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Blessed Are You

Blessed are you who rage at injustice,

Yet at peace deep within the heart.

Blessed are you who are numb from mourning,

Who have known loss yet still love the world.

Blessed are you who are sick and tired,

Who cry at night as you try to sleep.

Blessed are you who are tempted to turn away,

Give up, yet refuse to yield to absurdity and despair.

Blessed are you who keep breathing deeply,

Inhale pain of the world and breathe out prayer for the world.

Blessed are you who hold onto self respect,

Who tend to your needs as well as the needs of others.

Blessed are you who keep calling out, organizing, writing,

Testifying to truth, seeking solutions.

Blessed are you who keeping listening and hearing,

Resist each day the darkness that surrounds.

Blessed are you who’ve been broken to pieces,

Bear raw pain beyond words, who walk slowly,

Refusing to abandon the weak, homeless and hungry.

Blessed are you who are alone yet not lonely,

Who bear witness in crisis centers, hotlines and hospitals.

Blessed are you who rise from prayer to march with prayer,

Who protest as you weep from heavy injustice.

Blessed are you who are aware divinity resides

In those who are despised, abused, violated,

Who live in fear of those who hold more power.

Blessed are you who are traumatized, raped,

Yet know in your bones a presence of goodness

Forever resides in your heart, who know of the beauty

Within those who are rejected as damaged or old.

Blessed are you who seek healing in wilderness,

Who trust the wildness of unbridled imagination.

Blessed are you who stay tender yet fierce,

Who stand against violence, prejudice and unfairness.

Blessed are you who work to repair, transform hate into love,

Who forgive yourselves when you stumble and fail,

Who forgive those who do not ask for forgiveness.

Blessed are you who daily learn lessons from pain,

Who welcome grace that is free yet can be costly.

Who know in your soul you are more than you think.

Blessed are you who give away love, who refuse to hate,

Who transform hurt from healing freely given,

Who labor together each day to make the world better,

Who bless everything and everyone they encounter,

Who embody all that flows unseen, without need to grasp or understand,

Trusting their touch will heal more than they will ever know.

By Fred Turpin

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