A Book of Blessings

A collection of blessings for the people, celebrations, sadnesses, artefacts, special occasions and journeys of our lives. It also explores the tradition of blessings, including biblical and Celtic, and offers ideas and resources to encourage readers to write blessings of their own, with suggestions for how to organise a blessings workshop.

Ruth Burgess, who is also co-editor with Kathy Galloway of Praying for the Dawn: A Resource Book for the Ministry of Healing, leads litugical workshops which often include `blessing-writing`. She aims in this book to pass on her experience and knowledge.

Customer Comment
I used one of the blessings as a reflection for our quiet time in the hospice yesterday, and all agreed it was not only brilliant but the bath-time blessing said it all.

Review:
A Book of Blessings
I am a pushover for beautiful books and for blessings. `A Book of Blessings` is a delight, as it combines both.
The cover of the book is so lovely that both Tracy Neil, my assistant, and I found ourselves stroking it. Inside, the book is just as beautiful - and the content is enjoyable and inspiring, worthy of the presentation.
Some of the blessings have been written by individuals working alone, others were the fruit of blessings workshops. Some of them can be used in the context of worship, others are more like prayers for reflection. There are blessings for happy times and for sad times, blessings for a computer, blessings for a cat, blessings for a dog.
Perhaps the best tribute to this book came on the evening of 11 September, the day it arrived. I went to an evening meeting full of the horror of the attack on the World Trade Centre and showed it to people simply because I wanted to share something beautiful and wonderful, almost in defiance of what had happened that day. Immediately the person leading the opening prayer abandoned what he was going to do and used one of the blessings from this book. Later, the person leading the closing prayer also chose a blessing from this book.
If you too like beautiful books and blessings, I cannot commend this book highly enough. I have already bought a second copy as a present for a friend - I`m holding firmly onto my own!
Jenny Bond, from `Pilgrim Post`, published by Churches Together in England