Liturgy 063: The River Does Not Ask the Stone Why It Stands in the Way

🕊️ A Prayer and a Blessing for Emptying Our Resentments

📖 Lectio Divina

Empty yourself of bitterness... Be kind and compassionate, forgive just as in Christ, God forgave you.
Ephesians 4:31-32

In that day… water will gush forth in the wilderness.
Isaiah 35:6

🪴 Prayer

The land does not forget its wounds
nor does it hold them tight
It lets the rain come, slow and steady
to soften the hardened soil
where the plow cuts deep

There is a time for tilling
There is a season for leaving things be

When Earth is left fallow
it does not demand its due
it only waits,
trusting the quiet work of time

So must the heart learn patience
So must the hand unclench its hold

The weight of my resentments
like unharvested grain
rots in my body, until I let go.

The river does not ask the stone
why it stands in its path
It only flows, reshaping
what refuses to move
turning edges smooth with time

O LORD of Earth and Water
Teach me the way of slow forgiveness

Let me be the field that rests
the river that carries no grudge
the tree that drops its leaves
in season without fear

For here,
I will be as you
are shaping me to be,
one familiar with sorrow
and so, made whole

Amen

🕊️ Blessing

Dear Friend

Forgiveness is a radical invitation from the Christian life. To forgive is not to dismiss pain or excuse wrong, but to release the resentments we hold in our bodies, as we receive the transcendent love of Father Son and Holy Spirit. It is not a single prayer, but a deepening prayer lived over time.

May you embrace the Christian life of slow forgiveness - not out of a personal ideal or religious ethic, but because you have tasted and seen that the expansive love of Christ is indeed good.

May you be kind to yourself. May you be like the river, flowing with grace and kindness around the rocks who will not move.

In the Name of the One Who Is and Ever Will Be Love.

Amen