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The Gentle Art Of Blessing
by Pierre Pradervand
On awakening, bless this day, for it is already full of unseen good which your blessings will call forth; for to bless is to acknowledge
the unlimited good that is embedded in the very texture of the universe and awaiting each and all.
On passing people in the street, on the bus, in places of work and play, bless them. The peace of your blessing will accompany them on
their way and the aura of its gentle fragrance will be a light to their path.
"Hold constantly as a deep, hallowed, intoned thought that desire to
bless, for truly then shall you become a peacemaker."
On meeting and talking to people, bless them in their health, their work, their joy, their relationships to God, themselves, and others.
Bless them in their abundance, their finances...bless them in every conceivable way, for such blessings not only sow seeds of healing but
one day will spring forth as flowers of joy in the waste places of your own life.
As you walk, bless the city in which you live, its government and teachers, its nurses and
street sweepers, its children and bankers, its priests and prostitutes. The minute anyone expresses the least
aggression or unkindness to you, respond with a blessing: bless them totally, sincerely, joyfully, for such blessings are a shield which
protects them from the ignorance of their misdeed, and deflects the arrow that was aimed at you.
To bless means to wish, unconditionally, total, unrestricted good for
others and events from the deepest wellspring in the innermost chamber of your heart: it means to hallow, to hold in reverence,
to behold with utter awe that which is always a gift from the Creator. He who is hallowed by your blessing is set aside, consecrated, holy,
whole. To bless is yet to invoke divine care upon, to think or speak gratefully for, to confer happiness upon - although we ourselves are
never the bestower, but simply the joyfull witnesses of Life's abundance.
To bless all without discrimination of any sort is the ultimate form
of giving, because those you bless will never know from whence came the sudden ray of sun that burst through the clouds of their skies,
and you will rarely be a witness to the sunlight in their lives.
When something goes completely askew in your day, some unexpected event knocks down your plans and you too also, burst into blessing:
for life is teaching you a lesson, and the very event you believe to be unwanted, you yourself called forth, so as to learn the lesson
you might balk against were you not to bless it. Trials are blessings in disguise, and hosts of angels follow in their path.
To bless is to acknowledge the omnipresent, universal beauty hidden to material eyes; it is to activate that law of attraction which, from
the furthest reaches of the universe, will bring into your life exactly what you need to experience and enjoy.
When you pass a prison, mentally bless its inmates in their innocence
and freedom, their gentleness, pure essence and unconditional forgiveness; for one can only be prisoner of one's self-image, and
a free man can walk unshackled in the courtyard of a jail, just as citizens of countries where freedom reigns can be prisoners when fear
lurks in their thoughts.
When you pass a hospital, bless its patients in their present wholeness, for even in their suffering, this wholeness awaits in them
to be discovered. When your eyes behold a man in tears, or seemingly broken by life, bless him in his vitality and joy: for the material
senses only present the inverted image of the ultimate splendor and perfection which the inner eye beholds.
It is impossible to bless and to judge at the same time. So hold constantly as a deep, hallowed, intoned thought that desire to
bless, for truly then shall you become a peacemaker, and one day you shall, everywhere, behold the very face of God.
 Book
by this author:
The Gentle Art of Blessing: Living One's
Spirituality in Everyday Life by Pierre Pradervand.
This book provides tools and
information that enable people to ground their spiritual practice in
everyday life, in the street, the workplace, the kitchen, the
supermarket, everywhere.
Info/Order this book
About The
Author
Excerpted
with permission from the book: The Gentle Art of Blessing - Living One's Spirituality in
Everyday Life, by Pierre Pradervand, forthcoming USA. (The book has already
appeared in French: Vivre Sa Spiritualité au Quotidien, Jouvence, 1998). You
are invited to look up the website on the author's workshops at 7000 feet in the
Swiss Alps (website in French), at: www.life.int.ch
or
e-mail: prader@iprolink.ch
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