Easter Blessing

If you are looking for a blessing, do not linger here.

Here is only emptiness, a hollow, a husk

where a blessing used to be.

This blessing was not content in its confinement.

It could not abide its isolation,the unrelenting silence,

the pressing stench of death.

So if it is a blessing that you seek,

open your own mouth.

Fill your lungs with the air that this new

morning brings and then release it with a cry.

Hear how the blessing breaks forth in your own voice

how your own lips form every word

you never dreamed to say.

See how the blessing circles back again wanting you to

repeat it but louder, how it draws you, pulls you

sends you to proclaim its only word:

risen

risen

risen.

- Jan Richardson

www.thepaintedprayerbook.com