BENEDICTION

When We Breathe Together

A Blessing for Pentecost Day

By Jan Richardson (bolding added to assist in liturgical reading)

 

 

This is the blessing

we cannot speak

by ourselves.

 

This is the blessing

we cannot summon

by our own devices,

cannot shape

to our purpose,

cannot bend

to our will.

 

This is the blessing

that comes

when we leave behind

our aloneness

when we gather

together

when we turn

toward one another.

 

This is the blessing

that blazes among us

when we speak

the words

strange to our ears

 

when we finally listen

into the chaos

 

when we breathe together

at last.