Most years, I take leave from judging, from extracurricular activities and even from my family to attend a silent retreat. I started this tradition the year before I was appointed to the bench. The retreat is this weekend.
I normally leave on Thursday after work and drive to the
Jesuit Retreat House on Lake Demontreville in Lake Elmo. After supper on Thursday, the silence begins
and lasts until supper on Sunday evening.
I find the opportunity to reflect, pray and consider the suggestions of
our retreat leader a terrific opportunity to recharge my batteries and to get
me to consider again what is truly important in this life.
I have written in a journal every year I have attended. It’s about the only time during the year that
I make an effort to write down what I’ve been thinking and doing. It has been very interesting for me to go
back to previous years to see what I’d been experiencing at the same point in
the retreat. Sometimes, I surprise
myself.
One of those times was when I read a Judge’s Courtroom
Blessing that I had written the year before.
Some years before, I had heard an essay on Public Radio
about a woman who was a light rail train operator. She had said during the interview that before
she boarded the train to begin her shift, she said a prayer of blessing for
herself and all the people who would ride her train that day.
Wouldn’t it be neat to do the same thing for my courtroom as
I started each day?
Well, I usually forgot, because I never did it often enough
for it to become a habit.
So, when I returned from the retreat after discovering the
prayer I had written the year before, I had it printed, framed and hung outside
the courtroom. I still don’t remember to
say the prayer every day, but it does give me cause to reflect when I do.
A Judge’s Courtroom Blessing
Bless this
Courtroom and all those who will appear here today:
Give
them safety.
Give them courage.
Give them
comfort.
Give them
Justice.
Bless all
who will work here today:
Remind
us all that the people who are brought to this place today
are Your children.
Send your
Blessings, especially, on me as I judge:
Give
me patience.
Give me understanding.
Give me
discernment.
Give me eyes
to see and ears to hear.
Remind me
that I am Your servant, and that I am their servant.
Give
me grace sufficient for the day.
Inspire
me to do Justice,
To love Kindness,
And to walk
humbly with you, my God.
Amen
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Next week: Expert
Witnesses
