Thanksgiving for God’s Goodness (Psalm 103:1-5)

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
   and all that is within me,
   bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
   and do not forget all his benefits—
who forgives all your iniquity,
   who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the Pit,
   who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good as long as you live
   so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

—Psalm 103:1-5 (New Revised Standard Version/NRSV).

…A Restless Discomfort…

May God bless you with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.

May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you really CAN make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God’s grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.

And the blessing of God the Supreme Majesty and our Creator,
Jesus Christ the Incarnate Word who is our brother and Saviour,
and the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Guide,
be with you and remain with you, this day and forevermore.

AMEN
by Sr. Ruth Fox, OSB (1985)
Thanks to Joel Rieves who blogs at butnotyet.com for sharing this.

Ar Hyd y Nos

Welsh:

Holl amrantau’r sêr ddywedant
Ar hyd y nos
Dyma’r ffordd i fro gogoniant
Ar hyd y nos.
Golau arall yw tywyllwch
I arddangos gwir brydferthwch
Teulu’r nefoedd mewn tawelwch
Ar hyd y nos.

O mor siriol, gwena seren
Ar hyd y nos
I oleuo’i chwaer ddaearen
Ar hyd y nos.
Nos yw henaint pan ddaw cystudd
Ond i harddu dyn a’i hwyrddydd
Rhown ein golau gwan da’n gilydd
Ar hyd y nos.

English version:
(not an actual translation)

Sleep my child and peace attend thee,
All through the night
Guardian angels God will send thee,
All through the night
Soft the drowsy hours are creeping
Hill and vale in slumber steeping,
I my loving vigil keeping
All through the night.

While the moon her watch is keeping
All through the night
While the weary world is sleeping
All through the night
O’er thy spirit gently stealing
Visions of delight revealing
Breathes a pure and holy feeling
All through the night.

Blessings before meals

I read a blog post today from CNN’s “Belief” blog titled My Faith: How saying a blessing changed my secular family’s meals and wanted to share it. Great message. I especially like the “secular prayer” it includes as a suggestion for a blessing before meals that focuses on thanks and gratitude rather than a specific religious perspective:

Blessings on the blossoms,
Blessing on the fruits,
Blessings on the leaves and stems,
Blessings on the roots,
Loving hands together as we say,
Blessings on our meal,
And our time together.

Saint Francis and the Sow

The bud
stands for all things,
Even for those things that don’t flower,
For everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
Though sometimes it is necessary
To reteach a thing its loveliness,
To put a hand on its brow
Of the flower
And retell it in words and in touch
It is lovely
Until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
As Saint Francis put his hand on the creased forehead
Of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
Blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
Began remembering all down her thick length,
From the earthen snout all the way
Through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of
The tail,
From the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
Down through the great broken heart
To the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting
And shuddering
From the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths suckling
And blowing beneath them:
The love, perfect loveliness of sow.

–Poem used by Anne Lamott “Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith” (New York: Riverhead Books, 2007), pp. 47-48.

A blessing in honor of St. Patrick’s Day

May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and the rain fall soft upon your fields,
and until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of God’s hand.

Modern-day Beatitudes

Blessed are those who are convinced of their basic dependency on God, whose lives are emptied of all that doesn’t matter, those for whom the riches of this world just aren’t that important. The kingdom of heaven is theirs.

Blessed are those who know that all they are is a gift form God, and so they can be content with their greatness and their smallness, knowing themselves and being true to themselves. For they shall have the earth for their heritage.

Blessed are those who wear compassion like a garment, those who have learned how to find themselves by losing themselves in another’s sorrow. For they too shall receive comfort.

Blessed are the merciful, those who remember how much has been forgiven them, and are able to extend this forgiveness into the lives of others. For they too shall receive God’s mercy.

Blessed are the creators of peace, those who build roads that unite rather than walls that divide, those who bless the world with the healing power of their presence. For they shall be called children of God.

Blessed are those whose love has been tried, like gold, in the furnace and found to be precious, genuine, and lasting, those who have lived their belief out loud, no matter what the cost or pain. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

–From Seasons of Your Heart by Macrina Wiederkehr, OSB, p. 78.