“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.” -John O’ Donohue

In this Holy season of Advent we are invited into a deeper awareness through reflection and prayer.  Advent is a time for exploration of our inner life, especially during these dark winter nights. We can pause in quiet contemplation even amidst the swirling chaos of everyday life to discover the still point within.

St Anselm encouraged us to “Escape from your everyday busyness . . . hide for a moment from your restless thoughts. Break off from your cares and troubles and be less concerned about your tasks and labors. … Enter your mind's inner chamber. Shut out everything but God and whatever helps you to seek him; and when you have shut the door, look for him.”

The reality that this earthly life is always passing lends to a feeling of vulnerability. Yet, rather than running, we can acknowledge with reverence just how precious our time here is with one another.

This is our homecoming, to release our fear as we look into the eyes of another and see the Christ child, as Love awakens our hearts. Suddenly we understand that we are in this together.  Another’s pain, becomes our pain, a friend’s joy completes our own. We only need reach beyond the chasm of darkness into the light of one another's presence to awaken the gift that abides in us all.  

May the blessing of light be on you – light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you like a great peat fire,
so that stranger and friend may come and warm himself at it.

And may light shine out of the two eyes of you,
like a candle set in the window of a house,
bidding the wanderer come in out of the storm.

And may the blessing of the rain be on you,
may it beat upon your Spirit and wash it fair and clean,
and leave there a shining pool where the blue of Heaven shines,
and sometimes a star.

And may the blessing of the earth be on you,
soft under your feet as you pass along the roads,
soft under you as you lie out on it, tired at the end of day;
and may it rest easy over you when, at last, you lie out under it.

And  may the Lord bless you, and bless you kindly.

Amen.

A Scottish Blessing

Liz Sorensen Wessel   

 Drawing by ~liz