Sense of wonder

1.  PRAYER

Dear God,
I love that you give us this vast, beautiful creation to share.
Please bless me with the patience to seek you in every small detail and the kindness to care for the world around me. [1]

So often, my daily responsibilities and worries demand all my time, and I forget to slow down and notice your presence.
Help me look beyond my small self and my endless to-do lists.
Cultivate in me the eyes of a child—eyes of wonder, awe, and belief. [1, 2, 3]

Send me a simple sight or sound today that radiates your glory.
Remind me that even when life feels heavy, you are right here doing more than I could ever imagine.
Awaken my heart to stand in awe of your goodness once again. [1, 2]

In your holy name,
Amen.

2.  MEDITATION

https://youtu.be/DW8J91qQuuU

3.  SONG

https://youtu.be/XlAptm-Ls14?si=jdB8j-zF3sd-r9_s

4. NARRATIVE

• Father Richard Rohr teaches that awe and wonder are the foundation of true spiritual awareness, allowing people to encounter the holy through everyday presence rather than rigid rules and routines. [1]

Key Teachings on Awe and Wonder

Foundational Intuition: Rohr describes the core religious experience as a moment of profound beauty, awe, and wonder that "gob smacks" an individual out of ordinary routine. [1]
Beyond Rules: When a life lacks genuine wonder, religion often defaults to mere laws, structures, and routines in an attempt to manufacture holiness. [1]
Everyday Attention: True appreciation for amazement is grounded in the mundane—such as returning to simple daily tasks after an extraordinary event—by paying close attention to small, everyday details like the natural world or the night sky. [1]
Contemplation: Contemplative practice helps quiet the ego, enabling individuals to value beauty and live openly in the present moment. [1]

(Note: While "Living in Wonder" is famously the title of a recent book on Christian re-enchantment by author Rod Dreher, Richard Rohr approaches the parallel theme of wonder through contemplative presence, everyday mindfulness, and incarnational spirituality.) [1, 2, 3]

Would you like to explore Richard Rohr’s teachings on contemplation, or are you looking for details on Rod Dreher's book "Living in Wonder"?

A COMMENT

 Yesterday I found these words scrawled on an old crumbly piece of paper in the bottom of my filing cabinet: (from Max Lucado, In the Grip of Grace – 1996, p15.)

“The loss of mystery has led to the loss of majesty
The more we know the less we believe.
No wonder there is no wonder.
We think we have figured it all out.
Strange, don’t you think?
Knowledge of the workings shouldn’t negate the wonder.
Knowledge should stir wonder.
Who has more reason to worship than the astronomer who has seen the stars?
Than the surgeon who has held a heart?
Than the oceanographer who has pondered the depths”.

A POEM

Stay thoughtful and curious,
ask questions of interest,
feel excitement in your eyes.

Keep your sense of wonder
like a patchwork kite tugging in the wind,
always one thread away from lifting off,
spilling color across the sky.

Ask why like a toddler at bedtime,
then ask again.
Open doors in your mind,
rummage through closets,
pocket stray questions,
and don’t worry where they’ll fit.

Imagine it:
a beetle with legs like green pins,
a hidden city of ants under the porch,
or the way rain tap dances on your umbrella,
each drop its own story,
its own tiny orchestra.

Remember that thrill,
how leaves crackle like small fire underfoot,
how stars wink conspiratorially,
as if they know something you don’t
but want to share, if you ask just right.

Questioning, let your eyes widen,
see the world through a child’s eyes,
big as a lake you can skip stones across
skip across it yourself if you dare.

For every question is a spark,
and every wonder fans the flames.
With every answer, one more universe to explore,
waiting beyond the next bend.

Wondering, you ask, teaches us
things we didn’t know before.
Curiosity takes us places we haven’t been,
but we always wanted to explore

Have you ever met people who felt that they had all the answers? They never asked any questions. They had no sense of curiosity because they felt that they knew it all.

It is preferable to maintain a sense of wonder about the world like a child seeing things for the first time. It keeps us excited about exploring new ideas and places. It makes us stretch ourselves and makes us grow. Curiosity and wanting to learn keeps us young. It makes life more interesting.

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5.  MEDITATION

https://youtu.be/kBz6ykPUzh8?si=XtvFLFpFjRna4BEx

6.  SHARING

7.  PRAYER AND INTENTIONS

Prayer for awe and wonder at God's creation

Titles are generated by AI from Meta

Heavenly Father, as we discover the hidden treasures in Your creation, please fill our hearts with awe and wonder for the beauty that surrounds us today. And may these glimpses of Your glory deepen our anticipation for the day we will worship You in heaven as we behold Your magnificence forever. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

- Courtesy: Our Daily Bread

8. SONG

https://youtu.be/JPOtE-wya7o?si=F2U6ljRLrdU5vtgT

Right intentions

 

1.  PRAYER

Almighty and merciful God, I come before You today to offer my heart and my will. [1, 2]

Lord, search my thoughts and expose any hidden motives, pride, or self-centeredness. Purify my intentions, rectify them, and make them conformable to Your loving design. [1, 2, 3]

Grant that everything I think, say, and do this day may begin in You and draw its power from You alone. Keep me from acting out of guilt, vanity, or a desire for my own glory. Instead, let my sole desire be to love You, serve my neighbor, and walk faithfully on Your path. [1, 2, 3]

Amen."

2. MEDITATION

https://youtu.be/-9KLB2HI9BI?si=OYHlMHazfIh8FOg4

3. SONG

https://youtu.be/woNiRqfgbDk?si=eJ3_pLZ9tBSGwccn

4. NARRATIVE

Father Richard Rohr teaches that spiritual maturity moves beyond merely "doing it right" to acting with pure, unselfish intention. [1, 2]

Core Teachings on Intention

Beyond Correctness: After spiritual transformation, life is no longer about following rigid rules or proving you are "correct." It is about being connected to God and others. [1]
Purity of Motives: True devotion requires shifting away from the ego—moving past concerns over personal status, security, or power—into a pure motivation of love and service. [1, 2]
Connection Over Perfection: Instead of performing religious duties with a sense of moral pride, a transformed person acts from a place of inner freedom and compassionate presence. [1, 2]

Love God in What Is Right in Front of You Sunday, January 17, 2016

The God Jesus incarnates and embodies is not a distant God that must be placated. Jesus' God is not sitting on some throne demanding worship and throwing down thunderbolts like Zeus. Jesus never said, "Worship me"; he said, "Follow me." He asks us to imitate him in his own journey of full incarnation. To do so, he gives us the two great commandments: 1) Love God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and 2) Love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:28-31, Luke 10:25-28). In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus shows us that our "neighbor" even includes our "enemy" (Luke 10:29-37).   So how do we love God? Most of us seem to have concluded we love God by attending church services. For some reason, we thought that made God happy. I'm not sure why. That idea probably has more to do with clergy job security! Jesus never talked about attending services, although church can be a good container to start with, and we do tend to become like the folks we hang out with. The prophets often portray God's disdain for self-serving church services. "The sanctuary, the sanctuary, the sanctuary" is all we care about, Jeremiah shouts (7:4). "I hold my nose at your incense. What I want you to do is love the widow and the orphan," say both Isaiah and Amos (Isaiah 1:11-17, Amos 5:21-24), as do Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, Micah, and Zechariah in different ways. The prophetic message is absolutely clear, yet we went right back to loving church services instead of Reality. I believe our inability to recognize and love God in what is right in front of us has made us separate religion from our actual lives. There is Sunday morning, and then there is real life.   The only way I know how to teach anyone to love God, and how I myself can love God, is to love what God loves, which is everything and everyone, including you and including me! "We love because God first loved us" (1 John 4:19). "If we love one another, God remains in us, and [God's] love is brought to perfection in us" (1 John 4:12). Then we love with an infinite love that can always flow through us. We then are able to love things in their "thisness" as John Duns Scotus says--for themselves and in themselves--and not for what they do for us. That takes both work and surrender, and the primary work is detachment from our selves--from our conditioning, our preferences, our prejudices, our knee-jerk neurological reactions. Only the contemplative and trustful mind can do that.   As our freedom from our ego expands--as we get ourselves out of the way--there is a slow but real expansion of consciousness so that we are not the central reference point anymore. We are able to love in greater and greater circles until we can finally do what Jesus did: love and forgive even our enemies. Most of us were given the impression that we had to be totally selfless, and when we couldn't achieve that, many of us gave up altogether. One of Duns Scotus' most helpful teachings is that we should seek "a harmony of goodness," which means harmonizing and balancing necessary self-care with the constant expansion beyond ourselves to loving others in themselves and for themselves. Imagining and working toward this harmony keeps us from giving up on impossible and heroic ideals. Now the possibility of love is always right in front of us and always concrete; it is no longer a theory, a heroic ideal, or a mere distant goal.

Gateway to Silence God in me sees God who is also beyond me.

Reference: Adapted from Richard Rohr, Franciscan Mysticism: I AM That Which I Am Seeking   (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2012), disc 2 (CD, MP3 download ).

5.  MEDITATION https://youtu.be/56Jyaqm7e_k?si=GjnbHORKwg6tbLST 6.  SHARING 7.  PRAYER AND INTENTIONS Heavenly Father, search my heart today. Cleanse my mind from selfish desires, hidden pride, and dishonest motives. Align my will with Yours. Help me to love others without expecting anything back, and to do my work for Your glory alone. Give me a pure heart and good intentions in everything I say and do. In Jesus' name, Amen." 8. SONG https://youtu.be/ZEAtX4UA-Mc?si=SC3IoOdjYqTd3lyC