may you...

i have just got back from breakout, a national gathering of pioneers. i was invited to try and draw together reflections for the last session. this felt a little daunting! the previous day ann morrisy had been taking a couple of sessions. i had never heard her speak which is surprising but i have clearly missed out... anyway she was wonderful, a breath of fresh air, full of imagination and wisdom. as she spoke there were so many choice phrases that i wrote them down. in the final session the best way i could reflect on her words was simply to turn them back as a gift again to people as a blessing by putting the words may you in front of them (a couple of the lines came from other moments rather than things ann said). a few people asked for a copy so i am blogging it as a worship trick

may you get your timing right through prayerfulness
may you take the risk of bringing your broken self and not your sorted self so that the gospel can flow
may you take micro actions that become graced in the least predictable ways
may you resist the temptation towards a theology of answers
may you have many graced encounters where you build on the wisdom discovered by youthworkers in informal education
may you fill out the comma in the creed and break open the story of jesus life and the way he lived
in crisis and in celebration in your communities may god grant you the improvising craft of apt liturgy
may you remember to pause, not be reactive and reflect
may you foster poetry where lament and grief is always legitimate and tears flow
may the deep joy of the holy spirit make you an animateur of fun, play and laughter
may you remember to talk dirty about faith
may you accept the invitation to express venturesome love
may you see many chins pucker in the blade of the moment when jesus story co-incides with peoples story
in your punctured confidence and weakness may you stay vulnerable and alongside
may the holy spirit enliven your imagination such that you find the world magical, enchanted, breathtakingly wonder-ful
may you not be seduced by the tempter and always know that it is not not money that will bring the kingdom of god
may you find friendship with radicalised older women
may you develop the practices and gaze of soft eyes, compassionate responses and hospitality
may you take the risk of conversation that is two way
may you have the courage to unhitch the caravan
may you wholeheartedly embrace the ministry of awakening to traces of ultimacy and rumours of glory and be a midwife to 'god in the soul'
may you hold true to the task and call you have been given such that 'you don't half put it up em!
may you treasure and listen to the youngest

Comments

[Joan]

Thanks for this blessing litany which I came across recently. I love it all but the prase that has been haunting my thoughts is ...'may you fill out the comma in the creed and break open the story of jesus life and the way he lived.'
Reciting the creeds will never be the same again!
Problem solved.
Thank you
Thank you
Thank you