Live Each Day With Awareness

Eternal Dwelling Place,
I know all things are passing.
My final home is not here.
Yet I zoom mindlessly through my days
missing the passionate gift of life.

How differently I would enter each day
if I embraced the shortness of my life span.
The things I consider inconveniences
would have a different colored hue.
The work I feel driven to accomplish
would pale beside relationships I cherish.
The irritations and the angers would dissolve
as I inhaled the preciousness of life.

Prayer Card – JOY

The Joy Of Remembering

The joy of remembering:

By the light of a candle, sit in the quiet and think back over times you have heard the Christmas story.

Remember those people with whom you have shared this story in seasons past.

Give thanks for all of those memories.

May your memories always burn with the bright glow of a candle light.

May We Always Send Forth Ribbons and Doves

I was very angry at our neighbors. Their choice to burn slash piles had significantly damaged my health. I was angry that my health had relapsed once again and I could no longer leave our property.

Someone reminded me I needed to do something to get rid of my anger, or it would bring more harm to my health. So one day I set out walking towards the boundary of our properties. As I walked the winding prayer path, I fantasized how I would shout my anger towards their land and throw sticks with a vengeance.

Then suddenly I became aware of a pink ribbon in my pocket on which our granddaughter had written the word JOY. There was also a metal piece with a dove shape cut through the middle and the inscription: Where there is hatred let me sow love.

By the time I got to the boundary of our land, I could shout no anger after all. God had removed it from my heart. I could only thread the pink ribbon through the dove and place it at the point where our properties meet.
O Lord, give us the strength to withstand injustice, and the courage to choose not to send more hatred into the world. Instead, make us channels of your peace.

Joy To EnJOY

Sharing some great thoughts on JOY today. EnJOY.

“The only true joy on earth is to escape from the prison of our own false self, and enter by love into union with the Life Who dwells and sings within the essence of every creature and in the core of our own souls.
~ Thomas Merton (New Seeds of Contemplation)

“You cannot be too gentle, too kind. Shun even to appear harsh in your treatment of each other. Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of one who gives and kindles joy in the heart of one who receives…”
~ St. Seraphim of Sarov

The beating heart is the universe of holy JOY!
~ Martin Buber

Those who wish to sing, always find a song.
~ Swedish Proverb

“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.” ~ Plato

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The Magnificat Of Mary

One of the most beautiful songs of joy we have is Mary’s magnificat
sung when the angel visited her to tell her she would become the mother
of our Lord Jesus. We honor her today.

I invite you to pay close attention to her words. For although she is usually
depicted as gentle and mild, her words speak with ferocity to the oppressors of any time in history. May her joy be in you.

The Magnificat of Mary

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my savior,
for you, Lord, have looked with favor on your lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:
You, the Almighty, have done great things for me
and holy is your name,
You have mercy on those who fear you,
from generation to generation.

You have shown strength with your arm
and scattered the proud in their conceit,
casting down the mighty from their thrones
and lifting up the lowly.

You have filled the hungry with good things
and the rich you have sent away empty.
You have come to the help of your servant Israel,
to remember the promise of mercy,
the promise made to our forebears,
to Abraham and his children forever.

 

 

Advent JOY

Today is the third Sunday of Advent and our focus is on JOY.
We light the candle of JOY.

What brings JOY to your life? Here is a prayer card for contemplation today.

Be thinking about all that brings JOY to your life, and you may want to create a little book of JOY.

During this week, take note of all that speaks to you of JOY ~
words, poems, prayers, stories, images, visions, sacred scriptures that excite and inspire you with a sense of joyfulness.

You can jot these down on your computer or in a little note pad that you carry with you.

Please share with us all that brings JOY to your world.

Quiet Moments

O Jesus, King Most Wonderful

O Jesus, King Most Wonderful!
O Conqueror renowned!
O Source of peace ineffable,
In whom all joys are found:

When once you visit darkened hearts,
Then truth begins to shine,
then earthly vanity departs,
Then kindles love divine.

Joyful ~ Joyful

All Thy works with joy surround thee
Earth and heaven reflect Thy rays,
Stars and angels sing around thee,
Center of unbroken praise.