A Franciscan Benediction
Found at We Are Wide Awake.
May God bless you with discomfort at:
Easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships-
So that you may live deep within your heart.May God bless you with anger at:
Injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.May God bless you with tears to shed:
For those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world; So that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
May God bless you with anger at:
Injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.May God bless you with tears to shed:
For those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.May God bless you with enough foolishness
to believe that you can make a difference in this world;
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done.Amen
Originally posted at National Council of Churches
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June 29th, 2006 at 10:39 am
Your post made me think of this:
I asked for strength that I might achieve; I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health that I might do greater things; I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy; I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men; I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life; I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I had asked for, but everything that I had hoped for. Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered; I am, among all men, most richly blessed.
Prayer of an Unknown Confederate Soldier
September 21st, 2006 at 4:41 pm
I seem to be going through a ‘phase’ where I am focused on gratitude. Here are two quotations that stay with me:
If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice.
Meister Eckhart
Gratitude goes beyond the “mine and thine” and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.
Henri Nouwen
The phrase “…all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy” especially resonates with me right now.
September 21st, 2006 at 5:21 pm
Denise, thank you for this, your second comment to this post. It seems that we both have much to be grateful for. The authors of the two quotes above are two of my favorite Christian mystics. The German, Meister Eckhart, who could simplify the Christian message into two words and the Dutch Priest, Henri Nouwen (who just happens to share our birthday) can always be depended upon to tell us what we need to hear at the very time we need to hear it.