Pierre Pradervand, The Gentle Art of Blessing
But I say to you that will listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Luke 6:27
We Teach What We Most Need To Learn
Thesis
- The practice of blessing is a way to make peace.
To bless is to speak well of another, to use words that foster shalom, reconciliation, understanding, healing, words that mediate conflict and aggression. To bless another is to desire their best, to wish them health, prosperity and favor, to pray for them and imagine good things coming to them. To bless is to do things that are good and kind for others, to do. As Jesus said, ‘to others, as you would have them do to you. The practice of blessing makes peace one person at a time.
- When we practice blessing, we become channels of God’s healing, transformative, and creative power.
God is the source of all blessing and we when we bless, we become a channel of God’s blessing to others. When we love others, there is an infusion of divine light, joy, energy that flows thru us to others. The creative power of the Spirit is released into our world. As the apostle Paul might say, ‘It is not I, but the Spirit of Jesus living in me that is released,” where the word and the love of God become real and active thru us.
Blessing is a simple way to pray and love, a simple way for ordinary people to continue the work of Jesus, a simple way to practice spirituality, to be little mystics. The practice of blessing is simple, but not easy. It is simple, ‘bless those who curse you, pray for those who injure you.’ But it is difficult to do, to know how to bless in each situation. It seems that Jesus would have be generous and bless all people without distinction. That he would encourage us to be faithful in blessing others, that we would be patient with results, that God who sees what is done in secret, will reward our blessing in ways that we do not know beforehand.
Pierre Pra-der-vand believes that the simple practice of blessing can transform us and our world. Not a TV evangelist or a faith healer but a program administrator and researcher working in the field of development, committed to working for justice and ending hunger in our world, publisher and co-editor of Famille et Development, an African grass roots magazine.
Pierre writes, "To bless means to wish, unconditionally and from the deepest chamber of your heart, unrestricted good for others and events; it means to hallow, to hold in reverence, to invoke divine care upon, to speak or think gratefully for, to confer happiness upon, although we ourselves are never the bestoyer, but simply the joyful witnesses of life's abundance.
So, when you get up out of bed, you bless the day, for it is already full of unseen good which your blessings will call forth; to bless is to acknowledge the unlimited good that is embedded in the very texture of the universe and awaiting each and all. "Hold constantly as a deep, hallowed, intoned thought that desire to bless, for truly then shall you become a peacemaker."
On meeting and talking to people, bless them in their health, their work, their relationships. Bless them in their abundance, their finances, bless them in every conceivable way, for such blessings not only sow seeds of healing but one day will spring forth as flowers of joy in the waste places of your own life. Bless the city in which you live, its government and teachers, nurses and street sweepers, children on the playground, bankers, priests and prostitutes. [might be a dollar bill to a panhandler, reframe what we do not as a handout, but a blessing, to each his own, may you find work, a warm blanket]
The minute anyone expresses the least aggression or unkindness to you, respond with a blessing: bless them totally, sincerely, joyfully, for such blessings are a shield which protects them from the ignorance of their misdeed, and deflects the arrow that was aimed at you.
In any situation, we can express love. When something goes wrong, when some unexpected event knocks down our plans, bless that moment for life is teaching usu a lesion we would not learn without this event. To paraphrase the Apostle James, “Trials are blessings in disguise, and hosts of angels follow in their path.” Or, as the apostle Paul wrote, ‘all things work together for some good.” The good may not be apparent at the time of injury, but may become apparent in time.
We do not bless the sin but the person, that they would experience God’s healing, creative, transformative power of love, that they would experience fortunative power, that they would not hurt or be harmed but seek peace.
When we pass a prison bless the inmates, desire their freedom and transformation, wish them gentle and kind, with work and dignity. When we visit a hospital, bless those who suffer with vitality and strength. When you see a person broken by life, refrain from judgment; imagine them in splendor and wholeness.
When we bless the people around us we make a difference in ourselves and others. To wish their best, their honor and worth, is to shift from a perspective of judgment, negativity, condemnation, to a perspective of faith, acceptance, enthusiasm and possibility
This is my rendition of Pierre’s assumption of what he calls ‘the law of unconditional love’, or ‘the law of positive expectation.” Just as there are physical laws, so there are spiritual laws, the law of love, the law of positive expectation. The universe is pervaded by unconditional love and harmony. Whenever we bless, this love and kindness triggers this law of receptivity. We ‘reap what we sow.” When we sow to the Spirit there will be a harvest of righteousness. The harvest may not come in our time, but it will come.
Pierre quotes Dr Gerald Jampolsky, the author of the book, ‘Forgiveness and Love Is Letting Go of Fear’, he writes, “Each time I go to my center, it is to heal myself.‘ [pg XV] The kingdom of God is within us, and each time we go to this center, each time we do acts of kindness and love, the blessing we give another brings forth healing and hope in our lives.
We abide in Jesus and Jesus abides in us and when we obey his command to love, when we practice the blessing, when we do what he asks us to do, we will for sure, bear the fruit of love, joy and peace. To love others is to build our house on the rock that will endure the storms of life.
The spiritual law is love is found in [all] many religious traditions:
- In Judaism; ‘what is hateful to you, do not do to others’
- In Hinduism: ‘do not unto others that which would cause you pain.’
- In Buddhism: ‘Hurt not others in ways that you find hurtful’
- Jesus: ‘what you want others to do to you, do to them.’ [The Golden rule]
What follows are stories of blessing as told by Pierre. [May be similar to Bible stories.]
Pierre had lost his job and carried resentment for those responsible he felt were being unfair to him. He was obsessed with his injury. The first thing he thought about when he woke up in the morning, the last thing he thought about before he went to sleep. Then he remember Jesus words, ‘Bless those who curse you’ so he did. He never got roses from his former boss, but he was able to let go of the resentment. He wished his enemies well from his heart, he intended their best, and from that point on he began to practice what he calls the ‘gentle art of blessing’.
Someone has injured you in the past. Even now you remember the pain. So, bless them three times a day, even if the injury is 30 years old. Bless them and your blessing opens the door to God’s creative, healing, transformative power to work in you and in them.
Pierre was working with farmers in Southern Senegal, a campaign to end hunger. His part was to plan a benefit concert. From the very start, the technician in charge of the concert was filled with hostility toward the project. Two hours before the concert, he took away all the microphones. Pierre’s first response was to get mad, but rather than curse the man out loud, he began to silently bless the man, wished him well and within two minutes the technician changed his attitude, smiled, came up with the missing microphones and wished Pierre a pleasant evening.
Is this what Jesus meant when he said, ‘out of your heart will flow streams of living water’, or ‘you shall do greater things than these.’ When we love, when we bless rather than curse, ‘streams of living water’ flow out from within and we become channels of God’s creative, healing, transforming power. We become witnesses to ‘greater things’ that surprise us and are beyond comprehension.
When we bless those who harm us and pray for them, we also are changed. We become more patient, kind, forbearing, understanding, more attentive, more aware of the present moment, more calm. When we bless rather than curse, we also become less judgmental and condemning, for as Pierre says, it is impossible to bless someone and curse them at the same time.
When things go wrong, bless rather than curse. This is simple but not easy. For example, all my adult life I have cursed extension cords. The cord is always getting hung up, cut, pulled out of the socket, not long enough, doesn’t have the right plug, or I get tangled up. Even when I see an extention cord just hanging on the wall, my tendency is, “dam extention cord.’ Yesterday, as I was sanding, the cord became stuck. Rather than curse the cord, I smiled and thought, “Ah cord, I knew you might do that and was prepared for you. I will help you so you can help me.” Best blessing I could give at the time. Good to know that the church bulletin was blessed and not cursed.
I was an orderly in the emergency room. The doctor asked me for the surgringe, I dropped it and he cursed me, ‘dam fool, you contaminated the surgine.’ I responded, telling him that while I did contaminate the surgine, he had contaminated the whole room. What was missing in my response would be the inward intention of blessing. In Hindi one can say ‘Namesta’. It means ‘love to you’, or ‘I see the divine in you.’ It is simple but not easy to respond to hatred with a heart whose intention is love.
Pierre tells a story told him by Astrophysics Lawrence Doyle. You might think this is a tall tale, like many stories in the Bible. When Lawrence was child, he was playing soccer and broke his finger. With the bone was showing, he went to the emergency room. As he was sitting there, he began to bless the other patients who were suffering. When he looked down at his figure, it was healed. The ex ray showed his finger had been broken and was healed. In the spiritual world we can encounter mystery, where things happen we cannot explain. When we bless, when we love, amazing things can happen that we can understood only by faith.
Jesus said, ‘When you pray, believe you have received it and it will be done’ he is advocating the law of positive expectation. Love and blessing releases the divine spirit of healing and creativity. We are not in control of this power, we have no clue of how it works, for the Spirit blows where the spirit blows, but we can choose to love and bless, and when we do, we become a channel of this grace. We should all experiment blessing others and share our experience during sharing time. This used to be called ‘testimony’ when I was younger.
There is the story of Dr George Ritchie, an American assigned to help Polish prisoners after the war. He came upon a survivor of a prison camp who showed remarkable health and vitality. His wife and five children were killed in front of him. He pleaded with his enemy to kill him as well but they did not. He decided that day that rather than hate, he would spend the rest of his life caring for others, and that he did with great vitality. Rather than curse those who injured him, he chose to be a blessing to others.
Pierre was working in South Senegal to fight for the end to hunger. To add to their problems there was both famine and drought. A peasant leader said to him, ‘these great trails teach us to innovate’, said ‘hunger is our teacher.” Things work together for some good.
There is a parallel universe, a spiritual dimension to life we cannot see, of perfect harmony and peace, and our love is that which releases this force of healing into our world. A story told by Sir Alister Hardy, of Oxford University, in his book, The Spiritual Nature of Man, speaks to those who experience this parallel world.
“A young student was traveling by train in England, third class, when suddenly, ‘for a few seconds only, I suppose, the whole compartment was filled with light….I felt caught up into some tremendous sense of being within a loving, triumphant, and shining experience. I never felt more humble, more exalted. I felt that all was well for mankind – how poor the words seem! The word ‘well’ is so poverty stricken. All [people] were shining and glorious beings who in the end would enter incredible joy. Beauty, music, joy, love, and glory unspeakable, all this they would inherit. Of this they were heirs.” [Pg 114]
The year was 1994, during the civil war in Rwanda, the story told by a friend of Pierre who was a healer. “One night, around 2 in the morning, an armed band entered my home. I awoke to see what was happening, and we met nose to nose in the corridor. They were armed with guns and bayonets; I was armed with Truth and Love. As they pointed their weapons to menace me, a thought came to me in a flash, immediately dispelling the fear which was attempting to invade my thought. Love and Life are indestructible and permanent.’
One of his daughters began to cry and a man was told to kill her. The healer silently said to himself that man was a child of divine love. He keep affirming this love for 30 minutes. They left his daughter alone, the tension eased, the bandits became friendly, no one was hurt, they left in peace.
Pierre writes, ‘..did not Jesus state that in his name, in the power of the Spirit of Love, we would do miracles greater than his.” [p 127]
Pierre tells of his African friend Mah-mou-dou who met a women who was desperate about her teenage son who smoked, drank, used drugs and had a knife he used to threaten people. Mahmoudou told her to bless her son 3 times a day, so she did. One day her son came to her and gave her his knife and told her he was fed up living the way he was living. He began to attend the mosque, say his prayers and changed his life to the extent that others took notice.
Andree decided to leave her husband following serious problems in their relationship. After her departure her husband began calling her names and threatening to harm her. She began to bless her husband for his positive qualities and expressed gratitude for what was good in him every day. The phone calls stopped, and she obtained her divorce with a calm spirit.
An African woman was in a grocery store in Geneva when another women erupted into a racist tirade against Africans. Shocked at first, she began to bless the women. A few minutes latter, the other women, with whom she had not exchanged a single word, came to her and apologized for her racist remarks.
Pierre tells still another story of his friend Mah-mou-dou. Ahmed had developed a grudge against his younger brother Karim, offended by something Kirim had done. Aftern 10 years of growing hostility, Ahmed threated Karim with a knife. The village told Karim to flee. Karim went to the village where Mahmoudou lived. One day Ahmed came to kill Karim, shot him but missed his heart. Ahmed was arrested by the police and Karim worked to have him released. Free, Ahmed made new threats to kill Karim. Karim asked Mah-mou-dou what he could do and Mahmoudou told him to bless his brother three times a day, and anyone else he knew who were filled with hate. Ten days after he started blessing his brother, four people came to present excuses for the way Ahmed had treated him for the last ten years. Karim returned to his village, and Ahmed finds whatever opportunity he can to care and serve his brother. The feud has ended.
But I say to you that will listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Luke 6:27
In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you. Matthew 7:12