Morning Reflection for Troubled Times

Posted on March 26, 2022 by rita kowats

Prayer for the Morning 

With this new day, we open our
eyes and we pray: God, inhabit our 
seeing. Live in our looking. Be our 
vision and our sight. Illumine us, 
that we may perceive you, know 
you, welcome you in all the ways 
you go hiding in this world.

Amen.

Jan Richardson In The Sanctuary of Women: A Companion for Reflection And Prayer

Some Questions for Reflection Today

How do we seek God? 

Where do we perceive the presence of the holy? 

How far are we willing to go to find it? 

What feeds our minds and imaginations in our searching? 

How does our hunger for God impact our other relationships—with institutions and systems and other people? 

How do we claim and create our own visionary spaces…? 

Jan Richardson In the Sanctuary of Women: A Companion for Reflection And Prayer

“ A Calming Of The Clamoring”

Posted on January 17, 2022 by rita kowats

…let depart all that keeps you in its cage.
Jan Richardson “Blessing in the Chaos”

Blessing in the Chaos
Jan Richardson

To all that is chaotic in you, 
let there come silence. 
Let there be a calming of the clamoring, 
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 that lies beneath the chaos, 
where you find the peace you did not think possible 
and see what shimmers within the storm.

Jan Richardson in The Cure For Sorrow: A Book Of Blessings For Times Of Grief

Winter Solstice Blessing

Posted on December 21, 2021 by rita kowats

Blessing for the Longest Night

All throughout these months
as the shadows
have lengthened,
this blessing has been
gathering itself,
making ready,
preparing for
this night.

It has practiced
walking in the dark,
traveling with
its eyes closed,
feeling its way
by memory
by touch
by the pull of the moon
even as it wanes.

So believe me
when I tell you
this blessing will
reach you
even if you
have not light enough
to read it;
it will find you
even though you cannot
see it coming.

You will know
the moment of its
arriving
by your release
of the breath
you have held
so long;
a loosening
of the clenching
in your hands,
of the clutch
around your heart;
a thinning
of the darkness
that had drawn itself
around you.

This blessing
does not mean
to take the night away
but it knows
its hidden roads,
knows the resting spots
along the path,
knows what it means
to travel
in the company
of a friend.

So when
this blessing comes,
take its hand.
Get up.
Set out on the road
you cannot see.

This is the night
when you can trust
that any direction
you go,
you will be walking
toward the dawn.

—Jan Richardson
from The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief

December 7: A Blessing In The Face Of Attack

Posted on December 7, 2021 by rita kowats

Its been a challenging morning for me here in my fifty-five+ apartment. Most of us are eons past fifty-five. I often see first responders arrive below my window and most of the time I am grateful for the opportunity to ponder my own mortality. Today is not one of those days. Sitting at the front door earlier I saw five first responders leave in somber silence, when often they leave in jovial camaraderie. Remembering that I’ve not seen Steve lately I went to his door to check and his U.S. Army flag was gone, likely draped on his coffin now. I let all my feelings have their say then turned to Jan Richardson for solace. Ahh. All is well. May you too receive what you need today.

Blessing When the World Is Ending

Look, the world
is always ending
somewhere.

Somewhere
the sun has come
crashing down.

Somewhere
it has gone
completely dark.

Somewhere
it has ended
with the gun,
the knife,
the fist.

Somewhere
it has ended
with the slammed door,
the shattered hope.

Somewhere
it has ended
with the utter quiet
that follows the news
from the phone,
the television,
the hospital room.

Somewhere
it has ended
with a tenderness
that will break
your heart.


But, listen,
this blessing means
to be anything
but morose.
It has not come
to cause despair.

It is simply here
because there is nothing
a blessing
is better suited for
than an ending,
nothing that cries out more
for a blessing
than when a world
is falling apart.

This blessing
will not fix you,
will not mend you,
will not give you
false comfort;
it will not talk to you
about one door opening
when another one closes.

It will simply
sit itself beside you
among the shards
and gently turn your face
toward the direction
from which the light
will come,
gathering itself
about you
as the world begins
again.

—Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

Dealing With Chronic Disease: A Spiritual Practice

Posted on October 28, 2021 by rita kowats

BELOVED IS WHERE WE BEGIN

If you would enter
into the wilderness,
do not begin
without a blessing.

Do not leave
without hearing
who you are:
Beloved,
named by the One
who has traveled this path
before you.

Do not go
without letting it echo
in your ears,
and if you find
it is hard
to let it into your heart,
do not despair.
That is what
this journey is for.

I cannot promise
this blessing will free you
from danger,
from fear,
from hunger
or thirst,
from the scorching
of sun
or the fall
of the night.

But I can tell you
that on this path
there will be help.

I can tell you
that on this way
there will be rest.

I can tell you
that you will know
the strange graces
that come to our aid
only on a road
such as this,
that fly to meet us
bearing comfort
and strength,
that come alongside us
for no other cause
than to lean themselves
toward our ear
and with their
curious insistence
whisper our name:

Beloved.
Beloved.
Beloved.

—Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

It seems to be our human experience in dealing with chronic disease, (especially an unseen one) that we unintentionally hurt and misunderstand one another. Instead of asking for an explanation so we can understand and support, we sometimes make assumptions based on ignorance. Other times we are impatient and push the other to get better because we’re tired of listening. Sometimes a valid sentiment! I’ve done all the above! Likely you have too.

My spiritual practice around this tendency, however, takes a different perspective. I want to grow into a place where I don’t have to have full understanding and respect around the chronic disease that I have lived with for ten years. Enough of this lonely feeling of abandonment!

This mantra seems especially timely considering the pandemic when so many suffer so intensely:

I am Beloved.
I have everything I need within me.
I am Beloved.

Photo Credit: Autumn Road by ferro hanc, deviantart.com

A Blessing For These Times

Posted on July 20, 2021 by rita kowats

Blessing in the Chaos

To all that is chaotic
in you,
let there come silence.

Let there be
a calming
of the clamoring,
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
that lies beneath
the chaos,
where you find
the peace
you did not think
possible
and see what shimmers
within the storm.

—Jan Richardson



https://paintedprayerbook.com/2012/01/24/epiphany-4-blessing-in-the-chaos/

Election 2020: Vigil Prayer

Posted on November 1, 2020 by rita kowats

A Blessing for Traveling in the Dark

Go slow
if you can.
Slower.
More slowly still.
Friendly dark
or fearsome,
this is no place
to break your neck
by rushing,
by running,
by crashing into
what you cannot see.

Then again,
it is true:
different darks
have different tasks,
and if you
have arrived here unawares,
if you have come
in peril
or in pain,
this might be no place
you should dawdle.

I do not know
what these shadows
ask of you,
what they might hold
that means you good
or ill.
It is not for me
to reckon
whether you should linger
or you should leave.

But this is what
I can ask for you:

That in the darkness
there be a blessing.
That in the shadows
there be a welcome.
That in the night
you be encompassed
by the Love that knows
your name.

—Jan Richardson

In Circle Of Grace: A Book Of Blessings For The Seasons

Solace: Offering And Receiving

Posted on September 26, 2020 by rita kowats

In this strange stretch of time, we take turns needing and giving solace. What we receive today we give tomorrow. May spirit guide us to pay attention to others’ need for solace and offer it; that we have the humility to accept solace when it is offered. It’s simple. “Shine your shoes. Fill your refrigerator. Water your plants. Make some soup.” Say thank you. And together we will survive.

Solace Blessing

That’s it.
That’s all this blessing knows how to do:

Shine your shoes.
Fill your refrigerator.
Water your plants.
Make some soup.

All the things
you cannot think
to do yourself
when the world has come apart,
when nothing will be normal again.

Somehow
this blessing knows
precisely what you need,
even before
you know.

It sees what will bring
the deepest solace
for you.
It senses what will offer
the kindest grace.

And so it will step
with such quietness
into the ordinary moments
where the absence
is the deepest.

It will enter
with such tenderness
into the hours where the sorrow
is most keen.

You do not even
have to ask.
Just leave it open—
your door, your heart,
your day
in every aching moment it holds.

See what solace
spills through the gaps
your sorrow has torn.

See what comfort
comes to visit,
holding out its gifts
in each compassionate hand.

Jan Richardson in The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief

Off The Hook

Posted on September 3, 2020 by rita kowats

We try so hard, don’t we? When spiritual development becomes a passion we sometimes work at it to the point of exhaustion, excluding all spontaneity of spirit. That’s why I’m letting myself off the hook today, and invite you to join me if so moved.

In her book, In the Sanctuary of Women: A Companion for Prayer and Reflection, Jan Richardson suggests with Thomas Moore that we let ourselves “get sleepy” once in a while, because it is in the latent spaces in-between when we let go, that spirit can then plant seeds that can germinate. Moore suggests that “…awareness, wisdom, and soulfulness do not arrive solely through perpetually vigilant consciousness.”

So today, let yourself off the hook and let spirit do her work.

Blessing

May you grow sleepy
enough
to find the gap where God lives.
May your soul find its waking
there.

Jan Richardson In the Sanctuary of Women: A Companion for Prayer and Reflection

Photo Credit Fish Hook: http://clipart-library.com/clipart/yikdE9EiE.htm

Photo Credit Person Floating: Esther Lui for NPR

Making Friends With Boredom

Posted on August 23, 2020 by rita kowats

“In navigating the changes, in wrestling with boredom, in confronting our restlessness, in learning to pay attention to what is before us rather than forever moving on to something or someplace that looks more appealing, we come to know regions of our souls that we could never enter otherwise.

Where do you find sources of stability?

What do you learn in committing to something—a place, a person, a way of life—over the long haul?”

In the Sanctuary of Women by Jan Richardson