To Bless the Space Between Us

“It would be lovely if we could rediscover our power to bless one another. I believe each of us can bless… Whenever you give a blessing, a blessing returns to enfold you.”
–John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

A blessing begins with an invocation. When you invoke the divine mystery of life and feel the energy run through you to bless someone else, you cannot help but be blessed yourself. That energy runs through you. The feeling is empowerment.

What if we took the time to bless each other?
What if we reclaimed our power to bestow blessings on our world?
Imagine if we became temples that spread our sacred blessings into the world.
Imagine the world covered by these moving temples that create a web of blessings, a sacred network.
Imagine how much more holy our lives would be if we reclaimed our power to bless our world.

The Gift of a Blessing

“May we give you a blessing?” asked the group of men.

“Yes,” I said after a pause, a little unsettled. There was a time when I thought that I could do it all myself, but now I welcomed the support.

“We bless you, Joel, on this journey.” They stood before me, hands overhead, palms facing me. I saw in their faces the hope that I would be held and carried by this blessing. I could feel their invocation of the power of this life that ran through them. In that moment my heart felt full — almost overflowing into my eyes. And so it was that on this journey, I did not go alone. For who can be alone, when they carry a blessing.

To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“We have fallen out of belonging. Consequently, when we stand before crucial thresholds in our lives, we have no rituals to protect, encourage, and guide us as we cross over into the unknown… Each blessing is intended to present … the geography of the change it names…. The blessings here attempt to offer a brief geography of the new experience and some pathways of presence through it.”
–John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

John O’Donohue (1956 – 2008) is an Irish poet, author, spiritual teacher, retired priest, and Celtic mystic. His book of blessings has long been on my bookshelf and has carried me through many of life’s challenges.

May it return to you the power to bestow blessings in the world.
May it offer you comfort in the transitions of life, through love, through grief, through exhaustion, through grace.
May it bless you as much as it has blessed me.

Here is one of my favorite of his Blessings for the threshold of a New Beginning.

For a New Beginning

In out of the way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness grow inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.