Benection for 2023
This year has been a challenging one, for many of us personally, but also on a broader global scale, and at times it has felt like darkness and despair have overtaken light and hope. So on this last online resource we will speak a blessing over the year, in three parts:
1) Bless the light within
2) Bless one another with wholeness
3) Bless the world with peace.
Opening Music: Rhapsody of Rest
Begin with listening to this piece of music as an opening prayer of gratitude
Lyrics:
The sun is rising in the east
And the feathered flutes begin trilling in the trees
And I sing to love / Sing to give love
Sing to hold love / Sing to be love
In the morning, thank you, thank you
In the evening, thank you, thank you
In the middle of the day, thank you, thank you
In the deep dark night, thank you, thank you
The sun is shining in the south
And I breathe you in, and I breathe you out
And I breathe in love / Breathe out to give love
Breathe in to hold love / Breathe out to be love
The sun is setting in the west
And the birds begin to sing their rhapsody of rest
And I rest in love / Rest to give love
Rest to hold love / Rest to be love
Mizmor shir leyom haShabbat
In the morning, halleluja
In the evening, halleluja
In the middle of the day, halleluja
In the deep dark night, halleluja
And I sing to love / Sing to give love
Sing to hold love / Sing to be love
Breathe in love / Breathe out to give love
Breathe in to hold love / Breathe out to be love
Rest in love / Rest to give love
Rest to hold love / Rest to be love
In the morning, halleluja
In the evening, halleluja
In the middle of the day, halleluja
In the deep dark night, halleluja
PART 1: Bless the light within
Matthew 5:14: “You are the light of the world”.
Maria Popova: “Every once in the bluest moon, if you are lucky, you encounter someone with such powerful and generous light in their eyes that they rekindle the lost light within you and return it magnified; someone whose calm, kind, steady gaze penetrates the very center of your being and, refusing to look away from even the most shadowy parts of you, falls upon you like a benediction.”
Blessing 1:
In the morning light, O God,
may I glimpse again your image deep within me,
the threads of eternal glory woven into the fabric of every being.
May I catch sight of the mystery of the human soul
fashioned in your likeness,
deeper than knowing, more enduring than time.
And in glimpsing these threads of light
amidst the weakness and distortions of my life
let me be recalled to the strength and beauty deep in my soul.
Let me be recalled to the strength and beauty of your image in every living soul.
Amen.
~ by J. Philip Newell
Quiet prayer / meditation
Spend some time in quiet prayer, letting go of the demanding and fragmenting places that you may have been caught up in with your mind, and open yourself to the clear radiant light of the Spirit – Christ in us, the hope of radiance (you can choose between a 10 minute timer and a 20 minute timer below, which each have a gong at the beginning and three gongs at the end).
Listen to the following song as an ending to the quiet prayer time.
Music: May the longtime sun
Lyrics:
May the longtime sun shine upon you
All love surround you
And the pure, pure light that’s within you
Guide your way home.
PART 2: Bless one another with wholeness and healing
John O’Donohue:
“A blessing is a circle of light drawn around a person to protect, heal, and strengthen. Life is a constant flow of emergence. The beauty of blessing is its belief that it can affect what unfolds. … The human heart continues to dream of a state of wholeness, a place where everything comes together, where loss will be made good, where blindness will transform into vision, where damage will be made whole, where the clenched question will open in the house of surprise, where the travails of a life’s journey will enjoy a homecoming. To invoke a blessing is to call some of that wholeness upon a person now.”
Blessing 2: Blessing in the Chaos
To all that is chaotic in you, let there come silence.
Let there be a calming of the clamouring,
a stilling of the voices that have laid their claim on you,
that have made their home in you,
that go with you even to the holy places
but will not let you rest, will not let you hear your life with wholeness or feel the grace that fashioned you.
Let what distracts you cease.
Let what divides you cease.
Let there come an end to what diminishes and demeans,
and let depart all that keeps you in its cage.
Let there be an opening into
the quiet wholeness that lies beneath the chaos,
where you find the peace you did not think possible
and see what shimmers within the storm.
~ by Jan Richardson
Listen to the following song as an ending to the second blessing.
Music: There is a light
Lyrics:
There is a light
A light that guides you through the storm
There is a place
A place of healing and calm
There is a peace
A peace that lives beneath the waves
Beneath the sorrow and the joy
There is a stillness and grace
Your tears like rain
Falling from the sky
It is God's love
That's falling from your eyes
The wounds of life
They bring healing my friend
For the heart that breaks
Is opening again
The Heart that breaks
Is opening again
PART 3: Bless the world with peace
John O’Donohue:
“The world is not decided by action alone. It is decided more by consciousness and spirit; they are the secret sources of all action and behaviour. The spirit of a time is an incredibly subtle, yet hugely powerful force. And it is comprised of the mentality and spirit of all individuals together.
Therefore, the way you look at things is not simply a private matter. Your outlook actually and concretely affects what goes on. When you give in to helplessness, you collude with despair and add to it. When you take back your power and choose to see the possibilities for healing and transformation, your creativity awakens and flows to become an active force of renewal and encouragement in the world. In this way, even in your own hidden life you can become a powerful agent of transformation in a broken, darkened world. There is a huge force-field that opens when intention focuses and directs itself towards transformation.”
Blessing 3: Blessing for Peace
As the fever of day calms towards twilight
May all that is strained in us come to ease.
We pray for all who suffered violence today,
May an unexpected serenity surprise them.
For those who risk their lives each day for peace,
May their hearts glimpse providence at the heart of history.
That those who make riches from violence and war
Might hear in their dreams the cries of the lost.
That we might see through our fear of each other
A new vision to heal our fatal attraction to aggression.
That those who enjoy the privilege of peace
Might not forget their tormented brothers and sisters.
That the wolf might lie down with the lamb,
That our swords be beaten into ploughshares
And no hurt or harm be done
Anywhere along the holy mountain.
~ by John O’Donohue
Ending blessing (Numbers 6:24-26 paraphrase)
May the Beloved bless you and assure you that you are held in Being;
may you know the full radiance of God's smile shining on you and within you, with unconditional grace;
may you receive Love's tender expression of compassion and delight,
and be at peace.
Amen
Ending Music: Barocha
Lyrics:
The Lord bless you and keep you
The Lord make His face shine upon you
And give you peace
And give you peace
And give you peace forever
The Lord be gracious to you
The Lord turn His face towards you
And give you peace
And give you peace
And give you peace forever
The Lord bless you and keep you
The Lord make His face shine upon you
And give you peace
And give you peace
And give you peace forever
And give you peace
And give you peace
And give you peace forever.
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Sharon's book that was previously called "Contemplative Living" has been republished by AnamChara Books under the title "Deeper: Finding the Depth Dimension Beneath the Surface of Life". The Kindle version is available from Amazon, and the hard copy version can be ordered from loot.co.za or Takealot, or from your local bookshop through Ingram Distribution.