Beannacht Always

Blessed be God who animates our lives and offers us blessing upon blessing that we too might become the blessings intended. AMEN

Beannacht is the Gaelic word for blessing and blessing would appear to be at the heart of our lectionary and at the heart of worship...period.

To bless is defined as to ask for God’s favor or encouragement or grace. We bless food and babies and ceremonies. We bless communion and worship. 

It and the word beannacht are derived from the latin bene and dictum which we collapse into benediction or the speaking of a good word, to wish well, To ask for welfare. 

Theologically then blessings and benedictions are offered to invoke a particular holy presence to make special or well a space, a thing a person.

And what we sometimes forget is that we also ought to bless the Lord, o my soul.   God and we need blessing like we need the sun and water.

Blessing was at the heart of my call to the priesthood. It is certainly the crucial element in Eucharist and Baptism and Marriage and Burial but it has become especially crucial in this time of pandemic a way of connecting all of us seen and unseen with the Divine. It is a way of recognizing and acknowledging and even apprehending the holiness which abides even in dark times.

Blessing is the underlying rhythm and language of our very worship. It begins and ends each service as though to cradle in holiness. And somewhere in the middle my guess is blessing will raise its head again. 

In the psalm 66 today we bless our God who answers our prayers. Many of the psalms bless the Lord and ask God to bless us in turn. This reverberating hymn filled with praise and lament nevertheless secures our relationship of mutuality.

As well in the Gospel Jesus is closing in on departure, which while we know today ended in eternal indwelling, it still seemed like he was going away. And like we would be if our loved one left for a long time or if our loved one died, the disciples are sad and confused.

Jesus offers the comfort and consolation of the Holy Spirit. He assures us that this coequal aspect of God is coming to all of us as the Paraclete, the advocate, the teacher...and so many things which speak of inspiration.

We humans have a hard time with the unseen. Like Thomas we like to touch and prove to assuage our doubts. But say what you will about the Holy Spirit it is at least not only fully God as Christ is but it is ineffable and powerful, numinous and creative, wind and flame, comforting and inspiring.

Ultimately to bring this full circle then we with God’s help and Jesus’ identification, call upon the Holy Spirit to bless us and the world. 

Blessing is a prayer and a promise. It is a request and an assurance. Blessing has no bounds just as prayer has no prescription.

I like to think of blessing as the context for all we do. To bless is to focus our attention in such a way as to not only summon the holy but to recognize the holiness therein. 

I have been privileged to write and convey blessings on four grandchildren. Talk about divine moments.

I carry with me, just as I do a Bible and a Prayer Book/Hymnal, a book of Blessings by John O’Donohue entitled To Bless the Space Between Us.

Through all the various stages of life, through grief and joy, across thresholds and divides, in loneliness or gathering, blessing identifies and celebrates community of all the world. Blessing may be the only thing which transcends and reaches every single aspect of God’s creation. Blessing and invoking the Holy Spirit weaves a tapestry of love around and through us. Blessing reminds us we are loved. 

And so in this time of social distancing and non physical gathering for worship I have been writing and invoking blessings: for safety, for cure, for solace, for patience, for love

They have traveled far and wide. They have also resided right here in Christ Church the entire time and will continue to do so. You are here; God is in this holy place. And when all is said and done, music appreciated, service heard, video watched, we are still God’s children beloved and belonging. May all the earth keep silent. 

Beannacht by John O’Donohue

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 into 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.

May God bless your life that you may be a blessing to others you meet along the way.