Opening Prayer: O God, Lover of my soul, give me the grace and
the courage to take you up on your invitation to intimate, passionate union
with you; it is what my heart truly longs for.
Amen.
Scripture: Psalm 149:1-5
Journal: What does the scripture today bring to life in
you? How does it make you want to praise
God?
Reflection:
What is serious to men is often very trivial in the
sight of God. What in God might appear
to us as “play” is perhaps what He Himself takes most seriously. At any rate the Lord plays and diverts
Himself in the garden of His creation, and if we could let go of our own
obsession with what we think is the meaning of it all, we might be able to hear
His call and follow Him in His mysterious, cosmic dance. We do not have go very far to catch echoes of
that game, and of that dancing. When we
are alone on a starlit night; when by chance we see the migrating birds in
autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children
in a moment where they are really children; when we know love in our own
hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet Basho we hear an old frog land in a
quiet pond with a solitary splash—at such times the awakening, the turning
inside out of all values, the “newness,” the emptiness and the purity of vision
that make themselves evident, provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance.
For the world and time are the dance of
the Lord in emptiness. The silence of
the spheres is the music of a wedding feast.
The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more
we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own,
the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity and despair. But it does not matter much, because no
despair of ours can alter the reality of things, or stain the joy of the cosmic
dance which is always there. Indeed, we
are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very
blood, whether we want it to or not.
Yet the fact remains that we are invited
to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join
in the general dance. (New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas
Merton)
Prayers
Closing Prayer: O God, Lord of all, with all of creation my
heart rejoices in you this day. Your Spirit and your word are like music that
leads my soul to dance! And what a wonder-filled dance it is! Let me always be a good dance partner, willing
and able to move to the leading of Your Holy Spirit. Thank you that you take pleasure in your
people. Thanks you that you adorn
us with salvation. May we be glad
and rejoice, may we leap for joy and spin around. May we dance the dance of life and joy with
you this day. Amen.
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