Seven Blessings
Seven Blessings 1
LOVE
Both light and shadow
Are the dance of Love.
Love has no cause;
Lover and Loving are inseparable
And timeless.
Every moment is made glorious
By the light of Love.
-Reconstruction of “The Meaning of Love” by Rumi
COMMUNITY
A human being is a part of a whole, called by us “the universe”, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separated from our fellow men and women… a delusion of our consciousness. Our task must be to free ourselves from this delusion by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
-Reconstruction of a quote by Albert Einstein
PEACE
Peace is the beauty of life. It is sunshine. It is the smile of a child, the love of a mother, the joy of a father, the togetherness of a family. It is the advancement of man, the victory of a just cause, the triumph of truth. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is all of these and more.
-Menachem Begin and Oscar Romero
JOY
The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between us and others which can be the basis for understanding much of what we do not share, and lessens the threat of our differences. We must discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge, the joy of growth, and above all, the joy of Love.
-Reconstruction of quotes by Mitsugi Saotome and Audre Lorde
FRIENDSHIP
Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
Let your best be for your friend.
Seek him always with hours to live,
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures,
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
-Reconstruction of Friendship IXX by Khalil Gibran
ABUNDANCE
This marriage be wine and halvah, honey dissolving
In milk
This marriage be the leaves and fruit of the date tree
This marriage be women laughing together for days
On end
This marriage, beauty
This marriage, a moon in light blue sky
This marriage, this silence fully mixed with spirit.
-Rumi
CREATION
O our Mother the Earth,
O our Father the Sky.
Weave our bright blanket of life;
May the warp be the white light of morning,
May the weft be the red light of evening,
May the fringes be the falling rain,
May the border be the standing rainbow.
Thus weave for us our bright blanket of life,
That we may walk fittingly where birds sing,
That we may walk fittingly where the grass is green.
-Native American Poem
Seven Blessings 2
We bless God for creating the universe.
We bless God for creating the individual.
We bless God for creating human beings who are one at their core and who complement each other by their differences as woman and man.
We ask that our land be happy and bless God for letting Zion rejoice with her children.
Let these loving friends rejoice. May their joy be paradise on earth. We bless God for enabling this bride and this groom to rejoice.
We bless God for creating joy and happiness, bride and groom, mirth song, gladness and rejoicing, love and harmony, peace and companionship; and we thank God for letting this bride and groom to rejoice together.
