Benediction

Caspar David Friedrich

Benediction


For what we are given.
For being mindful of what we are given.

For those who grieve and those who celebrate.
For those who remain grateful in the face of everything.

For the assembly of words that links us together.
For individual speech that becomes speech shared.

For the transformations a written page may effect in us.
For those who pay attention.

For the teachers who gave us the chrysalis of language.
For the comrades of the heart who left us signposts.

For the parent who gave us the one ethic of discipline.
For ourselves who may take discipline to heart, and not resent it.

For the second chance that is the writing down.
For those who know that half of poetry is silence.

For the language of breath, and the breath that is prayer.
For those who wake to light, and know the depths of sacrament.

For this common meal, and us who bow our heads and partake.
For those who remember that “So be it” is also written

Amen.


Nicholas Samaras

There are times when I need a moment to pause and breathe in a lungful of air. A moment to remember the good, to hold it in mind, savour it, allow it to expand within me in thankfulness. Those moments where breath is prayer, where silence is like a blessing. Those moments where I am aware that even the humble details are holy and rich with meaning.