Backpack and Learning Space Blessings

A yearly blessing of the backpacks for teachers and students. People bring backpacks and shoulder bags or other symbols of their studies. Print off images on card stock, cut them apart, and make decks of cards tied together with string to give to each participant. The images represent each attribute we're praying for. As we name each attribute (curiosity, love, etc) we all find the matching card and put them in our backpacks. Scroll to the bottom to download the cards.

Backpack blessing I
All ages

Jesus our teacher, bless these backpacks. Fill them with your gifts that we can pull out whenever we have need.

Fill them with curiosity, so that we can imagine the potential in every person and idea we come across.
Fill them with love, so that our spirits are not quashed by stress or bustle but stay strong and centered.
Fill them with kindness, so that in the crunch of competition we don’t try to win at someone else’s expense.
Fill them with courage to take risks, to speak the truth, and to pursue justice in our schools.
Fill them with grace that releases us from the burden of perfectionism, from the devastation of a bad grade, so that we can truly believe we are known and loved in both success and failure.
Fill them with joy, buoyant, bubbling joy that fills in all the cracks and cannot be contained, so that we can burst out of ourselves and be fully present to our students, our teachers, our classmates, and the world.

Jesus our teacher, bless our backpacks with these tools, and bless us with the wisdom to use them.

Amen.

Backpack Blessing II
Aimed at children

Jesus our teacher, bless these backpacks. Fill them with your gifts that we can pull out whenever we have need.

Fill them with curiosity, so we can imagine that every person we meet can do great things.
Fill them with love, so that we don’t feel squished or stressed but stay strong.
Fill them with kindness, so that we won’t try to win by putting someone else down.
Fill them with courage to take risks and make mistakes and stand up for what is right.
Fill them with grace, so we know we are loved even if we aren’t perfect.
Fill them with joy that bubbles up and fills in all the cracks until we burst out into the world.

Jesus our teacher, bless our backpacks with these tools, and bless us with the wisdom to use them.

Amen.

Learning Spaces Blessing for Remote Schooling
Written during the COVID pandemic

Jesus our teacher, bless our learning spaces. Bless us with useful tools that we can pull out whenever we have need.

Bless us with curiosity, so we can keep wondering even when learning gets hard.
Bless us with love, so that we don’t feel squished or stressed but stay strong.
Bless us with kindness, so that even when we feel like we’re at the end of our rope we can still be good to other people.
Bless us with courage to take risks and make mistakes and stand up for what is right.
Bless us with grace, so we know we are loved even if we aren’t perfect, so that we can have patience and forgiveness for others when things don’t work out as planned.
Bless us with joy that bubbles up and fills in all the cracks until we burst out into the world.

Jesus our teacher, bless our learning spaces with these tools, and bless us with the wisdom to use them.

Amen.

Backpack Blessing Cards

These cards are created with icons from The Noun Project. I've formatted them so if you print two-sided (flip on the long edge) the proper attributions will be on the back of each card. DO NOT use this document without going to thenounproject.com and making a free account, and DO NOT use them without attribution. If you do those two things, they are free!