I always loved hearing 'let's close for the Benediction'. Whether I was happy because it signaled the end of the sermon, or because I found the words comforting, the idea of a 'short invocation for divine help, blessing, and guidance' is a mighty fine one...
The traditional Benediction is lovely (May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shineth upon you and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace), but when I heard this Benediction as part of Amy Goodman's interview with Doug Peacock about the Montana grizzly bears and his special connection with Ed Abbey, I found it comforting in a more real way... a joie de vivre! way... watch it here... the whole interview is moving and fabulous, but Ed reads his Benediction around minute 45...
Benediction, by Edward Abbey
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view
may your mountains rise into and above the clouds
may your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells
past temples and castles and poets towers into a dark, primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl
through miasmal, mysterious swamps infested with crocodiles; and down from there into a desert of red rock,
blue mesas, domes, and pinnacles, and grotles of endless stone
and down, down again, into a deep, vast, ancient, unknown chasm
where bars of sunlight glaze on profiled cliffs
where deer walk across the white sand beaches,
where storms come and go as lightning clangs up above the high craigs
where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder
than your deepest dreams waits for you
beyond the next turning at the canyon walls.
.......
1 comment:
I was happy because it meant the end was near ..
I do like the other benediction.
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