Here’s
a blessing inspired by the events in John 18:1-19:42. It was written by Jan L. Richardson.
Blessing for Good Friday
You
will know
this
blessing
by
how it
does
not stay still,
by
the way it
refuses
to rest
in
one place.
You
will recognize it
by
how it takes
first
one form,
then
another:
now
running down
the
face of the mother
who
watches the breaking
of
the child
she
had borne,
now
in the stance
of
the woman
who
followed him here
and
will not leave him
bereft.
Now
it twists in anguish
on
the mouth of the friend
whom
he loved;
now
it bares itself
in
the wound,
the
cry,
the
finishing and
final
breath.
This
blessing
is
not in any one
of
these alone.
It
is what
binds
them
together.
It
is what dwells
in
the space
between
them,
though
it be torn
and
gaping.
It
is what abides
in
the tear
the
rending makes.
~
written by Jan L. Richardson, and posted on The Painted Prayerbook. http://paintedprayerbook.com/
