1. Blessed is the pastor who embraces simplicity and sharing her lifestyle because her witness gives birth to the realm of heaven.
2. Blessed is the pastor who does not fear to water her face with tears, so that in them can be mirrored the sorrows of the people, the fatigue of the ministries, and who finds in them the embrace of the one who suffers the consolation of God.
3. Blessed is the pastor who considers her ministry a service and not a power, making kindness her strength, giving to all equality and respect in her own heart, so as to inhabit the land promised to the meek.
4. Blessed is the pastor who does not close herself in the palaces of government, who does not become a bureaucrat more attentive to statistics than to faces, to procedures than to people’s stories, who seeks to fight at the side of the people for the dream of the justice of God, who finds nourishment in the silence of daily prayer.
5. Blessed is the pastor who has a heart for the misery of the world, who does not fear dirtying her hands with the mud of the human soul in order to find there the gold of God, who is not scandalized by the sin and fragility of the other because she is conscious of her own misery, because the look of the Risen Crucified One will be for her the seal of infinite grace.
6. Blessed is the pastor who wards off duplicity of heart, who avoids every ambiguous dynamic, who dreams good even in the midst of evil, because she will be able to enjoy the face of God, tracking it down in every puddle of the city of people.
7. Blessed is the pastor that works for peace, who accompanies the paths of reconciliation, who sows in the heart of leaders the seed of communion, who accompanies a divided society on the pathway of reconciliation, who takes by hand every person of good will in order to build beloved community: God will recognize them as family.
8. Blessed is the pastor who for the Gospel does not fear to go against the tide, practicing courage and resilience like Christ heading to Jerusalem, without letting herself be held back by misunderstandings and by obstacles because she knows that the realm of God advances in contradiction to the world.
(Adapted from Pope Francis’s “The Beatitudes of the Bishop”)
Rev. Dr. Sarah Griffith Lund 
Sarah,
Thanks for sharing this. This is so needed. If more pastors embraced this, the church would be a healthier institution.
Reblogged this on The Roofless Church and commented:
I rarely reblog other posts. But, I feel highly qualified to affirm what my friend, Rev. Dr. Lund has shared in this post adapted from Pope Francis.
Dr. Lund, this is absolutely amazing and splendid and a gift. Thank you so much.