A Traditional Irish Blessing

May the blessing of light be on you, light without and light within. May the blessed sunshine shine on you and warm your heart till it glows like a great peat fire, so that the stranger may come and warm himself at it, and also a friend.

And may the light shine out of the two eyes of you, like a candle set in two windows of a house, bidding the wanderer come in out of the storm; and may the blessings of the rain be on you - the soft, sweet rain. May it fall upon your spirit so that all the little flowers may spring up and shed their sweetness on the air; and may the blessings of the Great Rains be on you, may they be on your spirit and wash it fair and clean, and leave there may a shining pool where the blue of heaven shines and sometimes a star.

And may the blessings of the Earth be on you - the great, round Earth; may you ever have a kindly greeting for those you pass as you are going along the roads. May the Earth be soft under you when you rest upon it, tired at the end of the day, and may it rest easy over you when at the last, you lay under it; may it rest so lightly over you that your soul may be off from under it quickly and up and off, on its way to God. And now may God bless you all and bless you kindly.