joy and celebration, day 7

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

 
Psalm for the Week: Psalm 66

Scripture for the Day: Isaiah 55:6-12

Reading for Reflection:

Joyful persons do not necessarily make jokes, laugh, or even smile.  They are not people with an optimistic outlook on life who always revitalize the seriousness of a moment or event.  No, joyful persons see with open eyes the hard reality of human existence and at the same time are not imprisoned by it.  They have no illusion about the evil powers that roam around, "looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8), but they also know that death has no final power.  They suffer with those who suffer, yet they do not hold on to suffering; they point beyond it to an everlasting peace. (Lifesigns by Henri J.M. Nouwen)

 

 

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

 

 

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.  Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away; Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

 

All Thy works with joy surround Thee, earth and heaven reflect Thy rays, Stars and angels sing around Thee, center of unbroken praise. Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea, Singing bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in Thee.

 

Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed, Wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!  Thou our Father, Christ our Brother, all who live in love are Thine; Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.

 

Mortals, join the happy chorus, which the morning stars began; Father love is reigning o’er us, brother love binds man to man. Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife, Joyful music leads us Sunward in the triumph song of life.

 
Closing Prayer:
O God, quicken to life every power within me, that I may lay hold of eternal things.  Open my eyes that I may see; give me acute spiritual perception; enable me to taste Thee and know that Thou art good.  Make heaven more real to me than any earthly thing has ever been. (The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer)

joy and celebration, day 6

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

 
Psalm for the Week: Psalm 66

Scripture for the Day: Revelation 19:6-9

Reading for Reflection:

Do not look for rest in any pleasure, because you were not created for pleasure: you were created for JOY.  And if you do not know the difference between pleasure and joy you have not yet begun to live. (Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton)

 

Joy ignores suffering or laughs at it or even exploits it to purify itself of its greatest obstacle, selfishness. (Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton)

 

 

Joy dwells with God; it descends from Him and seizes the spirit, soul, and body, and where this joy has grasped a man it grows greater, carries him away, opens closed doors…The joy of God has been through the poverty of the crib and the distress of the cross; therefore it is insuperable, irrefutable. (True Patriotism by Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

 

 

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

 

 

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.  Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away; Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

 

All Thy works with joy surround Thee, earth and heaven reflect Thy rays, Stars and angels sing around Thee, center of unbroken praise. Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea, Singing bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in Thee.

 

Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed, Wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!  Thou our Father, Christ our Brother, all who live in love are Thine; Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.

 

Mortals, join the happy chorus, which the morning stars began; Father love is reigning o’er us, brother love binds man to man. Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife, Joyful music leads us Sunward in the triumph song of life.

 
Closing Prayer:
O God, quicken to life every power within me, that I may lay hold of eternal things.  Open my eyes that I may see; give me acute spiritual perception; enable me to taste Thee and know that Thou art good.  Make heaven more real to me than any earthly thing has ever been. (The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer)

joy and celebration, day 5

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

 
Psalm for the Week: Psalm 66

Scripture for the Day: Exodus 15:1-21

Reading for Reflection:

The joy that Jesus offers His disciples is His own joy, which flows from His intimate communion with the One who sent Him.  It is a joy that does not separate happy days from sad days, successful moments from moments of failure, experiences of honor from experiences of dishonor, passion from resurrection.  This joy is a divine gift that does not leave us during times of illness, poverty, oppression, or persecution. (Lifesigns by Henri J.M. Nouwen)

 

 Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

 

 

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.  Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away; Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

 

All Thy works with joy surround Thee, earth and heaven reflect Thy rays, Stars and angels sing around Thee, center of unbroken praise. Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea, Singing bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in Thee.

 

Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed, Wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!  Thou our Father, Christ our Brother, all who live in love are Thine; Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.

 

Mortals, join the happy chorus, which the morning stars began; Father love is reigning o’er us, brother love binds man to man. Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife, Joyful music leads us Sunward in the triumph song of life.

 
Closing Prayer:
O God, quicken to life every power within me, that I may lay hold of eternal things.  Open my eyes that I may see; give me acute spiritual perception; enable me to taste Thee and know that Thou art good.  Make heaven more real to me than any earthly thing has ever been. (The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer)

joy and celebration, day 4

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

 
Psalm for the Week: Psalm 66

Scripture for the Day: Psalm 118

Reading for Reflection:

Joy is essential to spiritual life.  Whatever we may think or say about God, when we are not joyful, our thoughts and words cannot bear fruit.  Jesus reveals to us God's love so that His joy may become ours and that our joy might become complete.  Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing—sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death—can take that love away. (Here and Now by Henri J.M. Nouwen)

 

 Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

 

 

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.  Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away; Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

 

All Thy works with joy surround Thee, earth and heaven reflect Thy rays, Stars and angels sing around Thee, center of unbroken praise. Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea, Singing bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in Thee.

 

Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed, Wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!  Thou our Father, Christ our Brother, all who live in love are Thine; Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.

 

Mortals, join the happy chorus, which the morning stars began; Father love is reigning o’er us, brother love binds man to man. Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife, Joyful music leads us Sunward in the triumph song of life.

 
Closing Prayer:
O God, quicken to life every power within me, that I may lay hold of eternal things.  Open my eyes that I may see; give me acute spiritual perception; enable me to taste Thee and know that Thou art good.  Make heaven more real to me than any earthly thing has ever been. (The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer)

joy and celebration, day 3

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

 
Psalm for the Week: Psalm 66

Scripture for the Day: Philippians 4:4-9

Reading for Reflection:

The difference between shallow happiness and deep, sustaining joy is sorrow.  Happiness lives where sorrow is not.  When sorrow arrives, happiness dies.  It can't stand pain.  Joy, on the other hand, rises from sorrow and therefore can withstand all grief.  Joy, by the grace of God, is the transfiguration of suffering into endurance, and of endurance into character, and of character into hope—and the hope that has become our joy does not (as happiness must for those who depend upon it) disappoint us.
     In the sorrows of the Christ—as we ourselves experience them—we prepare for Easter, for joy.  There can be no resurrection from the dead except first there is death!  But then, because we love him above all things, his rising is our joy.  And then the certain hope of our own resurrection warrants the joy both now and forever. (Reliving the Passion by Walter Wangerin Jr.)

 

 

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

 

 

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.  Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away; Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

 

All Thy works with joy surround Thee, earth and heaven reflect Thy rays, Stars and angels sing around Thee, center of unbroken praise. Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea, Singing bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in Thee.

 

Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed, Wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!  Thou our Father, Christ our Brother, all who live in love are Thine; Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.

 

Mortals, join the happy chorus, which the morning stars began; Father love is reigning o’er us, brother love binds man to man. Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife, Joyful music leads us Sunward in the triumph song of life.

 
Closing Prayer:
O God, quicken to life every power within me, that I may lay hold of eternal things.  Open my eyes that I may see; give me acute spiritual perception; enable me to taste Thee and know that Thou art good.  Make heaven more real to me than any earthly thing has ever been. (The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer)

joy and celebration, day 2

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

 
Psalm for the Week: Psalm 66

Scripture for the Day: Nehemiah 8:1-10

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

Song for the Week: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

 

 

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.  Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away; Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

 

All Thy works with joy surround Thee, earth and heaven reflect Thy rays, Stars and angels sing around Thee, center of unbroken praise. Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea, Singing bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in Thee.

 

Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed, Wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!  Thou our Father, Christ our Brother, all who live in love are Thine; Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.

 

Mortals, join the happy chorus, which the morning stars began; Father love is reigning o’er us, brother love binds man to man. Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife, Joyful music leads us Sunward in the triumph song of life.

 
Closing Prayer:
O God, quicken to life every power within me, that I may lay hold of eternal things.  Open my eyes that I may see; give me acute spiritual perception; enable me to taste Thee and know that Thou art good.  Make heaven more real to me than any earthly thing has ever been. (The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer)

joy and celebration, day 1

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

 
Psalm for the Week: Psalm 66

Scripture for the Day: John 15:9-17

Reading for Reflection:

Only the one who has experienced it can know what the love of Jesus Christ is.  Once you have experienced it, nothing else in the world will seem more beautiful or desirable.  (The Signature of Jesus by Brennan Manning)

 

Celebration gives us the strength to live in all the other Disciplines.  The other Disciplines faithfully pursued bring us deliverance from those things that have made our lives miserable for years, which in turn evokes increased celebration.  Thus is formed and unbroken circle of life and power.  (Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster)

 

 

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

 

 

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.  Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away; Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

 

All Thy works with joy surround Thee, earth and heaven reflect Thy rays, Stars and angels sing around Thee, center of unbroken praise. Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea, Singing bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in Thee.

 

Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed, Wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!  Thou our Father, Christ our Brother, all who live in love are Thine; Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.

 

Mortals, join the happy chorus, which the morning stars began; Father love is reigning o’er us, brother love binds man to man. Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife, Joyful music leads us Sunward in the triumph song of life.

 
Closing Prayer:
O God, quicken to life every power within me, that I may lay hold of eternal things.  Open my eyes that I may see; give me acute spiritual perception; enable me to taste Thee and know that Thou art good.  Make heaven more real to me than any earthly thing has ever been. (The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer)