Lent Reflections Week 4: Blessing

I am lucky to have so many blessings in my life. Today's blessings have included spring sunshine and sharing circle with women embodying the divine feminine of Manchester, Mamucium.

The blessing or benediction is often my favourite part of a Sunday service. To bless one another is powerful. Two of my most loved blessings are Irish - the first, traditional:

"May the road rise with you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
May the rain fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again may God hold you
In the hollow of her hand"

and the second, one that John O'Donohue wrote for his mother:

"On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.

And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The grey window
And the ghost of loss
Gets in to you,
May a flock of colours,
Indigo, red, green,
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
In the currach of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life."

Beannacht by John O'Donohue