Power of wonder. Giving thanks

 1.  Prayer

Prayer for a Thankful Heart

Jesus, I want to be like You who obeyed the Father without complaint. You embraced the chains of humanity when You walked this earth. Convict me whenever I complain or compare myself with others. Give me Your attitude of humility and thankful acceptance. I want to be like the Apostle Paul who learned contentment in every circumstance. I choose to continually offer You a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that give praise to Your name (Hebrews 13:15). I long to bring a smile to Your face. Teach me the power of a thankful heart. I know that Your truth dwells in a thankful heart. ~ Debbie McDaniel

2. Meditation 

https://youtu.be/Od4uCoLe-ac?si=kGXg3-lcHFxT_ATq

3.  Song

https://youtu.be/J335DtCc3Bk?si=6Zm6u9fdLCViStZW

4.  Narrative

 

Giving Thanks for All the Little (and Big) Things in Life

Br. David Steindl-Rast, OSB

Have you ever noticed how your eyes open a bit wider when you are surprised? It is as if you had been asleep, merely day-dreaming or sleepwalking through some routine activity, and you hear your favorite tune on the radio, or look up from the puddles on the parking lot and see a rainbow, or the telephone rings and it’s the voice of an old friend, and all of a sudden you’re awake. Even an unwelcome surprise shakes us out of complacency and makes us come alive. We may not like it at first, but looking back, we can always recognize it as a gift. Humdrum equals deadness; surprise equals life. In fact, my favorite name for the One I worship in wonder – the only name that does not limit God – is Surprise.

Right this moment, as I remember spiritual giants I have been privileged to meet – Mother Teresa, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, His Holiness the Dalai Lama – I can still feel the life energy they radiated. But how did they come by this vitality? There is no lack of surprises in this world, but such radiant aliveness is rare. What I observed was that these people were all profoundly grateful, and then I understood the secret.

Surprise is a seed. Gratefulness sprouts when we rise to the challenge of surprise.

A surprise does not make us automatically alive. Aliveness is a matter of give-and-take, of response. If we allow surprise to merely baffle us, it will stun us and stunt our growth. Instead, every surprise is a challenge to trust in life and so to grow. Surprise is a seed. Gratefulness sprouts when we rise to the challenge of surprise. The great ones in the realm of Spirit are so intensely alive because they are so deeply grateful.

Gratefulness can be improved by practice. But where shall beginners begin? The obvious starting point is surprise. You will find that you can grow the seeds of gratefulness just by making room. If surprise happens when something unexpected shows up, let’s not expect anything at all. Let’s follow Alice Walker’s advice. “Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.”

Photo by Malte Wingen

To expect nothing may mean not taking for granted that your car will start when you turn the key. Try this and you will be surprised by a marvel of technology worthy of sincere gratitude. Or you may not be thrilled by your job, but if for a moment you can stop taking it for granted, you will taste the surprise of having a job at all, while millions are unemployed. If this makes you feel a flicker of gratefulness, you’ll be a little more joyful all day, a little more alive.

Once we stop taking things for granted our own bodies become some of the most surprising things of all.

Once we stop taking things for granted our own bodies become some of the most surprising things of all. It never ceases to amaze me that my body both produces and destroys 15 million red blood cells every second. Fifteen million! That’s nearly twice the census figure for New York City. I am told that the blood vessels in my body, if lined up end to end, would reach around the world. Yet my heart needs only one minute to pump my blood through this filigree network and back again. It has been doing so minute by minute, day by day, for the past 75 years and still keeps pumping away at 100,000 heartbeats every 24 hours. Obviously this is a matter of life and death for me, yet I have no idea how it works and it seems to work amazingly well in spite of my ignorance.

I do not know how my eyes adapt, yet when I chant by candlelight they are 100,000 times more sensitive to light than when I read outdoors on the porch at noon. I wouldn’t know how to give instructions to the 35 million digestive glands in my stomach for digesting one single strawberry; fortunately, they know how to do their job without my advice. When I think of this as I sit down to eat, my heart brims with gratefulness.

From the humble starting point of daily surprises, the practice of gratefulness leads to these transcendent heights.

In those moments, I can identify with the Psalmist who cried out in amazement, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Ps.139:14) From there it is only a small step to seeing the whole universe and every smallest part of it as surprising. From the humble starting point of daily surprises, the practice of gratefulness leads to these transcendent heights. Thomas Carlyle pointed to these peaks of spiritual awareness when he wrote, “Worship is transcendent wonder” – transcendent surprise. 

This article first appeared in Spirituality and Health magazine, Winter 2002, pp. 34-37.

5.  Meditation

https://youtu.be/_zPhlxYANtg

T

6.  Sharing

7.  Prayer and intentions 

Dear God,

Thank you for your amazing power and work in our lives, thank you for your goodness and for your blessings over us. Thank you that you are able to bring hope through even the toughest of times, strengthening us for your purposes. Thank you for your great love and care. Thank you for your mercy and grace. Thank you that you are always with us and will never leave us. Thank you for your incredible sacrifice so that we might have freedom and life. Forgive us for when we don't thank you enough, for who you are, for all that you do, for all that you've given. Help us to set our eyes and our hearts on you afresh. Renew our spirits, fill us with your peace and joy. We love you and we need you, this day and every day. We give you praise and thanks, for You alone are worthy! In Jesus' Name, Amen. ~ By Debbie McDaniel

8. Song

https://youtu.be/gBEI1F22uqE?si=wgxVNsVYIXGD3bU1

Darkness and mystery

1  prayer

A Prayer of Unknowing by Thomas Merton

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that, if I do this, You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen.

– Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude, page 79.

2.  Meditation 

 https://youtu.be/x32LraY4XqU?si=hGUDzFwl4rY46M0a

3. Song

https://youtu.be/ph-0y1h7yEM?si=s8_nzzB5hmwhH4bG

4.  Narrative 

Welcome Darkness and Mystery

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Welcome Darkness and Mystery
Wednesday, July 19, 2017

There are commonly two kinds of human beings: there are people who want certitude and there are people who want understanding; and these two often cannot understand one another.

Those who demand certitude out of life will insist on it even if it doesn’t fit the facts. Logic has nothing to do with it. Truth has nothing to do with it. “Don’t bother me with the truth—I’ve already come to my conclusion!” If you need certitude, you will surround yourself with your conclusions.

The very meaning of faith stands in stark contrast to this mind-set. I think Jesus (or the Father or Spirit) is actually dangerous if taken outside of the Trinity. Jesus held separate from the other members of the Trinity implies that faith is a static concept instead of a dynamic and flowing one.

We’ve turned faith into certitude when, in fact, this Trinitarian mystery is whispering quite the opposite: we have to live in exquisite, terrible humility before reality. In this space, God gives us a spirit of questing, a desire for understanding; it seems to me it’s only this ongoing search for understanding that will create compassionate and wise people.

If you think you have a right to certitude, then show me where the Gospel ever promised or offered you that. If God wanted us to have evidence, rational proof, and perfect clarity, the incarnation of Jesus would have been delayed till the invention of audio recorders and video cameras.

Rational certitude is exactly what the Scriptures do not offer us. They offer us something much better and an entirely different way of knowing: an intimate relationship, a dark journey, a path where we must discover for ourselves that grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness are absolutely necessary for survival in an uncertain world. You only need enough clarity and ground to know how to live without certitude! Yes, we really are saved by faith. People who live in this way never stop growing, are not easily defeated, and frankly, are fun to live with.

You can tell mature and authentic faith by people’s ability to deal with darkness, failure, and non-validation of the ego—and by their quiet but confident joy! Infantile religion insists on certainty every step of the way and thus is not very happy.

Gateway to Silence:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. —Proverbs 3:5

References:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation(Whitaker House: 2016), 100-101; and
Richard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See (The Crossroad Publishing Company: 2009), 120.

5.  Meditation 

https://youtu.be/Ozu4xECuaz8?si=Bob8oHlzIz8q-nbu

6  sharing 

7.  Prayers and intentions 

GOD WILL LEAD US SAFELY INTO AN UNKNOWN FUTURE

Lord, You are sovereign over all the earth. Great are You, Lord! You hung the stars in place. You tell the ocean how far it can come. And You orchestrate our days even when we face an unknown future.

Our future is known by You — You hold our days under Your tender watch-care because of Your great love.

When fear creeps in and threatens to consume me, when despair and confusion raise their ugly heads, I will trust in You. You are my refuge and my strength.

You light my path one step at a time, and even though I want to see my destination clearly You say, Trust Me, My child. I have a future and a hope for you.

Thank You, Lord, for this reminder. Bring my thoughts captive to You as I cling to Your hand, taking one step at a time.

I am comforted when I remember that I don’t need to know what lies ahead in order to be secure. I only need to keep my eyes fixed on You, to guard my heart against the work of the enemy, and You will lead me on — You will even carry me 

8.  Song

https://youtube.com/shorts/-iQTSvMdrck?si=EBfHqdkiO4rUsdYu

paula's prayer meeting november 13, 2024

 in the arms of God

https://youtu.be/DOHCBZBbyjg?si=AWtJ-Lww1Lv5SO5A

BLESSED ARE YOU WHO

BEAR THE LIGHT

                            Jan Richardson

 

Blessed are you

who bear the light

in unbearable times,

who testify

to its endurance

amid the unendurable,

who bear witness

to its persistence

when everything seems

in shadow

and grief.

 

Blessed are you

in whom

the light lives,

in whom

the brightness blazes—

your heart

a chapel,

an altar where

in the deepest night

can be seen

the fire that

shines forth in you

in unaccountable faith,

in stubborn hope,

in love that illumines

every broken thing

it finds.

 

               Be still and know that I am God

                             Be still and know that I am

                                           Be still and know

                                                          Be still

                                                                        Be

 

We are in God.  We are of God

We are living

We are being moved

We are.

 

 

 

 

Enoughness and contentment

 1.  prayer

Dear God, I come before you today seeking your wisdom and guidance on how to find contentment in my life. I know that I have often struggled with wanting more and feeling discontent with my situation.  Help me to trust in your provision and to always be grateful for what I have been given.

2. meditation

https://youtu.be/C8FetUZN5RQ

3.  song

https://youtu.be/4bskcffAavg

4. narrative

Enoughness and Contentment
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
(Feast of St. Francis of Assisi)

We live in a society that places great importance upon external signs of success. We have to assure ourselves and others that we are valuable and important—because we inherently doubt that we are! Thus we are often preoccupied with “one-upping” others. I am afraid that most lose inside of such a “winner-takes-all” society. We have great difficulty finding our inherent value with such a world view. Few have deep conviction about their own soul or the Indwelling Holy Spirit.

People living under capitalism find it almost unnatural to know their own center. Dignity must always be “acquired” and earned. We live in an affluent society that’s always expecting more, wanting more, and believes it even deserves more. But the more we own, ironically enough, the less we enjoy. This is the paradox of materialism. The more we project our soul’s longing onto things, the more things disappoint us. Happiness is an inside job. When we expect to find happiness outside of ourselves, we are always disappointed. We then seek a “higher” or more stimulating experience and the spiral of addiction and consumption continues.

Francis of Assisi, whose feast we celebrate today, experienced radical participation in God’s very life. Such practical knowing of his value and identity allowed Francis to let go of status, privilege, and wealth. Francis knew he was part of God’s plan, connected to creation and other beings, inherently in communion and in love. Francis taught his followers to own nothing so they would not be owned by their possessions.

If you don’t live from within your own center of connection and communion, you’ll go spinning around things. The true goal of all religion is to lead you back to the place where everything is one, to the experience of radical unity with all of humanity, and hence to the experience of unity with God.

When you live in pure consciousness, letting the naked being of all reality touch your own naked being, you experience foundational participation. Out of that plentitude—a sense of satisfaction and inner enoughness, a worldview of abundance—you find it much easier to live simply. You realize you don’t “need” as much. You’ve found your satisfaction at an inner place, at a deeper level inside you. You’re able to draw from this abundance and share it freely with others. And you stop trying to decide who is worthy of it, because you now know that you are not “worthy” either. It is one hundred percent pure gift!

Gateway to Silence:
Live simply so that others may simply live.

References:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Simplicity: The Freedom of Letting Go (The Crossroad Publishing Company: 1991, 2003), 86-87, 89; and
The Great Chain of Being: Simplifying Our Lives (CAC: 2007), MP3 download.

5.  meditation

https://youtu.be/_zPhlxYANtg

6.  sharing

7.  prayer and intentions

Holy Spirit, 
open my heart
to understand how precious I am to you,
how loved I am by you.
Open the eyes of my soul,
to see the gifts you have put before me this day.
Give me the grace to recognize each encounter with you.
Teach me to respond in gratitude, to grow in gratitude.
Teach me to be generous, as you are generous with me,
and to collaborate with you in serving my sister and my brother
for your greater glory.

8.  song

https://youtu.be/xb48JHSiwBM