Liturgy 092: Mourn

Beauty, Blessing, and Happiness III

Lectio Divina

Blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.
Jesus

Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.
It took me years to understand
that this, too, was a gift.
Mary Oliver

Prayer

God who wept
before raising the dead

You
do not rush
your children
through the ache.

You sit beside us in the silence.
You know the sound
of weeping.

You did not eradicate sorrow.
You entered it.

You made mourning
a doorway to abide.

God, I have lost.
I have cried out in the dark.
I have folded letters I will never send.

You do not say,
Get over it.

You say,
Blessed.

Blessed are those who feel,
Who do not numb the wound
but let it throb
until love
begins to grow
where the enemy
once lived.

Amen.

Blessing

May your tears be held
in the palm of God.

May the ones you’ve lost
be honored in the slowness
of your steps.

May your grief be a cloth
God uses to mend the world.

May you be comforted.
Not with answers,
but with Presence.

In the Name of the One
who wept aloud before God
and Friends.

Amen