Hello friends.
I want to offer a blessing of hope written by Jan Richardson.
It's part of the Advent Retreat that I'm offering this year and I offer it in light of all of the pain and suffering that is happening across the earth at this time.
We seem to be journeying through a moment in history that is overwhelmingly challenging,
Painful and full of suffering.
It can be hard to know how to respond,
What we can do,
How to take care of those affected and how to take care of ourselves in the midst of it.
I'd like us to start by pausing together and if we were in the same room I would reach out my hands and take hold of yours and we would join together hand in hand as a symbol of our shared humanity,
Of our recognition that when one suffers all suffer.
So as we imagine taking hands together I invite us to pause in silence and remember the suffering of the world at this time.
So as you continue to hold that suffering in the place of your heart I'm going to read these words.
Blessing of Hope by Jan Richardson.
So may we know the hope that is not just for some day but for this day,
Here,
Now,
In this moment,
That opens to us hope not made of wishes but of substance,
Hope made of sinew and muscle and bone,
Hope that has breath and a beating heart,
Hope that will not keep quiet and be polite,
Hope that knows how to holler when it is called for,
Hope that knows how to sing when there seems little cause,
Hope that raises us from the dead,
Not someday but this day,
Every day,
Again and again and again.
So may we know the hope that is not just for some day but for this day,
Here,
Now,
In this moment,
That opens to us hope not made of wishes but of substance,
Hope made of sinew and muscle and bone,
Hope that has breath and a beating heart,
Hope that will not keep quiet and be polite,
Hope that knows how to holler when it is called for,
Hope that knows how to sing when there seems little cause,
Hope that raises us from the dead,
Not someday but this day,
Every day,
Again and again and again.
Amen.
