Oh Great Mystery! Cast away the stones that weigh our hearts and keep us from you! Let us rejoice! Let us be as Mary who mistook you for the gardener and then saw the truth! Let us all be gardeners—devoted to protecting your creation and its beings— that we might be more like your son Jesus one day!
Blessed are all who come in your holy name.
Oh Great Mystery! Without seeing you we bless you for we are of you, and you have made us to be like you. You are present in all that we love: our beloved priests, Berto and Hugh. You are present in our bishop, Melissa, our presiding bishop Michael, and so many spiritual leaders who are doing their utmost to inspire and assist created beings world wide. We thank them all, and hope that we respond fully to the wisdom they share.
Blessed are all who come in your holy name.
Oh Great Mystery! We thank and praise you for the beauty of spring, for the singing of birds, for the bursting of buds, and for the certain knowledge that from hidden roots and unseen seeds new life will come. Bless this island and all those who work to protect and nurture every species that dwells and grows here.
Blessed are all who come in your holy name
Oh Great Mystery! We ask special blessings for all those in need, those suffering due to war and human foibles, and those whose hearts resist you. May the blind truly see. May all turn to you and know hope and deep peace, no matter what their station.
Blessed are all who come in your holy name
Have mercy on those who cause suffering to others; let them see and surrender to the great wisdom that is the teaching of your son, Jesus Christ.
Blessed are all who come in your holy name
Blessed are those who bring harmony through the arts. Bless the Choral Society and the Orcas Island Children’s Choir as they prepare a concert to bring greater hope and peace to our community, and to the world. We thank them and the choir director, Bruce Langford, and children’s choir directors Monica Steele and Andy Rivera, and directors of the Joy Chorus, and all their colleagues for their diligent preparation of musical prayer to benefit the world.
Blessed are all who come in your holy name
Oh Great Mystery! Let your blessings pour upon all those special concerns known only to us (pause to mention silently or aloud); and all those on our Parish prayer list …. and those for whom no one prays.
Oh Great Mystery! please speed the journey of the recently departed into full knowledge of your glorious being; bring enduring comfort to those people who loved these souls and yearn for them. We thank you for hearing and heeding these petitions, and continue to trust that. In the greater picture all is peace and all is love and glory.
Blessed are all who come in your holy name