A CHRISTMAS BLESSING
by Christine Valters Paintner
online Abbess at AbbeyoftheArts.com
Reproduced with permission
This blessing dances at the doorway
of light and dark, knows both as sacred:
fertile womb space, miracle of blooming.
This blessing breathes
through those moments of labor
when you too birth the holy
into this fragile, luminous, hurting world
as Mary did two thousand years ago,
eyes wide, hands gripping,
waters breaking like crashing waves
of the primordial sea
sending a prayer through time
that echoes still,
pulsing like starlight
in an enormous sky.
This blessing rests a hand
on the back of the lonely
disoriented
lost
hungry
despairing
persecuted
to say your humanity is not an obstacle
but a threshold, to remind you
that the wound is a portal
through which your gifts pour forth,
that raw ache you feel
is the terrible wonder of being alive
calling you into a communion
of veil-lifters, catching glimpses
of a world where the greeds
and horrors are turned upside down.
This blessing comes as an Annunciation:
the world needs *you* wild edge-dweller
where the wind cries out,
where the stone endures,
your hands a bowl,
your heart a cave,
your eyes a mirror,
bringing a drink of water,
an ancient song,
a shimmering light
reflecting all that we miss
in days of rushing.
This blessing creates a resting place
to gather your strength
between the diastole and systole
of the heart,
to learn to trust
in roses and pomegranate,
in sparrows and dragonflies,
in the electricity of the storm.
This blessing says:
know this birthing is not
once and for all
but again and again,
erupting like moonlight between
bare branches,
like a hearth fire lit for
all who have been exiled.
This blessing calls you home.
As is our custom every year at Christmas, we invite you to join us in praying for and blessing everyone in every nation and territory on the Earth, everyone who is now, has ever been, or ever will be:
Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan
Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi
Côte d’Ivoire, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czechia (Czech Republic),
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic
Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Ethiopia
Fiji, Finland, France
Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana
Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hungary
Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy
Jamaica, Japan, Jordan
Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan
Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg
Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar (formerly Burma),
Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, North Macedonia, Norway
Oman
Pakistan, Palau, Palestine State, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal
Qatar
Romania, Russia, Rwanda
Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria
Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu
Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Uzbekistan
Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia, Zimbabwe
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