A Baptismal Blessing for You

 

As we continue to hold and be held by our baptism, I invite you today to hear these prayerful and powerful words of Jan Richardson:

 

As if we could call you
anything other than
beloved
and blessed

drenched as we are
in our love for you

washed as we are
by our delight in you

born anew as we are
by the grace that flows
from the heart of the one
who bore you to us.

Beginning with Beloved ~ A Blessing

Begin here:

Beloved.

Is there any other word needs saying,
any other blessing could compare with this name,
this knowing?

Beloved.

Comes like a mercy to the ear that has never heard it.
Comes like a river to the body that has never seen such grace.

Beloved.

Comes holy to the heart aching to be new.
Comes healing to the soul wanting to begin again.

Beloved.

Keep saying it and though it may sound strange at first,
watch how it becomes part of you,
how it becomes you, as if you never could have known yourself anything else,
as if you could ever have been other than this:

Beloved.

 

May this truth of who and whose you are wash over you this day and throughout the rest of the year.  Amen.