May God bless you with a restless discomfort
about easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships,
so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.
May God bless you with holy anger
at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.
May God bless you with the gift of tears
to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish,
so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.
May God bless you with enough foolishness
to believe that you really can make a difference in this world,
so that you are able, with God’s grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.
There are different versions of the above benediction around. And also attributed to different sources.
[Update: in researching for this post, I found it attributed to St Francis of Assisi, and called “Franciscan”, and “Benedictine” – so was disappointed to give up on clarifying before publishing. Now Laura Sykes (and now Paul Neeley)has pointed me to Sister Ruth Fox, OSB as being the source of this blessing’s text. Thanks.]
Here is another version:
May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that we may live deep within our hearts.
May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that we may work for justice, freedom, and peace.
May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, hunger, and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done, to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.
Very regularly, we are confronted with a health-and-wealth distortion of Christianity. The blessing, above, directly counters this distortion.
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And Leunig’s wonderful prayer…
God give us rain when we expect sun.
Give us music when we expect trouble.
Give us tears when we expect breakfast.
Give us dreams when we expect a storm.
Give us a stray dog when we expect congratulations.
God play with us, turn us sideways and around.
Awesome! Thanks, Mark. Blessings.
What a wonderful prayer this would be for each of the Primates of the Anglican Communion called to meet together in Canterbury, hosted by the ABC, in Hanury, 2016.
One can imagine the ‘stray dog’ being more likely to be bundled into a cupboard than welcomed there. Sadly, I may say!