting them together. This is kind of like that. Watching for things that sparkle. Gathering them and seeing how they work together and what message, mantra, or new idea might arise.)
In the biblical sense, if you give me your blessing, you irreversibly convey into my life not just something of the beneficent power and vitality of who you are, but something also of the life-giving power of God, in whose name the blessing is given.
-Fredrick Buechner in Wishful Thinking
…linger awhile over each person you meet, each person you live with, each relationship, even those people you see walking through the crowds, the strangers you do not know. Look on them with love. Contemplate them. Take them into your heart.
It is easy to miss the very people you live with. It is easy to get so used to them that you start taking them for granted. it is easy for the moments spent together to go by and remain moments untouched and unblessed.
-Marcina Wiederkehr- A Tree Full on Angels: Seeing Holy in the Ordinary
Life is short and we do no have much time to gladden the hearts of those who journey the way with us. So be swift to love and make haste to be kind.
-Henri Frederic Amiel
Photo by Anastasiya Romanova on Unsplash
Photo by Anastasiya Romanova on Unsplash
A Smaller & Deeper Blessing
May you have eyes to see the small delights.
Ears to hear the deeper call.
May you find ease in the right yes and peace in no.
Through the highs and lows of this week, may you know you don’t walk alone.
*Typos, misplaced commas, etc. prove my humanity.
Book of Common Prayer