Love Never Ends

Thursday, April 19, 2012-- I’m writing a day later than usual this week because Bruce and I were visiting his dad who is at home in hospice care in Potsdam, NY. Russ is getting weaker every day, but his spirit is as radiant as ever. "I can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t feel loved," he told me. Wow! Alas, how many people can say that?

 

I read him my favorite blessing from Prayers for a House of Mourning, published by the Jewish Reconstructionist Press. After this past year, I have a hard time getting through it without crying–

We are loved by an unending love.

We are embraced by arms that find us

even when we are hidden from ourselves.

We are touched by fingers that soothe us

even when we are too proud for soothing.

We are counseled by voices that guide us

even when we are too embittered to hear.

We are loved by an unending love.

We are supported by hands that uplift us

even in the midst of a fall.

We are urged on by eyes that meet us

even when we are too weak for meeting.

We are loved by an unending love.

Embraced, touched, soothed, and counseled...

Ours are the arms, the fingers, the voices;

ours are the hands, the eyes, the smiles;

We are loved by an unending love.

Blessed are you, Beloved One, who loves your people Israel.

–

Rami M. Shapiro

"Love never ends"is the way Paul puts it in his letter to the Corinthians. In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God!

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