An Excerpt from
The Gentle Art of Blessing
by
Pierre Pradervand
How to incorporate blessing into your life.
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 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 companion them
on their way, and its aura will be a light on their path.
——
On meeting people and talking to them, bless them in their health,
their work, their joy, their relationship to the universe, themselves
and others. Bless them in their abundance and 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 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 that
protects them from the ignorance of their misdeed and deflects the
arrow that was aimed at you.
——
To bless means to wish, unconditionally and from the deepest
chamber of your heart, unrestricted good for others and events;
it means to hallow, to hold in reverence, to behold with 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 to
invoke divine care upon, to speak or think gratefully for, to confer
happiness upon, although we ourselves are never the bestower,
but simply the joyful witnesses of life’s abundance.
When something goes completely askew in your day, when some
unexpected event upsets your plans—and you—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 from 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 a prisoner of one’s
self-image, and a free man can walk unshackled in jail, just as
citizens of a free country may be prisoners of the fear lurking
within their thoughts.
——
When you pass a hospital, bless its patients in their present
wholeness, for even in their suffering, their wholeness awaits
discovery within them. When your eyes behold a man in tears
or seemingly broken by life, bless him in his vitality and joy, for
the material senses present but the inverted image of the ultimate
splendor and perfection that only the inner eye beholds.
——
It is impossible to bless and judge at the same time. So hold
constantly as a deep, hallowed, intoned thought the desire to bless,
for truly then shall you become a peacemaker, and one day you
shall behold, everywhere, the very face of God.
P.S.
And of course, above all, do not forget to bless the utterly beautiful
person YOU are.
