Teaching – Calling another to life
Close your eyes and imagine yourself in front of your class. Let your eyes roam around … where do your eyes rest? Why there? Is there a child you rarely notice? Focus on that person….Listen to your heart… try to attune yourself to the mind, heart and spirit of that person…
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Come to me all you who are burdened and weary |
RECEIVING A BLESSING
Ronald Rolheiser speaks: "Several years ago, I preached a sermon on the baptism of Christ within which I remarked that the words that God speaks over Jesus at his baptism – “This is my beloved child in whom I take delight” – are words that God daily speaks over us. Some hours later my doorbell rang and I was approached by a young man who had heard my sermon and who was both moved and distraught by it. He had not been to church for some time but had gone on this particular Sunday because he had, just that week, pleaded guilty to a crime and was awaiting sentence. He was soon to go to prison. The sermon had struck a painful chord inside him because, first of all, he had trouble believing that God, or anyone else, loved him; yet he wanted to believe it. Secondly, and even more painful, he believed that nobody had ever been pleased or delighted with him: “Father, I know that in my whole life nobody has ever been pleased with me. I was never good enough! Nobody has ever taken delight in anything I’ve ever done!” This man had never been blessed. Small wonder he was about to go to prison. What does it mean to be blessed? What is a blessing? The word “blessing” takes it root in the Latin verb benedicere, to speak well of (bene well, dicere to speak). Therefore to bless someone is to speak well of him or her. But this implies a special form of “speaking well”. To bless someone is, through some word, gesture, or ritual, to make that person aware of three things:
You are invited to hold this student or these students in your healing hands as you pray this Psalm of Healing….
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