BLESSED ARE THESE HANDS

Here's a poem that I found on Emergent Village:

Blessed be the works of your hands, O Holy One.

Blessed be these hands that have touched life.

Blessed be these hands that have nurtured creativity.

Blessed be these hands that have held pain.

Blessed be these hands that have embraced with passion.

Blessed be these hands that have tended gardens.

Blessed be these hands that have closed in anger.

Blessed be these hands that have planted new seeds.

Blessed be these hands that have cleaned, washed, mopped, scrubbed.

Blessed be these hands that are wrinkled and scarred from doing justice.

Blessed be these hands that have reached out and been received.

Blessed be these hands that hold the promise of the future.

Blessed be the works of your hands, O Holy One.

Interfaith Worker Justice

Blessing for the journey

Here's a beautiful blessing written by Gerard Kelly found on his spoken worship site
http://spokenworship.tumblr.com/post/4181292339/blessing 

May God, in whose furnace faith is forged; in whose being beauty breathes; at whose dawning darkness flees, shine on you.

May the Father, whose love for you beats with a rhythm time itself can’t stop; whose presence in your exile is the promise of home; whose certainties are deeper than the cellars of your city; whose breath is life, breathe on you.

May the son, whose story is a mirror of your own; who has journeyed into darkness to find a key to your prison; who has dived the deepest oceans to find pearls for your wisdom; who has looked into your heart and found a beauty worth the battle; who has written your name on a white stone carved in secret, hold you.

May the Spirit, who has waited millennia to fill you; who shaped the word that moved the wind of the morning that conceived you; who holds the earth on which you stand as an artist holds a candle; who fully knows you, wholly own you

So may God the faithful father, God the scarred son, God the sculpting spirit journey with you