As you embrace this day, continue praying for our health care workers, our teachers, and so many more as the Covid-19 numbers keep climbing.
Additionally, please pray for those who continue to struggle with holiday plans, grief, and expectations that simply cannot be met in this season. (As always, your pastors are available for conversation if that would be helpful!)
We pray for comfort, peace, and connection that travels through time and space, and we offer you this poem as a way to welcome this day and the days ahead:
A Morning Blessing by John O’Donohue
I bless the night that nourished my heart To set the ghosts of longing free Into the flow and figure of dream That went to harvest from the dark Bread for the hunger no one sees.
All that is eternal in me Welcomes the wonder of this day, The field of brightness it creates Offering time for each thing To arise and illuminate.
I place on the altar of dawn: The quiet loyalty of breath, The tent of thought where I shelter, Waves of desire I am shore to And all beauty drawn to the eye.
May my mind come alive today To the invisible geography That invites me to new frontiers, To break the dead shell of yesterdays, To risk being disturbed and changed.
May I have the courage today To live the life that I would love, To postpone my dream no longer But do at last what I came here for And waste my heart on fear no more.
Perhaps you have watched the bright sun rise this morning...crisp with November frost. Perhaps you were still snuggled in your bed, warm and cozy. Perhaps this Monday is heavy with disappointed hopes and plans changed. Perhaps this Monday is the beginning of yet another week.
Wherever you are this week...take a moment to read that blessing above. Read it again. And again. As many times as you need to in order to bless this day into goodness, into hope, into possibility. This day is a blessing; let it bless you.
