Friday 1 June 2012

Blessed Are...

A blessing based on The Beatitudes which I used last night in prayer group. It's from the conclusion of  Margaret Silf's Landmarks: An Ignatian Journey.

bless the poverty in your heart, which knows its own emptiness, because that gives me space to grow my Kingdom there.

I bless that in you that touches others gently, because everyone responds to gentleness, and gentleness can capture even hardened hearts.

I bless that in you that grieves and aches for all that is lost or can never be, because that is my opportunity to comfort you with my much greater love.

I bless that in you that longs and strives after your own deepest truth and after truth for the world, because even as you pray, I am constantly satisfying these deep unspoken longings.

I bless you every time you show mercy and forgiveness, because that is like a little window in your heart, setting you free from resentment and opening up a space for me to enter and to heal.

I bless the purity of your heart, because that is the elusive center where your deepest desire meets mine. That is where we meet face-to-face.

I bless the peacemaker in you, that in you that seeks the peace that passes understanding, knowing the cost of its obtaining, because that is what I sent my Son to give, and in your peacemaking you become my daughter or son.

I bless even those things in your experience of journeying with me that feel like persecution and abuse and misunderstanding, because they are the proof that your faith is no illusion.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing; I was particularly struck by:

    "I bless that in you that grieves and aches for all that is lost or can never be, because that is my opportunity to comfort you with my much greater love."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ah yes, those ifs,buts and if-onlys...it goes deep...

    ReplyDelete

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