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Tuesday, February 10, 2015

joy, tuesday

Tuesday, February 10

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.
          
Opening Prayer: Our Father, giver of all gifts, You love and choose us, your least ones.  Increase our humility so that we might rejoice in the generosity of Your love and be mindful that the good in us comes from You, Creator, Redeemer, and Giver of Life, now and forever.  Amen.

                                                                           ~Macrina Wiederkehr
          
Scripture Reading for the Day: Philippians 4:4-9

Reading for Reflection:
 
     One aspect of choosing life is choosing joy.  Joy is life-giving, but sadness brings death.  A sad heart is a heart in which something is dying.  A joyful heart is a heart in which something new is being born.
     I think that joy is much more than a mood.  A mood invades us.  We do not choose a mood.  We often find ourselves in a happy or depressed mood without knowing where it comes from.  The spiritual life is a life beyond moods.  It is a life in which we choose joy and do not allow ourselves to become victims of passing feelings of joy or depression.
     I am convinced that we can choose joy.  Every moment we can decide to respond to an event or a person with joy instead of sadness.  When we truly believe that God is life and only life, then nothing need have the power to draw us into the sad realm of death.  To choose joy does not mean to choose happy feelings or an artificial atmosphere of hilarity.  But it does mean the determination to let whatever takes place bring us one step closer to the God of life. (The Road to Daybreak by Henri J. M. Nouwen)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself    

Closing Prayer: Father, teach me to rejoice at this moment.  Teach me that it does me no good to be so busy planning to earn bread for next week that I cannot enjoy what I am eating now.  Do not let tomorrow rob me of the pleasure of today.  Amen. (Disciplines for the Inner Life by Michael Benson and Bob Benson)

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