Reading from the Epistles, Trinity Sunday, Year C: Romans 5.1-5

And hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love
has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit
that has been given to us.
–Romans 5.5

“So what do you think about the Trinity?” I ask Gary as we drive to the airport, where he will board a plane bound for Virginia to spend the next few days doing concerts there. As we talk, I find myself thinking about how, in the main, I approach the Trinity not so much as something to be grasped intellectually but as something that wants experiencing, that manifests itself in the dynamism of the relationships that exist within it and flow out from it. I am intrigued by how the Trinity continually lives in the tension between concealing and revealing. Enfolding itself in mystery and eluding our attempts to define it, the Trinity also reaches out to make itself known to us, to engage us in the intertwining relationship that dwells at its heart.

I suspect that God takes delight in our desire to know, to understand, to articulate—to “eff the ineffable,” as my Franciscan friend Father Robert says. Yet the real gift of Trinity Sunday may lie in how it invites us to acknowledge the mystery in which the Trinity lives, and to open ourselves to the love that is the nature and essence of the Trinity—the love that imbues and defines every action and aspect of the Divine, which Paul evokes so beautifully in the Epistle reading for this day.

Even as we stretch our minds in our continual quest to know, to glimpse, to perceive, how will we also open our hearts to the love that is the Trinity’s ultimate gift to us?

Poured Into Our Hearts
A Blessing for Trinity Sunday

Like a cup
like a chalice
like a basin
like a bowl

when the Spirit comes
let it find our heart
like this

shaped like something
that knows how to receive
what is given

that knows how to hold
what comes to fill

that knows how to gather itself
around what arrives as
unbidden
unsought
unmeasured
love.

For previous reflections on Trinity Sunday, click the images or titles below.

Trinity Sunday: Drenched in the Mystery

Trinity Sunday: A Spiral-Shaped God

Trinity Sunday: Blessing of the Ordinary
(includes “Blessing the Ordinary”)

Using Jan’s artwork…
To use the image “Poured Into Our Hearts,” please visit this page at janrichardsonimages.com. Your use of janrichardsonimages.com helps make the ministry of The Painted Prayerbook possible. Thank you!

Reading from the Book of Acts, Day of Pentecost: Acts 2.1-21

When We Breathe Together
A Blessing for Pentecost Day

This is the blessing
we cannot speak
by ourselves.

This is the blessing
we cannot summon
by our own devices,
cannot shape
to our purpose,
cannot bend
to our will.

This is the blessing
that comes
when we leave behind
our aloneness
when we gather
together
when we turn
toward one another.

This is the blessing
that blazes among us
when we speak
the words
strange to our ears

when we finally listen
into the chaos

when we breathe together
at last.

P.S. For previous reflections on Pentecost, click the images or titles below.

Pentecost: The Origin of Fire

Pentecost: One Searing Word
(includes “Pentecost Blessing”)

Pentecost: Fire and Breath

[To use the image “Tongues as of Fire,” please visit this page at janrichardsonimages.com. Your use of janrichardsonimages.com helps make the ministry of The Painted Prayerbook possible. Thank you!]

Reading from the Gospels, Ascension Day/Ascension of the Lord, Years ABC: Luke 24.44-53
Reading from the Gospels, Easter 7, Year C: John 17.20-26

So stay here in the city
until you have been clothed with power
from on high.
—Luke 24.49b

So that the love with which you have loved me
may be in them, and I in them.
—John 17.26b

Stay
A Blessing for Ascension Day

I know how your mind
rushes ahead
trying to fathom
what could follow this.
What will you do,
where will you go,
how will you live?

You will want
to outrun the grief.
You will want
to keep turning toward
the horizon,
watching for what was lost
to come back,
to return to you
and never leave again.

For now
hear me when I say
all you need to do
is to still yourself
is to turn toward one another
is to stay.

Wait
and see what comes
to fill
the gaping hole
in your chest.
Wait with your hands open
to receive what could never come
except to what is empty
and hollow.

You cannot know it now,
cannot even imagine
what lies ahead,
but I tell you
the day is coming
when breath will
fill your lungs
as it never has before
and with your own ears
you will hear words
coming to you new
and startling.
You will dream dreams
and you will see the world
ablaze with blessing.

Wait for it.
Still yourself.
Stay.

P.S. For a Mother’s Day blessing, see Mother’s Day: Blessing the Mothers at my Sanctuary of Women blog. And for previous reflections on the Ascension, click the images or titles below.

Ascension/Easter 7: While He Was Blessing Them

Ascension/Easter 7: Blessing in the Leaving
(includes “Ascension Blessing”)

Ascension/Easter 7: A Blessing at Bethany

[To use the image "Blessing Them, He Withdrew," please visit this page at janrichardsonimages.com. Your use of janrichardsonimages.com helps make the ministry of The Painted Prayerbook possible. Thank you!]

This Saturday, May 4, is World Labyrinth Day. In celebration of the occasion, I thought I’d share this piece of art that I created for a friend some years ago. It’s called Saint Catherine’s Labyrinth, and the words along the path are from Saint Catherine of Siena. (You can find the text here on my main website.)

And of course a blessing for the day as well:

Walking Blessing

That each step
may be a shedding.
That you will let yourself
become lost.
That when it looks
like you’re going backwards
you may be making progress.
That progress is not the goal anyway,
but presence
to the feel of the path on your skin,
to the way it reshapes you
in each place it makes contact,
to the way you cannot see it
until the moment you have stepped out.

Happy World Labyrinth Day to you, and blessings on your path!

“Walking Blessing” © Jan L. Richardson from In Wisdom’s Path: Discovering the Sacred in Every Season.

For more about World Labyrinth Day, visit The Labyrinth Society.

[To use the image "Saint Catherine's Labyrinth," please visit this page at janrichardsonimages.com. Your use of janrichardsonimages.com helps make the ministry of The Painted Prayerbook possible. Thank you!]

For my Ash Wednesday reflection, please see Ash Wednesday: Blessing the Dust.

Reading from the Gospels, Lent 1, Year C: Luke 4.1-13

Almost Lent! As I shared in my previous post, during the coming season I’ll be devoting most of my creative energies to the online retreat that Gary and I will be offering, and we’d love to journey with you in this way. If you haven’t visited our overview page for the Lenten retreat (which you can do from anywhere, in whatever way works for you), please stop by and see what we’ll be about during the coming weeks.

Here at The Painted Prayerbook, I’ll post links to previous reflections and art for the season. After journeying through five Lents here, we have lots of resources for your Lenten path! I also have many images for Lent and Easter. See the Lent & Easter gallery at Jan Richardson Images.

I wish you many blessings as Lent begins.

For a previous reflection on this passage, click the image or title below.

Lent 1: Into the Wilderness

For related reflections on Lent 1 in other years, visit:

Lent 1: A Blessing for the Wilderness

Lent 1: A River Runs through Him

Lent 1: Discernment and Dessert in the Desert

Day 3: Into the Wilderness

To learn more about our online Lenten retreat, click the retreat icon below. Group rates are available!

Readings for Ash Wednesday: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Psalm 51:1-17;
2 Corinthians 5:20b – 6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

As we work together with him, we urge you also
not to accept the grace of God in vain.
—2 Corinthians 6.1

Blessing the Dust
A Blessing for Ash Wednesday

All those days
you felt like dust,
like dirt,
as if all you had to do
was turn your face
toward the wind
and be scattered
to the four corners

or swept away
by the smallest breath
as insubstantial—

Did you not know
what the Holy One
can do with dust?

This is the day
we freely say
we are scorched.

This is the hour
we are marked
by what has made it
through the burning.

This is the moment
we ask for the blessing
that lives within
the ancient ashes,
that makes its home
inside the soil of
this sacred earth.

So let us be marked
not for sorrow.
And let us be marked
not for shame.
Let us be marked
not for false humility
or for thinking
we are less
than we are

but for claiming
what God can do
within the dust,
within the dirt,
within the stuff
of which the world
is made,
and the stars that blaze
in our bones,
and the galaxies that spiral
inside the smudge
we bear.

An invitation into the coming season…

During Lent, most of my creative energies will be going toward the online retreat that Garrison Doles and I will be offering from Ash Wednesday through Easter (February 13 – March 31). We would love for you to join us for this journey and to stay connected with you in this way as Lent unfolds. Intertwining reflection, art, music, and community, the retreat is designed as a space of contemplative grace that you can enter from wherever you are, at any time that works for you.

We sometimes hear from folks who say, “I’d love to do this but I don’t have time for a retreat!” We totally get that, and so we have especially designed this retreat so that you can engage as much or as little as you wish, in the way that fits best for you. Rather than being one more thing to add to your Lenten schedule, this retreat is created as a way to open up some spaces for reflection and rest in the midst of your days.

If you enjoy The Painted Prayerbook, the retreat will be a great way to experience the kinds of elements you find here in a more frequent and focused fashion, with added features that will weave through the retreat and help to sustain you throughout the coming season. Plus, participating in the retreat is a great way to support the ministry of The Painted Prayerbook. Most of all, Gary and I would be so pleased to have the gift of your company in these Lenten days, and to enter together into the mysteries and gifts of the season.

If you have questions about the retreat, or concerns about things that you think might hinder you from sharing in the journey, please visit our overview page by clicking the retreat icon below. The overview page also has a link to a bonus page with FAQs. Please feel free to be in touch with me directly if you need further details. And please share this link with your friends—we’d be delighted to travel with them, too! (And we do have group rates available, for folks who want to share the retreat together near or far.) If you’d like to provide the retreat for someone as a gift, let me know, and we can easily make this happen.

Wherever your Lenten path takes you, in whatever company you travel: blessings and more blessings to you. Know that I hold you in prayer. Peace.

And for a previous reflection and blessing for Ash Wednesday, click the image or title below.

Day 1/Ash Wednesday: Rend Your Heart

For other reflections, blessings, and art for Ash Wednesday, also see my posts The Memory of Ashes, Upon the Ashes (which features the indomitable Sojourner Truth), The Artful Ashes, and Ash Wednesday, Almost.

[To use the image "Blessing the Dust," please visit this page at janrichardsonimages.com. Your use of janrichardsonimages.com helps make the ministry of The Painted Prayerbook possible. Thank you!]

Reading from the Gospels, Transfiguration Sunday, Year C: Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)

And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white…. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” —not knowing what he said. —Luke 9.29, 32-33

Dazzling
A Blessing for Transfiguration Sunday

Believe me, I know
how tempting it is
to remain inside this blessing,
to linger where everything
is dazzling
and clear.

We could build walls
around this blessing,
put a roof over it.
We could bring in
a table, chairs,
have the most amazing meals.
We could make a home.
We could stay.

But this blessing
is built for leaving.
This blessing
is made for coming down
the mountain.
This blessing
wants to be in motion,
to travel with you
as you return
to level ground.

It will seem strange
how quiet this blessing becomes
when it returns to earth.
It is not shy.
It is not afraid.

It simply knows
how to bide its time,
to watch and wait,
to discern and pray

until the moment comes
when it will reveal
everything it knows,
when it will shine forth
with all that it has seen,
when it will dazzle
with the unforgettable light
you have carried
all this way.

And also . . .

ONLINE LENTEN RETREAT: Gary and I would love to have you join us for the online retreat that we’ll be offering for Lent. If you’re longing for an experience that draws you into the season without feeling like it’s just one more thing to add to your Lenten schedule, this retreat is for you.  Intertwining reflection, art, music, and community, this retreat is a great way to travel toward Easter in contemplation and conversation, from anywhere you are. Group discounts available! Begins February 13. For info and registration, click this icon:

For previous reflections for Transfiguration Sunday, click the images or titles below:

Transfiguration: Back to the Drawing Board

Transfiguration Sunday: Show and (Don’t) Tell

And I have one more image for Transfiguration Sunday at Jan Richardson Images:

Transfiguration II

[To use the image "They Saw His Glory," please visit this page at janrichardsonimages.com. Your use of janrichardsonimages.com helps make the ministry of The Painted Prayerbook possible. Thank you!]

Reading from the Epistles, Epiphany 4, Year C: 1 Corinthians 13.1-13

Now I know only in part; then I will know fully,
even as I have been fully known.
And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three;
and the greatest of these is love.
—1 Corinthians 13.12b-13

Blessing that Opens Its Heart to You

You have seen
the impostors
trying to masquerade
as this blessing,
how they cloak themselves
with words
that look so much
like what you longed for
while beneath
they are hollow.

This blessing
has come to tell you
do not be discouraged
do not be dismayed
do not berate yourself
for where you have been
searching,
for the wisdom that comes
along what seems
a foolish road.

You will know this blessing
by how it opens its heart
to you.
You will know this blessing
by how it turns its face
toward you.
You will know this blessing
by how it approaches you
arm in arm with faith
and hope.

You will know this blessing
not by the ease it offers you
but by what it asks of you:
patience and kindness
forbearance and belief
hope and endurance
and more

not because this is what
you owe
but because this is what
this blessing stirs in you,
what it provides for you,
what it pours into your hands
that you suddenly
find open

like your heart
that unfolds itself
in welcome,
finally knowing
and fully known.

ONLINE LENTEN RETREAT: Are you hungry for an experience that draws you into Lent without feeling like it’s just one more thing to add to your schedule? Gary and I would love for you to join us for this online retreat that will intertwine reflection, art, music, and community. A great way to travel toward Easter in contemplation and conversation, from anywhere you are. Group discounts available! Begins February 13. For info and registration, click this icon:

And for a reflection on the Gospel reading for Epiphany 4, click the image or title below:

Epiphany 4: Get Real

[To use the image "The Greatest of These," please visit this page at janrichardsonimages.com. Your use of janrichardsonimages.com helps make the ministry of The Painted Prayerbook possible. Thank you!]

It’s almost Lent, already! Having had such a great time with the folks who joined us from around the world for our online Advent retreat, Gary and I are excited about the online retreat we’re offering for the coming season. We would love for you to join us! Here’s some info that we hope will entice you:

RETURN: An Online Journey into Lent & Easter
February 13 – March 31

This is a Lenten retreat for people who don’t have time for a Lenten retreat (and for those who do!). You do not have to show up at a particular place or time. You can do this retreat from anywhere you are, and you’re welcome to engage the retreat as much or as little as you wish.

Travel toward Easter in the company of folks who want to move through this season with mindfulness and grace. This online retreat is not about adding one more thing to your schedule. It is about helping you find spaces for reflection that draw you deep into the mysteries and gifts of this season. This retreat intertwines reflection, art, music, and community, offering a space of elegant simplicity as you journey through Lent.

If you’re part of a group that would like to take the retreat together, we offer group discounts. Whether you’re part of a group that meets together in one place, such as a Bible study or book group, or a network of friends or colleagues stretched across the country or around the world, this retreat is a great way to travel through the season together.

If you’re hungry for a simple way to move deeply into this season, this retreat is for you. For more info and registration, visit Online Lenten Retreat or click the retreat logo above.

Blessings and peace to you as we lean toward Lent!

And in other news . . .

You can now view sample pages from the beautiful new hardcover edition of In Wisdom’s Path! Designed as a companion through the sacred seasons of the year, with reflections, prayers, poems, and color artwork throughout, In Wisdom’s Path includes sections for Lent and Easter. Click the cover below to visit the Books department at janrichardson.com, where you can view sample pages of In Wisdom’s Path and place orders. (And do some browsing around the site!)

Reading from the Gospels, Epiphany 3, Year C: Luke 4.14-21

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because God has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
God has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
—Luke 4.18-19

A Prophet’s Blessing

This blessing
finds its way
behind the bars.
This blessing
works its way
beneath the chains.
This blessing
knows its way
through a broken heart.
This blessing
makes a way
where there is none.

Where there is
no light,
this blessing.
Where there is
no hope,
this blessing.
Where there is
no peace,
this blessing.
Where there is
nothing left,
this blessing.

In the presence
of hate.
In the absence
of love.
In the torment
of pain.
In the grip
of fear.

To the one
in need.
To the one
in the cell.
To the one
in the dark.
To the one
in despair.

Let this blessing come
as bread.
Let this blessing come
as release.
Let this blessing come
as sight.
Let this blessing come
as freedom.

Let this blessing come.

P.S. I’m delighted to share the news that my book In Wisdom’s Path has recently come out in a beautiful hardcover version! With color artwork throughout, In Wisdom’s Path is a companion through the seasons of the sacred year. For info and to order, click the cover below. (This will take you to the Books page at janrichardson.com.) Inscribed copies available by request!

And for a previous reflection on this passage, click the image or title below:

Epiphany 3: Fulfilled in Your Hearing

[To use the image "To Proclaim Release," please visit this page at janrichardsonimages.com. Your use of janrichardsonimages.com helps make the ministry of The Painted Prayerbook possible. Thank you!]