Welcome

Pierre Pradervand Welcome, dear friend, to a practice which since time immemorial has been uplifting people of all races, beliefs, occupation, age … a non denominational practice which even agnostics can practice. However, there are many ways of practicing it and the one described here is the result of a very powerful spiritual experience I underwent many years ago.

At the time (1986) I was working in the humanitarian field for a group of Swiss NGOs active in the field of international development. My job was to formulate educational programs on Third World issues for the school system. I loved my job and was very committed to it – I even had a camp bed in the office so as to rest when I missed the last train home ! At one moment I very much wanted to create a roving exhibition on hunger for schools to sensitize school children to one of the main world challenges. As there was no money in the budget for the project, I invested a very large chunk of my personal economies into the project. This had never ever happened in the history of these organizations. It was a frank success, toured many schools and was even written up in the press.

A thought to ponder

More thoughts to ponder...

Healing testimonies

This section constitutes the heart of the site, because it shows that blessing changes lives, sometimes very deeply, including in immensely challenging situations.

Anyone having had a meaningful experience with blessing is invited to share it with visitors to this website. Kindly do not write more than 2/3 of a page, unless the testimony is quite exceptional. The editors may occasionally edit a text for clarity or length. Please sign at least with your first name and the city, place or country where you live.

Read the testimonies...

Invitation to a Summer Retreat high in the Swiss Alps with Pierre Pradervand

20140723 111528 1st to 14th July 2017

At La Forclaz, Valais, Switzerland

The first week will be bi-lingual (English and French) as Pierre’s two collaborators for this workshop are both English-speaking. The second week French will be the spoken language.

A summer retreat (3-7 days of your choosing) in the magical setting of "The Silence that Sings" at more than 2000m in an absolutely magical landscape, far from electromagnetic interference and other urban nuisances, with an air of total purity and exceptional water, put your neurons to rest and allow All your being to recharge in depth.

Blessing messages read by Pierre Pradervand

These 35 audio blessings, half of which have been composed by Pierre for his forthcoming book, 365 Blessings to Heal Myself and the World, have been recorded by Beyond Words, the publisher of The Gentle Art of Blessing.

Why We Bless

Why we bless Pierre Pradervand “To bless is to acknowledge the omnipresent, universal beauty hidden to material eyes” (The Gentle Art of Blessing)

There are many reasons to bless. We bless to help heal society. We bless to get out of the shell or cave of our little egos and open up to the world. We bless as a wonderful way of practicing mindfulness and staying present to the present – anywhere. We bless because it is a highly efficient way of solving relationship problems and personal challenges Blessing isn’t associated with any religious denominations.

Why the only future worth building includes everyone

Our guest blogger for the month of June is Pope Francis, with a powerful message for humanity. We have reprinted it from the blog on http://gratefulness.org/blog/the-future-you-pope-francis-ted-talk/

EDITOR’S NOTE: Below is the complete transcript (translated into English by Elena Montrasio) of Pope Francis’s recent TED Talk delivered directly from Vatican City. We offer our warm thanks to the good folks at TED for so generously sharing “Ideas worth spreading.” We found this talk timely and powerful and hope you are as moved and inspired as we are…

Good evening – or, good morning, I am not sure what time it is there. Regardless of the hour, I am thrilled to be participating in your conference. I very much like its title – “The Future You” –because, while looking at tomorrow, it invites us to open a dialogue today, to look at the future through a “you.” “The Future You:” the future is made of “yous,” it is made of encounters, because life flows through our relations with others. Quite a few years of life have strengthened my conviction that each and everyone’s existence is deeply tied to that of others: life is not time merely passing by, life is about interactions.