Monday, August 01, 2005

A Baransu Blessing and a Baransu Prayer for Guidance and Strength

Tom Davison, a friend of my mother's, is quite the writer, and he's written A Baransu Blessing and Prayer for Guidance and Strength. It is too lengthy to post it all here, so you can find it posted on my main site here. But I really enjoyed it, and want to share it with you. Here's an excerpt from the prayer:

"When life seems to be sinking, may God help me as often as possible to go for a walk instead of crashing on the couch, and not only exercise my literal legs (literal exercise is said to alleviate depression), but also my figurative legs, helping me to see how to stand up for my rights in a mild mannered way (like Clark Kent, mild mannered reporter), when I am in danger of being unjustly intimidated, or else may God enable me to use my legs to do the heavy lifting in an effort to rebuild after an emotional “disaster.” This may mean learning to appreciate that the “autumn” of life is better than the coming “winter,” knowing that eventually hope will “spring” anew, and that life’s problems usually have enough compensations and silver linings to make life “good enough,” in the long run. Also may God help me realize that later in life, and in afterlife, perhaps, I will be stronger for the efforts that I make in the here and now to do heavy lifting in the present.
Yes, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”"

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Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B, "Picnic and a Boat Ride," John 6:1-21 (Proper 12B, Ordinary 17B)

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