{"id":423,"date":"2011-03-31T00:22:48","date_gmt":"2011-03-31T04:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/?p=423"},"modified":"2011-03-31T09:25:34","modified_gmt":"2011-03-31T13:25:34","slug":"elemental-blessings-thursday-lent-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/elemental-blessings-thursday-lent-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Elemental Blessings: Thursday, Lent 4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>To offer a blessing is an intimate act that acknowledges  that we are connected with another and that we desire the wholeness of  that person\u2014or that place, or whatever it is that we are blessing. A  blessing is a reminder that God has not designed us to live by our own  devices; we are bound together with one another and with all of  creation, and we are called to work for the flourishing of those whom we  share this life with\u2014and those who will follow. Offering a blessing is  an act of profound hope. In blessing one another, we recognize and ally  ourselves with the presence of God who is ever working to bring about  the healing of the world.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>When harm has come to a relationship, when a connection has been broken, offering a blessing can become difficult or impossible. Yet as we begin to pick up the pieces and to mend, claiming and creating a blessing&#8212;even for one&#8217;s own healing self&#8212;can provide a way to put some of the pieces together in a new way.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Today&#8217;s reflection from <strong>Sacred Journeys<\/strong> comes from a letter to a friend, written during a time when I was thinking about brokenness and blessing.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I think being able to bless means that even in situations that aren\u2019t okay, one hasn\u2019t given up, hasn\u2019t lost power, hasn\u2019t cut off the parts of one\u2019s own spirit and self that were once intertwined with another. Remember those candlesticks I bought to match the chalice and paten I gave you? I got those because they symbolized a profound connection that I wanted a visible reminder of. A few other things sometimes elicited conflicting feelings when I remembered how they connected us\u2014ocean waters, stars, particular songs. I didn\u2019t go around agonizing over these things constantly, but I did remember&#8230;and there were times when I wished I could turn some of the pain of those connections onto you.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Questions for reflection<\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When has a trusted connection brought a wound rather than a blessing? In the fullness of time&#8212;for a blessing cannot be forced&#8212;how might the act of blessing begin to provide a way out of the wound?<\/p>\n<p><em><em>Adapted from <strong>Sacred Journeys<\/strong> \u00a9 Jan L. Richardson<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To offer a blessing is an intimate act that acknowledges that we are connected with another and that we desire the wholeness of that person\u2014or that place, or whatever it is that we are blessing. A blessing is a reminder that God has not designed us to live by our own devices; we are bound [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/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-423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lent","category-sacred-time"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p190Xv-6P","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423","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=423"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions\/427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanctuaryofwomen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}