Tag: joy

Wind Chimes: 11 Nov 2012

It is right, and a good and joyful thing always and everywhere to give thanks to you Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth …

Prayer beginning our Great Thanksgiving

Many of us will gather to offer “thanks and praise” to God today. All of us, as we are reminded in this video, are invited to welcome the gift of a new day with gratitude, with thanks and praise. We are further invited to share the gift as a blessing. As we give thanks today, let us especially take every opportunity to thank our Veterans for their service to us and to our country. Furthermore, let us put our words into actions throughout the year as we make sure our Veterans, our wounded Veterans in particular, are cared for by a grateful nation.

The chimes sound blessings today? What do you hear? How will you respond? ~dan

A prayer for Veterans

God of compassion,
God of dignity and strength,
Watch over the veterans of the United States
In recognition of their loyal service to our nation.
Bless them with wholeness and love.
Shelter them.
Heal their wounds,
Comfort their hearts.
Grant them peace.

God of justice and truth,
Rock of our lives,
Bless our veterans,
These men and women of courage and valor,
With a deep and abiding understanding
Of our profound gratitude.
Protect them and their families from loneliness and want.
Grant them lives of joy and bounty.
May their dedication and honor
Be remembered as a blessing
From generation to generation.

Blessed are You,
Protector and Redeemer,
Our Shield and our Stronghold.

© 2011 Alden Solovy and www.tobendlight.com via Beliefnet.com
See also To Bend Light on Facebook

Video: TED on WordPress

Wind Chimes: 10 Nov 2012

renew in us … the gift of joy and wonder in all your works

Adapted from the Prayer for the Newly Baptized

Slow down today. Make time to pause and look (chimes can be beautiful as they move) and listen. What do you see? What do you hear? How will you respond?

A prayer

God, great and wonderful,
who hast created the heavens,
dwelling in the light and beauty thereof,
who hast made the earth,
revealing thyself in every flower that opens;
let not mine eyes be blind to thee,
neither let mine heart be dead,
but teach me to praise thee,
even as the lark which offereth her song at daybreak.

Isidore of Seville (560-636)
in Christopher Herbert, Pocket Prayers: The Classic Collection (Kindle Edition)

Video: RANphotovideo on YouTube

Wind Chimes: 9 Nov 2012

A grain of sand

renew in us an inquiring and discerning heart
and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works

Adapted from the Prayer for the Newly Baptized

The “nano world” is filled with visual delights; might the chimes make “nano sounds”? Is it possible for us to be attuned to such sounds? What do you hear?

The beautiful nano details of our world

“Nano: denoting a factor of 10 [to the minus 9th power or 0.000000001] (used commonly in units of measurement): nanosecond; denoting a very small item: nanoplankton.” from the New Oxford American Dictionary.

Yesterday a friend sent me this TED Talk. I invite you to excite your sense of “joy and wonder” in all of God’s works as you nourish an “inquiring and discerning heart.” ~dan

The beautiful nano details of our world a TED Talk by Gary Greenberg:
A link to the Gary Greenberg Talk on TED

It’s official: Justin Welby to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury

“The Queen has approved the nomination of the Right Reverend Justin Welby for election as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury.” Press Release from Lambeth Palace dated 9 Nov 2012

I invite your prayers for Bishop Welby as he takes on this new ministry. ~dan

A prayer for you and me

Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit you have bestowed upon us the forgiveness of sin, and have raised us to the new life of grace. Sustain us, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit and renew in us an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works. Amen

A prayer adapted from the Prayer for the Newly Baptized (BCP, p. 308) and used in General Convention 2006.

Photo: An image of grains of sand from Maui; from a TED Talk by Gary Greenberg ~dan

Hildegard

Creator God, your whole creation, in all its varied and related parts, shows forth your verdant and life-giving power: Grant that we your people, illumined by the visions recorded by your servant Hildegard, may know, and make known, the joy and jubilation of being part of this cycle of creation, and may manifest your glory in all virtuous and godly living; through Jesus Christ whom you sent, and who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for the Commemoration of Hildegard in Holy Women, Holy Men)

As you read the biographical note about Hildegard on Holy Women, Holy Men I draw your attention to 2 items and share a video meditation featuring Hildegard’s Spiritus Sanctus, the “second Antiphone (sic) and Psalm 110/111 from the vesper of Hildegard von Bingen.”

First, from the Collect, we hear how Hildegard clearly loved all of creation and rejoiced in its complex beauty and interrelatedness, praying that we would do the same: “Grant that we your people … may know, and make known, the joy and jubilation of being part of this cycle of creation ….”

Second, from the biographical notes, we hear how for Hildegard “music was essential to worship. Her liturgical compositions, unusual in structure and tonality, were described by contemporaries as ‘chant of surpassing sweet melody’ and ‘strange and unheard-of music.’”

Enjoy Spiritus Sanctus

Unless I see the marks « Unfolding Light

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands,and put my finger in the mark of the nailsand my hand in his side, I will not believe.” —John 20.25

Just before we leave the Second Week of Easter let us take one more look at Thomas. Steve Garnaas-Holmes is a United Methodist minister who writes daily. I am grateful for his insights and his willingness to share.

Here, I have excerpted his meditation  “Unless I see the marks.” You will want to read the entire meditation (more than once). It has opened my eyes to see Thomas in a different light.

Oh, Thomas was no doubter.…

”Oh, more, not less than all the rest,
Thomas believed in love, and how it bled. …

He didn’t ask to see his smiling face,
[his] famous, radiant eyes;
he didn’t hope to see him break the bread
the way he always did.
No, he asked to see his wounds,
the marks of love, the wounds of one
who weeps with those who weep,
who has walked with us through the valley
of the shadow of death.

Oh, Thomas, I’m with you: …

Read the entire meditation: Unless I see the marks « Unfolding Light.