{"id":414,"date":"2011-03-30T00:16:59","date_gmt":"2011-03-30T04:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/?p=414"},"modified":"2011-04-03T12:58:54","modified_gmt":"2011-04-03T16:58:54","slug":"elemental-blessings-wednesday-lent-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/elemental-blessings-wednesday-lent-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Elemental Blessings: Wednesday, Lent 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his brilliant essay “To Retrieve the Lost Art of Blessing,” John O’Donohue writes, “Who has the power to bless? This question is not to be answered simply by the description of one’s institutional status or membership. But perhaps there are deeper questions hidden here: What do you bless with? Or where do you bless from? When you bless another, you first gather yourself; you reach down below your surface mind and personality, down to the deeper source within you—namely, the soul. Blessing is from soul to soul.” (From his book <\/em>To Bless the Space Between Us<\/strong>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

As we continue to explore this week’s theme, today’s reading is a blessing from Sacred Journeys<\/strong>—from my soul to yours.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

By Earth Be Blessed<\/em><\/p>\n

May you know the embrace of Earth.<\/p>\n

May she teach you the wisdom of time:
\nthe unfolding of Spring
\nthe ripening of Summer
\nthe turning of Autumn
\nthe shedding of Winter.<\/p>\n

May she teach you the wisdom of intimacy:
\nseed embraced by warm, dark soil
\ncrevice traced by insistent stream
\nraindrop clinging to new, soft leaf
\nprecious stones in hidden places.<\/p>\n

May she teach you the wisdom of grace:
\nflowers entwining fallen oak
\nhealing gifts of common weeds
\ngrain for bread, fruit for wine
\ndancing stars through barren branches.<\/p>\n

May you be known in Earth\u2019s embrace.<\/p>\n

Questions for reflection<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Where do you experience the blessing of the earth? How do you bless the earth in turn? How would you respond to the questions about the art of blessing that John O’Donohue asks above: What do you bless with? Or where do you bless from?<\/p>\n

Adapted from Sacred Journeys<\/strong> \u00a9 Jan L. Richardson<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his brilliant essay “To Retrieve the Lost Art of Blessing,” John O’Donohue writes, “Who has the power to bless? This question is not to be answered simply by the description of one’s institutional status or membership. But perhaps there are deeper questions hidden here: What do you bless with? Or where do you bless […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lent","category-sacred-time"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p190Xv-6G","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":455,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions\/455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}