Seabeck Sunday Worship, May 27, 2025
We are one body and when one suffers, we all suffer…we are part of a whole, and we need one another. Our bodies hold a memory and a promise of wholeness, a spark, the very essence of life, a powerful creative energy… the animating spirit of the universe…we are part of that, body and soul…cuerpo y alma…when we share our stories, when we bring all of ourselves, when we open our hearts and tell our truths, we are re-membering the broken bodies, we are re-collecting the pieces, and transforming them and ourselves into one body, the communal body which refuses to forget…This is how healing happens, in community…in the clearing…right here, right now..
Toni Morrison teaches us :
“In this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. Love it. Love it hard…” [Toni Morrison, Beloved]
Beloveds, Our bodies have memories. Our bodies are not merely shells but temples, sacred spaces, containers of divine energy and they are interconnected… Our embodied histories are archeological sites and theological sources, and cartographies of nations enslaved, religions imposed, laws abused, invasions justified, sacred lands violated and parceled out to be sold to the highest bidder…our bodies are also palimpsests of revolutions and magnificent movements that resulted in the liberation of entire nations, our bodies are this nation’s moral compass, and they are a testament of our ancestor’s fierceness and beauty…
Because our bodies are constant targets of systemic oppression…we constantly need healing, renewal, a loving touch… we ache to be seen, to be heard, to be held…in the spirit of creating a communal healing circle right here in this our clearing…I invite us now to honor and bless our bodies, as they are and as you imagine them in the process of becoming…I invite you to receive a blessing, to feel the energy of our collective body anointing you, keeping in mind that we are all part of one body, cuerpo y alma, body and soul without borders…
I bless your forehead, regal site of your creativity, imagination, site of poetry and dreams…
I bless your eyes for all that they have seen, for all the visions they carry, for all the loving glances they have exchanged, for all the beauty they have seen, for all the tears they have shed, for all the sleep they so desperately need! I bless your eyes…
And I bless your ears, for all the cries they have heard, for all the stories they have heard, for hearing the call to side with love, for listening to another’s pain,for listening to those without voice, for listening to the silence, for hearing the voice of the river, the wind, the ocean, the hummingbird, the voice of the drum, your own voice and heartbeat…I bless your ears…
I bless your mouth and all your songs, the ones that rage and the ones that sound like lullabies, all your words, the ones repressed and the ones shouted at the top of your lungs, your kisses, passionate and tender, your delight in sweets and tacos and pasteles and grits and empanadas and sancocho and collard greens and that first taste of your favorite comfort food when the world is just too much…I bless your mouth…
And I bless your throat, site of hard stones lodged there in knots at the sight of violence…i bless your throat site of repressed tears and ancient cries for justice… I bless your throat and all the sounds that you produce, your words of love, your songs of freedom, your words of forgiveness, your laughter, your weeping….I bless your throat…
I bless your shoulders, site of burdens, carrying too much, overload, stress… may the stress dissolve….may your shoulders release tension….may they feel lighter and agile and strong…I bless your shoulders…
I bless your hands…with which you work the earth to plant seeds of hope and sunflowers and tomatoes…with which you write and allow your soul to flow through your fingers as you narrate your prophetic and holy life story and affirm the inherent worth and dignity of those at the margins…hands that write love letters and signs of protest…hands that hold babies and your beloved’s aging hands…hands that hold another when despair inhabits their world…hands that protect, that make bread and stone soup… hands that come together in a sign of reverence recognizing the divine in each of us…I bless your hands…
I bless your chest, bound or unbound, nursing or bearing your warrior scars, the barbed wire of the borderlands, protecting your lungs, rising and falling as you breathe… I bless your chest…
I bless your heart…site of love and compassion and the creation of our beloved community…i see the brokeness, I bless the brokenness, I see the holiness in that brokenness that allows for the light of another to shine through…i see your radiant heart filled with suffering for the pain of the world…i bless your broken open heart for all that you give, for all that you feel, for all that you love, for all that you transform, for all that you risk, for all that you are…i bless your heart…
I bless your hips, as they shake from side to side to the rhythm of drums, or sway to a slow song, as they hold a baby, or strut down the street leaving mouths agape and hungry…I bless your hips…
I bless your thighs and all the sacred spaces in between… sources of pleasure…sources of joy…sources of trauma and sources of life…sacred spaces reimagined and recreated courageously, gloriously, fiercely! I bless the spaces in transition and in the process of becoming…
And I bless your feet…whether you walk, roll, strut, shuffle, or move only in your dreams…your wheelchair, scooter, walker, is part of your body…i bless your movements, your journeys, as they bring you closer to your authentic self…i bless your journeys as they bring you into community, I bless your feet as they stomp in anger…and I bless your feet when they are tired, full of blisters, resting by the side of the uncertain crossroads, I bless all your journeys… and I bless your feet and wheels as they dance as if no one is watching! In many of our indigenous traditions, dancing is both to express joy and a way to allow the body to express grief. The beginning of healing the soul is the dance in response to the call of the sacred drum…I bless your dance!
May every single part of your body, every cell, every inch of skin, every bone, feel blessed by the love of this, your community…
Beloveds, Love your body! Love it fiercely! Know that you are part of a larger body, that you are holy, you are a source of light, of love, of life itself! You are sacred. You are Wise. You are a Blessing! Amen and Blessed Be!
by Dr. Rev. María Cristina Vlassidis Burgoa