“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been
the two most beautiful words in the English language.”
~ Henry James
Source of all blessings, you bless us with summer! A time when many of us are drawn to the nourishing embrace of nature, time with family and friends, and a more spacious schedule. Many of us also make more time to notice that which inspires us and delights our senses. With this quality of the season in mind (and we hope that our friends in the Southern Hemisphere will be equally inspired), we invite you to join us in a free, sweet, simple — yet potentially transformative — practice of tending to the presence of blessing in your life. This year we offer a freshly-curated collection of blessings to complement the selection we shared in 2018.
Our inspiration is Br. David Steindl-Rast’s 99 Blessings: An Invitation to Life, a collection of whimsical and precise celebrations crafted over a three-month period during which Br. David wrote one blessing each day — a blessing for whatever happened to come to his mind: “from insects to the Internet, from friendship to fresh linen.”
“Blessing, rightly understood, is the invisible bloodstream pulsating through the universe–alive and life-giving.” ~ Br. David Steindl-Rast
May these eight, short blessings, and the images that accompany them, help you to more deeply notice, appreciate, and feel nourished by the blessings always in your midst and move you to freely share your blessings with others…
Registration for this practice is now closed. Please do stay in touch to learn about future practices.
We leave you with this blessing for the times and seasons of life:
SOURCE OF ALL BLESSINGS,
you bless us with times and
seasons–bringing in their
course birthdays, saints’ days,
and holy days, ever recurring in
their cycles, yet ever new when
they arrive. May I be steadied by
their rhythm, from the rising of
sap to sprouting, blossoming, and
fruiting, falling of fruit and leaves
and of the first snow; may I give
myself to the flow of this great
circle dance that carries us and
joins us together.
With gratitude for the opportunity to join you in the gifts of blessing and being blessed,
