Reflection
Blessing means to lay the hand upon the shoulder and say, “Despite everything you belong to God.” That is how we deal with the world that inflicts so much suffering upon us. We don’t give up, reject or despise it; we call it to love; we give it hope, we lay our hand upon it and receive God’s blessing in joy and in sorrow. We who have ourselves been blessed can do no other than pass on this blessing…to be a blessing wherever we are. Only by the impossible can the world be renewed and God’s blessing is the impossible.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Prayer
May God bless you and keep you; may God’s face shine on you and be gracious to you.
Numbers 6:24-25
Action
Consider how your life has been blessed. How can you pass this blessing on to others?
Suggested Reading
Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.
John 1:16
And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
2 Corinthians 9-8
Since many of you do not belong to the Catholic Church and others are non-believers, from the bottom of my heart I give this silent blessing to each and every one of you, respecting the conscience of each one of you but knowing that each one of you is a child of God.
Pope Francis
Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestation of your own blessings.
Elizabeth Gilbert
Reflect upon your present blessings — of which every man has many — not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
Charles Dickens
The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud. Somebody who may not look like you. May not call God the same name you call God – if they call God at all. I may not dance your dances or speak your language. But be a blessing to somebody. That’s what I think.
Maya Angelou
I walk every day, and I look at the mountains and the fields and the small city, and I say: ‘Oh my God, what a blessing.’ Then you realize it’s important to put it in a context beyond this woman, this man, this city, this country, this universe.
Paulo Coelho
Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.
Camille Pissaro
I believe that God has blessed me in immeasurable ways so that I can, in return, bless and help others.
Karen Civil
You will be blessed the moment you realize you already are.
Bryant McGill
If God has blessed and supplied us with an abundance of things and we see someone in need and do not help, how can we say we love that person
John Buttrick
The ripples of the kind heart are the highest blessings of the Universe.”
Amit Ray
Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.
George Eliot
To me, life is a gift, and it’s a blessing to just be alive. And each person should learn what a gift it is to be alive no matter how tough things get.
Tony Bennett