While we seem to have progressed to become experts in so many things -multiplying and acquiring stuff we neither need nor want we have unlearned the grace of presence and belonging. With the demise of religion, many people are left stranded in a chasm of emptiness and doubt; without rituals to recognise, celebrate or negotiate the vital thresholds of their lives, the key crossings pass by, undistinguished form the mundane, everyday rituals of life. This is where we need to retrieve and reawaken our capacity for blessing.

John O’ Donoghue: Benedictus.

I have always  loved the words of John O’ Donoghue, words of wisdom and whimsy, of prayer and poetry, with that great Celtic seam coursing through his sensibility and insight into the human condition. His gift of words makes me pause and is often the impetus for my own further thinking  and writing.  There is brooding and brogue, blood and bone, in what he has to say. His is that gentle prophetic reminder prodding us when we become too comfortable or inert, lulled as we sometimes are into complacence.

It seems to me that today we are so spoiled by the smorgasbord of distractions, addictions and digital sorcery that we have forgotten what it is to be blessed by the connections we make as human beings together, both in families and in community groups. Those rites and rituals which stood for so long as entry points or thresholds or bridges to maturity or staging posts along life’s journey have been lost in a merging of things into a mirage where we wander off seeking more, but finding less.

John reminds us that we need to retrieve and reawaken our capacity for blessing.

In order to do that we need to look at the world around us and see what is not life-enhancing for us. What is preventing us from seeking and finding and giving blessing to others with the way we live our lives, share ourselves, trust others, belong to a communion of people? What is making us restless? Is it a surfeit of choices? Is it the kaleidoscopic invitation to be visible, a brand, a thought-leader or influencer? Is it an insatiable need for affirmation from thousands of people we will never meet?

Perhaps we need to subvert this paradigm and think about how we are affirmed and affirm those people we do meet in the ordinary days of our lives. These may be the people we love the most, but also the bit players in our lives, the other minor characters with whom we have daily interactions; colleagues, the tram driver, the person you see each morning at the same time ordering their coffee; the person in the call-centre dealing with your query. Remember we are also a part of their crowd scene and it is telling to see how we are treated; ignored or noticed, dismissed or included, relegated or recognised.

Jesus was not afraid to share the authentic blessing of himself with others. He consorted with those on the fringes, those who had little social standing, those who were suffering from disease or affliction, those who had no voice. He stood up to hypocrisy and dined with sinners, tax collectors, fishermen. And he did everything with the profound grace of recognition, inclusion and dignity for all.

In a world where almost anything goes, we need to reacquaint ourselves with ourselves. We need to slow down, take spiritual stock, spend time in company that builds us up, those who know us as we truly are. We need to discard the behaviours that crave wide adulation and look instead at how we treat those in our innermost circle and those in our wider community. Do we have the time to be kind as we rush from one meeting to another? Do we notice the child whose lips are quivering because they are upset or the adult who is stoically holding it all together for the sake of the family? Blessing is about recognition and the joy of connection, of the warmth and understanding that can exist if we but pause and notice. Words, especially, can be blessings when we use them well as Proverbs 16:24 reminds us: Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

Our community celebration of Easter is a glorious reminder that we share a common story. We believe in the Resurrection and the life of the world to come. We have our connecting rituals, our pause points in a frenetic world. What we need to do now is take more time, make the moments we spend with others sacred, rather than scarce. We need to relearn the grace of presence and belonging. We need to be awake to the world. Not some virtual world where avatars steal our souls, but the world of blood and bone, skin and scar, IRL

Each of us can be a blessing to others when we listen, laugh, provide a shoulder to cry on, counsel, pray, encourage, share a little of the best of who we are. Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote: What you are is God’s gift to you; what you become is your gift to God. We have already so much latent blessing, we just need to retrieve it and put it out into the world. As we enter the month of May, Mary and motherhood we are reminded of the multiple blessings of motherhood, together with its long hours, constant alertness and its moments of aching love and heart-stomping pride.

Our invitation as an Easter people is to live out the blessing of our lives with the blessing of all those other lives that intersect with ours. Let the Resurrection story be a timely reawakening of who we can be as we truly companion each other on the great road of life.

By Ann Rennie