Louisiana Interchurch Conference

We give thanks for all who have said yes to this calling.

A priest is someone willing to stand between a God and a people who are longing for one another's love, turning back and forth between them with no hope of tending either as well as each deserves. To be a priest is to serve a God who never stops calling people to do more justice and love more mercy, and simultaneously to serve people who nine times out of ten are just looking for a safe place to rest.

So many of our clergy colleagues are in the midst of transitions. May this time of change be a blessing.

At this time of year, I am thinking so much about friends and colleagues who are on the move—who are leaving the communities they have known and entering into new forms of ministry as they begin new appointments, retire, or go on leave or a sabbatical. I wrote a blessing for one of those friends a while back and wanted to share it with you. If you are in any kind of threshold-y time, or know someone who is, this is for you.

THIS DAY WE SAY GRATEFUL
A Sending Blessing

It is a strange thing
to be so bound
and so released
all in the same moment,
to feel the heart
open wide
and wider still,
even as it turns
to take its leave.

On this day,
let us say
this is simply the way
love moves
in its ceaseless spiraling,
turning us toward
one another,
then sending us
into what waits for us
with arms open wide to us
in welcome
and in hope.

On this day,
in this place
where you have
poured yourself out,
where you have been
emptied
and filled
and emptied again,
may you be aware
more than ever
of what your heart
has opened to
here,
what it has tended
and welcomed
here,
where it has broken
in love and in grief,
where it has given
and received blessing
in the unfathomable mystery
that moves us,
undoes us,
and remakes us,
finally,
for joy.

This day
may you know
this joy
in full measure.

This day
may you know
this blessing
that gathers you in
and sends you forth
but will not
forget you.

Oh hear us
as this day
we say
grace,
this day
we say
grateful,
this day
we say
blessing,
this day
we release you
into God’s keeping
and hold you
in gladness
and love.

—Jan Richardson
from How the Stars Get in Your Bones: A Book of Blessings
janrichardson.com/books

Image: “Gesture of Grace”
© Jan Richardson
janrichardsonimages.com