Hope: A blessing And Prayer

Offering this blessing by Jan Richardson, also as a prayer for the immense suffering that our world is enduring at this time. This meditation includes some silence for us to reflect on our shared humanity with all who suffer and to hold the world in our hearts. Then A Blessing of Hope is read with space to reflect on any words or phrases that resonate.

Transcript

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.

Reviews

So needed in this turbulent world we live in these days. Hope is and will always be my mantra. Thank you!

It's incredibly depressing that nine months after you recorded this blessing for a suffering world, the world is hurting even more. Thank you for this hope, and I resolve that today my hope will not be polite, it will not be silent 🙏🏻

Hope is a muscle hope is a practice hope is a verb

This is a very good thing you have done here the set up is very important, to come to stillness,then to engage with and gently hold our experience of suffering ,then to bathe in the beautifully read blessing/prayer read twice... Genius!

I love Jan richardson’s work. Thank you for honouring women in your offerings!

Thank you! I agree~we need to increase our faith and hope that God is with us through all the current suffering. We must be a light in the darkness🙏🏻