Peace, all! Here is an invocation and final benediction I prepared for a nursing white coat ceremony at Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin. Feel free to use/adapt. Peace! ~Tom
Invocation
God of hope and healing,
through Jesus and the prophets
you have called each and every one of us
into the vocation of
love for our neighbors,
liberation to those who are imprisoned;
and care and healing
for those who are sick
and in need.
At the same time, you have called those gathered here,
those who are entering into the specific vocation of nursing–
in a very special, very particular, and very professional way.
Though this Call is sacred, we know that it can also be quite exhausting.
Though it holds meaning, it can also carry with it the burden of pain and despair.
Fires can dampen when too much, too fast, begins to burn us out.
And so, O God, we invoke you. We call upon your name.
Remind all who gather here that they are never alone,
that you are the healer for those who heal,
and that you are the Love for those who love.
Bless this time and this transition
even as you send those gathered here out
to be a blessing
to a world deeply in need.
We know you by many names, O God.
And in your name we pray.
Amen.
Final Benediction
Adapted from words attributed to St. Teresa of Avila
God has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which God looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which God walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which God blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are God’s body.
God has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which God looks
compassion on this world.
God has no body now on earth but yours.
Go and heal.
Go and sit.
Go and live into this sacred vocation into which you’ve been called
and by which countless lives will be blessed.
Go in peace.
God is with you.
Amen.
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