A Christmas Blessing
This blessing dances at the doorway
of light and dark, knows both as sacred:
fertile womb space, miracle of blooming.
This blessing breathes
through those moments of labor
when you too birth the holy
into this fragile, luminous, hurting world
as Mary did two thousand years ago,
eyes wide, hands gripping,
waters breaking like crashing waves
of the primordial sea
sending a prayer through time
that echoes still,
pulsing like starlight
in an enormous sky.
This blessing rests a hand
on the back of the lonely
disoriented
lost
hungry
despairing
persecuted
to say your humanity is not an obstacle
but a threshold, to remind you
that the wound is a portal
through which your gifts pour forth,
that raw ache you feel
is the terrible wonder of being alive
calling you into a communion
of veil-lifters, catching glimpses
of a world where the greeds
and horrors are turned upside down.
This blessing comes as an Annunciation:
the world needs *you* wild edge-dweller
where the wind cries out,
where the stone endures,
your hands a bowl,
your heart a cave,
your eyes a mirror,
bringing a drink of water,
an ancient song,
a shimmering light
reflecting all that we miss
in days of rushing.
This blessing creates a resting place
to gather your strength
between the diastole and systole
of the heart,
to learn to trust
in roses and pomegranate,
in sparrows and dragonflies,
in the electricity of the storm.
This blessing says:
know this birthing is not
once and for all
but again and again,
erupting like moonlight between
bare branches,
like a hearth fire lit for
all who have been exiled.
This blessing calls you home.
~ Christine Valters Paintner from the forthcoming A Book of Everyday Blessings: 100 Prayers for Dancing Monks, Artists, and Pilgrims
Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,
This has been another wonderful year and we continue to be so deeply grateful to every single one of you who shows up in various ways to support our programs and participate with our community.
We are delighted to walk the way of the monk and the path of the artist together. (We are even offering a reprise of this much-loved 12-week companion retreat to my book The Artist’s Rule starting in January.) We witness to a different way of being in the world, one rooted in slowness, spaciousness, deep love, and profound care. This path makes a difference, expanding the presence of wonder and imagination in the world.
Whatever and however you celebrate the winter holy days, the whole team at Abbey of the Arts – Christine, John, Melinda, Delaney, and our amazing Wisdom Council – wish you blessings of peace and new birthing.
We will be taking a break from our daily newsletters from now until January 4th. Consider joining us for our monthly contemplative prayer service on Monday, January 5th.
With great and growing love,
Christine
Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE
*A Christmas Blessing video created with Canva Paid License
