Sarah Christmyer's Blog, page 11

RECEIVING THE GAZE OF JESUS: an exercise in visio divina

Let’s “come into the Word” today by doing a little visio divina — reflecting on a painting of the Word-made-flesh. It’s getting close to Christmas, and I don’t know about you, but my brain is too full to read another thing. There is something about a quiet gaze that speaks to my heart right now. I’d like to share a picture with you, which means you’ll have to read a little first: but I hope you’ll end up being touched as I have.

This week I’ve been mesmerized by Pasquale Sarullo’s painting of Jesus with his mother. You’ve probably seen it before. Many copies have been made, and some are as famous as the first. But have you ever really looked?

Pasquale Sarullo, Mother of Good Counsel

 

Mary has the baby Jesus on her lap. Her hands loosely cradle him but they’re not yet at rest. Her left hand seems to be caressing him, rubbing his little soft back while her right hand is coming to place beneath his arm. Is she about to lift him? Hug him? She’s pensive. Thinking. Her eyes look down beyond him but her head tilts in his direction. She may not have her eyes on him, but inside, the whole of her attention leans his way. As though she’s soaking in his presence, pondering the wonder of this God-child in her arms.

We have a saying in our family, when you’re holding an infant who is snuggling warm in your neck, drowsy or even asleep — pressed heavy to your chest while your arms are wrapped around and you feel like you’re at one with that child and filled with love — that you are “gathering nectar.” I think these two are close to that.

What really grabs my attention, though, is the Child. Especially his eyes. All else in the painting is soft. His eyes are bright. Every grace line in the painting ends up wrapped around or pointing to those dark, piercing lights and the expression on his face.

Jesus is all love and he’s all about his mom.

One arm is wrapped around her neck, the other resting on her chest. He’s either going into a hug or coming out of one, and maybe his little hand is patting her. He wants to get her attention. Just look at his eyes, trained on her face and willing her to look. He’s too young to talk but you can almost hear him speak, and Mary looks as though she’s trying to hear. What is he saying, without saying it?

Here’s what he says to me, as I look and ponder:

Put yourself in the picture, as though you’re Mary. Receive me in your arms. I’m coming to you, I want to born in you, in your particular life. Look at me. Gaze in my eyes. Feel my arms around your neck. See how I love you! Sometimes, it’s true, I’ll be walking before you, carrying my cross and you’ll be carrying yours and the way will be hard. But underneath it all: this is how it is. Me. You. Love. Concern. Comfort. Nectar.

May the Christ Child come to you in a new way this Christmas, filling you with the knowledge of his love.

© 2019 Sarah Christmyer

There’s a lovely version of this painted by Kitty Cleveland that she makes available as prints and on greeting cards and other things here in her etsy shop.

The post RECEIVING THE GAZE OF JESUS: an exercise in visio divina appeared first on Come Into The Word with Sarah Christmyer | Bible Study | Lectio Divina | Journals | Retreat.

FINDING NEW MEANING IN THE CHRISTMAS TREE

In the winter of 1510, the merchants of Riga, Latvia, hauled a tree into the center of the marketplace. They decorated it with roses, symbol of the Virgin Mary. They danced around the tree in celebration of the Christ-child’s birth, and then they set it alight in a blaze of glory.

That was the first Christmas tree, as far as anyone knows.  I wonder if anyone there had in mind the burning bush in Exodus 3 that prefigured it. After all, for over a thousand years the Church had been seeing in the burning bush, a type of the Virgin birth:

“What was prefigured at that time in the flame of the bush was openly manifested in the mystery of the Virgin…. As on the mountain the bush burned but was not consumed, so the Virgin gave birth to the light and was not corrupted.” (St. Gregory of Nyssa, 4th century, “On the Birth of Christ”)

“The Unburnt Bush” is a traditional Orthodox title for Mary, and she shows up as the burning bush in Eastern Orthodox iconography, in western medieval art, in liturgy and in hymns.

Here is one example – notice Moses there on the left, who some Church Fathers thought got a spiritual glimpse of what was to come, when he saw the burning bush.  In a similar way, we wait in Advent for a “bush” to flame with life:

“The Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel”– “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14)

As if the virgin birth wasn’t enough of a miracle, in Mary, God entered humanity without burning or destroying it (sin combusts like tinder before the holy, consuming fire of God.)  And now, baptized into Christ’s death, we can receive God’s presence in us in the Eucharist — and we can be lit by the flames of the Holy Spirit — without being destroyed.  The Byzantine monk and poet St. Symeon the New Theologian (d. 1022) wrote eloquently about this:

I share with trembling joy in the divine fire,

I who am only hay,

And oh, such a strange miracle…

Without being consumed I continue to burn

In a beautiful flaming light

As did once, the burning bush.

Knowing this, I think I will never see a Christmas tree the same again. Alight, as though on fire but not burnt and not consumed. A picture of the miracle that you or I, though ordinary mortals, can be filled with the life of God.

 

© 2014 Sarah Christmyer. This post was previously published on this site as “The First Christmas Tree: A Burning Bush?” 

The post FINDING NEW MEANING IN THE CHRISTMAS TREE appeared first on Come Into The Word with Sarah Christmyer | Bible Study | Lectio Divina | Journals | Retreat.

REJOICE! HOW ABOUT A PRE-CHRISTMAS RE-BOOT?

Have you ever heard of “foreboding joy”? That’s what Brene Brown (in The Power of Vulnerability) calls it when we prepare for the worst even when things are at their best.

Foreboding joy. I know it sounds like a contradiction in terms, but I’ll bet a lot of people feel something like it right now. Christmas is just ten days away, full of promise. “It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” says the song. But when the tinsel and wrappings are put away and the lights are taken down, there’s a good chance it might not live up to its promise.

I expect that’s why the Church frames this third Sunday of Advent with a command to Rejoice! “Gaudete (gaw-DAY-tay) Sunday,” it’s called, for the first word of the Introit sung at mass: Gaudete in Domino, semper gaudete – “Rejoice in The Lord always, again I say, rejoice.” Whatever else is going on in our lives right now, we rejoice because we know the Lord is near. And so everything this Sunday speaks of joy, down to the rose-colored candle on the Advent wreath and the priest’s rose vestments.

Brene Brown writes about how vulnerable joy makes us, because it sets us up to have our expectations squashed. In that thinking, it’s a bubble just waiting to be burst; hence it can be full of foreboding. And that’s where Christian joy makes a difference. It doesn’t originate in our circumstances and it doesn’t depend on chance happenings. It’s not a bubble, it’s a deep flowing stream. It’s a gift of the Holy Spirit that starts fills from the inside, giving strength and holding us steady.

Jesus says that when you have the joy he brings, “no one will take [it] away from you” (John 16:22).  That doesn’t mean we’ll always be happy: but as St. Paul says, Christians can be “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10 ESV). That means that even when we are sad or hurting or in pain, we can always have joy.

Instead of nurturing the “foreboding joy” that can easily creep up on me when I’m not watching, today I’m taking a cue from the liturgy and fostering free-flowing joy. Today, I choose to rejoice. The Lord is near! I will light my rose candle among the violet ones every day now as a reminder: the joy of Christmas is not the fleeting happiness of gifts and good food and celebrations, as good as those might be. It is the deep joy of the Lord coming into my heart and my life.

Have a joy-filled Advent!

And “may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope”! (Romans 15:13)

© 2019 Sarah Christmyer

 

You may also like these:

I Choose Joy!
Seven Reasons to Rejoice When Things Go Wrong

 

 

 

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WAKE UP TO ADVENT WITH TWO BIBLE READING PLANS

 

Wake up!

It’s time to make our way toward Bethlehem.

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“Stay awake! … be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come”

— from Luke 24:37-44, Gospel for the 1st Sunday of Advent Year A

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Imagine what that was like for the magi, leaving on their long journey, following a star that promised a king. They hoped in that promise and acted in faith: not knowing where they would end up or how far they had to go.

In that sense, their journey echoes the journey of Abraham and Sarah two thousand years earlier. Leave everything and go to the land that I will show you, God said. At the end was untold blessing, including the king those wise men would search to find.

Christmas wraps up all the hopes and expectations of salvation history, not just from the time of Abraham but from the time of creation — and presents them to us in a mother and child in the little town of Bethlehem.

We’re on a similar journey today: knowing that Jesus has been born, but awaiting his coming again as King. One way to enter into the spirit of expectation and recall the real meaning of Christmas is to travel through Scripture following the “Jesse Tree” — named for Isaiah’s prophecy that the Messiah would come like “shoot from the stump of Jesse,” father of King David (Isa 11:1). This Advent tradition offers daily readings that depict the ancestors of Jesus or stories that show how all the Old Testament points to Christ.

Try one of these two Advent reading plans

Here are two such reading plans to choose from.

The first is a traditional “Jesse Tree.” Starting with Creation, it traces not only the lineage of Jesus from Jesse, but also the history of salvation as it points to his coming.

 

Download the “Jesse Tree” Advent Reading Plan

The second is one I created to trace the fulfillment of God’s curse on the devil and promise to Eve after the Fall, that the woman and her “seed” will bruise the head of the serpent (see Gen 3:14-15). Subsequent generations of mothers and sons in salvation history give hints of the one who is to come, born of a woman, to defeat the devil … until the prophecy is fulfilled in Mary and Jesus.

 

Download “The Woman and her Seed” Advent Reading Plan

“Mary Consoles Eve,” by Sr. Grace Remington, OCSO

 

Of course, you can also follow the readings the Church gives us each day. They’ve been carefully chosen to help prepare our hearts for Christ’s coming. Find them on the USCCB website or read the following selected list from CatholicOnline of one reading a day that relates to Advent themes of waiting, preparation, light, and the coming Messiah.

Daily Mass Readings from the US Council of Catholic Bishops

Selected Daily Advent Readings from CatholicOnline

 

Blessings on you as you come into the Word this Advent!

© 2019 Sarah Christmyer

Make a spiritual pilgrimage through the Old Testament during Advent or in the new year.  In Becoming Women of the Word, you will walk alongside women of the Old Testament who pave the way for Mary, mother of our Lord. Learn how Eve picks up again after the Fall … how Sarah trusts in the impossible … how rival sisters Leah and Rachel cope with unmet longing. Find a soul sister in Miriam or Rahab, Deborah or Ruth. Learn to pray with Hannah; from Esther learn to act boldly when you’re afraid. And from Judith – well, you’ll need to read to find out. Available from Ave Maria Press or wherever books are sold.

The post WAKE UP TO ADVENT WITH TWO BIBLE READING PLANS appeared first on Come Into The Word with Sarah Christmyer | Bible Study | Lectio Divina | Journals | Retreat.

FIVE PSALMS TO GET YOUR HEART FIT FOR THANKSGIVING

It’s no accident that National Bible Week coincides with Thanksgiving. Its roots are in the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, when radio reports of the attack were alternated with Scripture readings to encourage the nation. Later, FDR proclaimed the week of Thanksgiving to be National Bible Week for all America, in gratitude to the Lord. Since then, every US President has followed suit. 2019 is the 78th year we have thus thanked God for the gift of his Word.

In honor of that, and in light of Thanksgiving this Thursday, I offer a different thanksgiving psalm to pray each day during the week.

A thankful heart is a powerful antidote to discouragement and fear as well as to self-seeking, self-indulgence, self-pity, self-[fill in the blank]. It’s not easy to be thankful when we’re not, but the Psalms show us how to get there. When we pray them intentionally, the Psalms lift our hearts from wherever they are stuck and open them up to God. If you can make the effort to offer thanks and praise, your heart will follow and be filled with joy.

5 THANKSGIVING PSALMS TO PRAY THIS WEEK

This Thanksgiving week, let’s set our focus where it belongs: in giving thanks. Here are five psalms to help you do that with, and a hymn of praise to close out the week before turning to our own “official” Thanksgiving feast, the Mass (Eucharistia is Greek for thanksgiving).

Read these Psalms on your own, or join me here on facebook if you want to share your thoughts each day:

Monday: Psalm 100
Tuesday: Psalm 107
Wednesday: Psalm 118
Thursday: Psalm 138
Friday: Psalm 136
Saturday: the Te Deum (learn about and read it here)

 

ENTHRONE THE BIBLE IN YOUR HOME

Another way to celebrate this week of the Bible is to enthrone the Bible in your home or family. Here are some simple guidelines from the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops:

Blessings on you as you celebrate the Word!

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© 2019 Sarah Christmyer

This is based on a similar post published on this blog 11/20/17

Check out other posts about praise and thanksgiving here:

Thanks-Giving: the Door to Happy Holidays
Giving Thanks in Good Times and in Bad
Practicing Gratitude — Grace Before Meals
Thanks (for Nothing?) Learn the Power of Praise

 

The post FIVE PSALMS TO GET YOUR HEART FIT FOR THANKSGIVING appeared first on Come Into The Word with Sarah Christmyer | Bible Study | Lectio Divina | Journals | Retreat.

FIVE PSALMS TO FIT YOUR HEART FOR THANKSGIVING

It’s no accident that National Bible Week coincides with Thanksgiving. Its roots are in the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, when radio reports of the attack were alternated with Scripture readings to encourage the nation. Later, FDR proclaimed the week of Thanksgiving to be National Bible Week for all America, in gratitude to the Lord. Since then, every US President has followed suit. 2019 is the 78th year we have thus thanked God for the gift of his Word.

In honor of that, and in light of Thanksgiving this Thursday, I offer a different thanksgiving psalm to pray each day during the week.

A thankful heart is a powerful antidote to discouragement and fear as well as to self-seeking, self-indulgence, self-pity, self-[fill in the blank]. It’s not easy to be thankful when we’re not, but the Psalms show us how to get there. When we pray them intentionally, the Psalms lift our hearts from wherever they are stuck and open them up to God. If you can make the effort to offer thanks and praise, your heart will follow and be filled with joy.

5 THANKSGIVING PSALMS TO PRAY THIS WEEK

This Thanksgiving week, let’s set our focus where it belongs: in giving thanks. Here are five psalms to help you do that with, and a hymn of praise to close out the week before turning to our own “official” Thanksgiving feast, the Mass (Eucharistia is Greek for thanksgiving).

Read these Psalms on your own, or join me here on facebook if you want to share your thoughts each day:

Monday: Psalm 100
Tuesday: Psalm 107
Wednesday: Psalm 118
Thursday: Psalm 138
Friday: Psalm 136
Saturday: the Te Deum (learn about and read it here)

 

ENTHRONE THE BIBLE IN YOUR HOME

Another way to celebrate this week of the Bible is to enthrone the Bible in your home or family. Here are some simple guidelines from the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops:

Blessings on you as you celebrate the Word!

+ + + + + + +

© 2019 Sarah Christmyer

This is based on a similar post published on this blog 11/20/17

Check out other posts about praise and thanksgiving here:

Thanks-Giving: the Door to Happy Holidays
Giving Thanks in Good Times and in Bad
Practicing Gratitude — Grace Before Meals
Thanks (for Nothing?) Learn the Power of Praise

 

The post FIVE PSALMS TO FIT YOUR HEART FOR THANKSGIVING appeared first on Come Into The Word with Sarah Christmyer | Bible Study | Lectio Divina | Journals | Retreat.

DOES JESUS REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE? Kanye West, Meet Zacchaeus

Jesus “keeps on taking me to new levels, … that we didn’t even imagine before. […] God’s always had a plan for me.”

That was the outspoken rapper Kanye West, preaching from the “new level” of a coach seat on a jet bound for LA, where he talked to Late Late Show host James Cordon about finding religion in a special edition of Carpool Karaoke. Members of Kanye’s Sunday Service Choir jumped from their seats to sing while Kanye rapped:

Jesus walks with me…

To the hustlers, killers, murderers, drug dealers even the strippers

(Jesus walks for them)

To the victims of welfare for we living in hell here hell yeah

(Jesus walks for them)

Now hear ye hear ye want to see Thee more clearly

I know He hear me when my feet get weary […]

God show me the way because the devil trying to break me down

(Jesus Walks with me, with me, with me)

—Kanye West, Jesus Walks

Terence Patrick/CBS

Kanye’s latest album, Jesus is King, has ignited controversy in the Christian and Gospel communities as well as in the music world, with skeptics and believers alternately praising or tearing down his lyrics, life, and legacy. How real can the conversion be of such a blatant, self-proclaimed sinner? Should Christians welcome and claim him, or doubt?

Does Jesus really make a difference?

I’ll leave the verdict on Kanye to the Lord. But in the meantime, Kanye’s story brings to mind the experience of Zacchaeus in Luke 19. That notorious, wealthy sinner was despised by the Jews of Jericho. As chief tax collector, he oversaw the collection of taxes due the Roman emperor. Fraud and extortion were rampant in the profession. He and others like him were seen as traitors who sold their services to that oppressive regime to make money at the expense of the people. Almost by definition, Zacchaeus would be considered to lack the righteousness needed to enter the kingdom of God.

Enter Jesus.

He’s passing through Jericho on his way up to Jerusalem and his Passion, and people crowd the streets hoping to catch a glimpse of the man who has been healing and preaching about the kingdom of God. No one’s about to make room for a tax collector, even a height-challenged man like Zacchaeus who’s too short to see a thing.

Not to be deterred, the tiny taxman runs ahead of the crowd and scoots up a tree to get a better view. And that might have been all he got, had not Jesus been more aware of Zacchaeus than even Zacchaeus was of him. Zacchaeus wanted “to see who Jesus was” — but Jesus is on the lookout for him, sees him up in the tree and calls to him by name. “Zacchaeus,” he says. “Come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.”

Zacchaeus leaps from the tree and “receives him with joy.” The townspeople grumble and accuse but Zacchaeus reforms. Touched to the heart, he breaks out in a spontaneous fit of generosity. He will restore four times what he gained by fraud, and will give half of his belongings to the poor. To which Jesus says, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.’”

What made the difference for Zacchaeus?

What a contrast to the rich Jewish ruler Jesus had met on the way to Jericho, who wanted to inherit eternal life but became sad when he heard the cost. “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” Jesus remarked. But “what is impossible with men is possible with God” (see Luke 18:18-30).

What made the difference for Zacchaeus? Jesus was there in both cases. Perhaps it was that the ruler, convinced already of his righteousness, was looking for an extra feather in his cap, or for assurance that all he’d done was enough. But Zacchaeus, aware that he stood outside, was seeking “to see who Jesus was.” He was drawn by the person of Christ. Sometime, read the verbs Luke chose to describe him: Zacchaeus sought, he ran, he climbed, he made haste, he received Jesus with joy. The man is determined. He’s full of energy. He takes initiative. He wants to see who Jesus is. And when he does, he finds that Jesus is already seeking him, to save him. Rather than holding on to his wealth, Zacchaeus offers it up unasked. He repents and makes reparation with extravagant joy. And he doesn’t do it to meet a requirement, but because he is known and loved.

Where are you in the story?

Whether you identify with Zacchaeus or the crowd (or even the rich ruler), it’s worth sitting a while with them in Luke 19:1-10. Pay attention to the verbs and adverbs … to things repeated … to the action. Read it again and listen. What is the Lord saying to you? Here are some prompts to get you thinking:

Consider what gets in the way of Zacchaeus seeing Jesus: the crowd and public opinion; his small stature, both physical and moral; his outsider status. Do any of those apply to you? Which and how? What can you learn from the way Zacchaeus overcame those obstacles to see the Lord?
Are you like the crowd, sure of your own standing and at the same time, shouldering others out or blocking their view of the Lord? Is there a Zacchaeus in your life? How might the crowd have reacted differently? How might you? How does Jesus respond to them? What might he be saying to you?
Think of Zacchaeus on his perch in the tree. See him safely removed from the crowd, looking on but also above, out of sight behind branches and leaves. Are you up there with him in some way, looking at Christ from a distance? How do you feel when Jesus meets your eye … calls you by name … asks you to come down … invites himself into your home?

 

“The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost”

Nothing can hide us from the One who sees and knows and loves us. When we actively seek Jesus as Zacchaeus did, we discover him already there, looking for us! And not with condemnation, but with mercy and love and an offer to enter our lives. At Mass before communion, we say “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.” Zacchaeus was certainly not worthy. Yet Jesus asked to be his guest. How does that exchange speak to your heart? What was Zacchaeus’s response? What is yours?

He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God. —John 1:11-12

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are! —1 John 3:1

© 2019 Sarah Christmyer

 

 

 

 

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IT’S YOUR CHOICE TO REJOICE

My mom had a no-fail way of dealing with grumpy, complaining, mopey kids: she’d send us to our rooms with one command: “come out when you’re ready to be happy!”

Typically I would stomp off full of whatever grievance I was nursing, only to come out soon after, having laid it aside. Not that the trouble went away; but I learned that my response to problems was in my control. And to “be happy” was possible, whatever else was going on.

I know, it sounds trite. Bobby McFerrin’s cheery song “Don’t worry, be happy” comes to mind and I want to say Come on, now. Be real. Except that all those times in my room taught me that it’s true. In most cases it is possible to be happy.

Photo by Fuu J on Unsplash.

 

Christian joy is an interesting thing. It’s not like natural joy at all. Natural joy is like a stream that bubbles and sparkles on the surface when the conditions are right. Christian joy is more like a deep current that is there whatever the weather. Pope Benedict XVI says joy is “a supernatural power that helps us to deal with the challenges of daily life.” It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit working in your soul. And you can “fertilize” that fruit by choosing to rejoice. Like my mom said: “be happy!” When you start to praise, the feelings follow.

Miriam shows us how …

There’s a lovely example of this in the Old Testament. When God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt and they saw their pursuers drowned in the waves behind them, they sang praise to God while Miriam led the women in dancing and playing their tambourines. But of course they’re happy, you might say. They’ve been saved!

But did you ever wonder how it was that those women had tambourines to play? That they knew how to sing and dance? For years, maybe generations, they’ve been slaves. Pharaoh has been working them half to death, killing their sons. God had them be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. What does it say that among their few needed belongings, they packed tambourines? It tells me they had found time to make them … that they had learned to use them … that they valued and brought them along.

Bas-relief of Miriam by A. V. Loganovsky (1849), Donskoy Monastery, Moscow.

 

Those Hebrew women knew how to praise God — and must have praised God — even while they were slaves. Praising God must have helped to keep their hope alive. And when deliverance came, they were ready!

… and so does St. Paul

St. Paul shows something similar in his letter to the Philippians. Not only is he in prison for preaching the gospel, he’s afflicted by some whose preaching is motivated by a desire to torment him. Yet “I shall continue to rejoice,” he says, “for I know that this will result in deliverance for me through your prayers and support from the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (1:18b-19, NABRE).

I love that: “I shall continue to rejoice.” That’s “continue,” as in to keep on doing what he’s already doing. In spite of imprisonment and affliction, he is rejoicing. How? Take a closer look at what he says next:

“I know that…” — Paul has faith. In spite of his situation, Paul knows God is in control.
“…this will result in deliverance for me…” — Paul has hope based on that knowledge.
“…through your prayers…” — Paul knows the power of prayer and knows people are praying for him.
“…and support from the Spirit of Jesus Christ” — Paul has confidence in the support of the Holy Spirit.

Faith in God does not just give hope. It gives reason to rejoice. As Paul wrote in Romans 8:28, “we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.” In everything that happens in your life, whatever it might look like from here, he is working for your ultimate good.

Build a habit of gratitude

If you want to cultivate joy in your soul, build a habit of gratitude:

— Sing songs of praise as you go about your work, in your car, wherever you are. Not just when you feel happy but when your feelings start to sag.

— Don’t like to sing? Try praying the psalms. Psalm 145 is a classic psalm of praise. Or try Psalm 100, or 8, or 146… There are so many good ones. Do you need to get in the mood first? Try Psalm 4 or 25. Get familiar with these prayers; for thousands of years they have been turning people’s hearts to God.

— Count your blessings and give thanks. Someone once said that When you’ve lost your joy, you might just find it hiding in your gratitude! It’s true. Gratitude and generosity, loving others, rejoicing: all of these “turn on the tap” and allow the joy of the Lord to flow into your soul.

 

Anyone can be joyful when things are good. As Christians, when we draw our life from the Lord, he fills us with supernatural joy even when things are not good. The power of joy is always at our disposal to help us deal with life’s challenges. You have the choice to rejoice!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing! (see Romans 15:13).

Blessings on you as you meditate on his Word.

© 2019 Sarah Christmyer

Other posts you might like:

I Choose Joy!
Seven Reasons to Rejoice When Things Go Wrong

 

I wrote more about Miriam and her tambourine in Becoming Women of the Word: How to Answer God’s Call with Purpose and Joy! Available from Ave Maria Press and wherever books are sold.

 

The post IT’S YOUR CHOICE TO REJOICE appeared first on Come Into The Word with Sarah Christmyer | Bible Study | Lectio Divina | Journals | Retreat.

SHINE YOUR LIGHT – BANISH THE DARKNESS

Night fell gradually, so slowly that we didn’t notice it was coming. People of all ages had flocked to the field for AbbeyFest, an annual day-long celebration of family, faith, and music. As the light waned, so did the guitars. The songs became softer, more worshipful. And as the last rays of sun disappeared, someone lit a match down front. From hand to hand the flame was passed until the field was filled with candlelight. Four thousand faces glowed softly. Four thousand pairs of knees bent to the ground in adoration as the monstrance was brought through the crowd and up on stage.

Benediction procession at AbbeyFest 2019, Paoli PA. Photo by Sarah Christmyer.

 

Blessed be God.

Blessed be His Holy Name.

Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.

Blessed be the Name of Jesus.

Blessed be His Most Sacred Heart.

Blessed be His Most Precious Blood….

Matt Maher led us in the Divine Praises. In the minutes following, the only sound was the crickets in the trees and the occasional distant car. Next to me, two small children cradled their tiny flames as their father kept watch and their mother lifted hands in worship. “It was like heaven on earth,” a friend texted later.

Worshipers at AbbeyFest2019, Paoli, PA. Photo by Sarah Christmyer.

 

That image returned to me this morning as I sat in prayer, all-too-conscious of the growing darkness in our world. It’s gotten hard to read the news; it overwhelms me. “Lord, have mercy on us! send your light!” I prayed. Which is when I remembered that field of tiny, flickering lights …  the boy in front of me raising his candle high, waving it back and forth … the luminescent glow suffusing the crowd. And I realized: the Lord has sent his light. As Jesus told his disciples, “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

The Lord has sent his light, and that light now lives in us.

Prayer and praise at AbbeyFest 2019, Paoli, PA. Photo by Sarah Christmyer.

 

“In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4-5)

It is one thing to lift the Lord high in a field of fellow-believers. Can we do the same thing in our neighborhoods, at work, at school?

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16)

Lord, help us to burn bright with the light of your love. Give us the courage and grace we need to lift our small candles, to carry them out into the world where they can puncture the darkness around us.

© 2019 Sarah Christmyer

 

The post SHINE YOUR LIGHT – BANISH THE DARKNESS appeared first on Come Into The Word with Sarah Christmyer | Bible Study | Lectio Divina | Journals | Retreat.

GOD HAS CALLED YOU TO FRUITFULNESS—WHATEVER IT LOOKS LIKE NOW

We rounded the corner of our house after being away for a while and gasped.  Tire tracks churned through the yard.  Piles of rocks and flagstones, uprooted from the old terrace, lay everywhere.  The back yard was a rough sea of mud and debris.  “My garden!” was all I could think.  Everything from lilies to raspberries — gone!  Who knew that building an addition would create so much collateral damage?

Looking out over that disaster of a yard gave me some (very small!) level of empathy as I read in the Bible about Israel when its enemies swept down and conquered them, carrying the people into exile.  Much of the land was laid waste in the process.  Israel was seen as the Lord’s own vineyard, which he had planted with choice vines in fertile soil (see Isaiah 5).  Now, due to their sin, the land was ruined.

Our lives can feel like that sometimes, whether because of our own sin or the sins of others, or because we live in a fallen world.  We go through times of upheaval and darkness. Times when we feel dry and barren or worse. At those times, hope in God! His plans don’t end in dust and dirt, even if sometimes our path goes through them. God is the master of bringing life from death, and he has called you to fruitfulness.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you

that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide. (John 15:16)

To Israel, the prophet Isaiah gave hope that God would heal their ravaged lives and make them fruitful:

In that day:

“A pleasant vineyard, sing of it!

         I, the Lord, am its keeper;

        every moment I water it.

Lest any one harm it,

        I guard it night and day;

       I have no wrath.

Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!

       I would set out against them,

      I would burn them up together.

 Or let them lay hold of my protection,

      let them make peace with me,

      let them make peace with me.”

 In days to come Jacob shall take root,

     Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots,

     and fill the whole world with fruit.

(Isaiah 27:2-6)

Thanks be to God who is my keeper, who has his eye on the vineyard of my life and wants me to bear fruit.  Jesus, help me keep my eyes on You and off the mess around me!

© 2019 Sarah Christmyer

A similar version of this article appeared previously on the Women in the New Evangelization (WINE) blog.

You might also like:

NO PAIN NO GAIN? NO DEATH, NO LIFE (John 12:20-33)
LIFE IN THE VINE: Winter Pruning (thoughts on John 15)
ARE YOU BEARING FRUIT?

 

 

 

 

 

The post GOD HAS CALLED YOU TO FRUITFULNESS—WHATEVER IT LOOKS LIKE NOW appeared first on Come Into The Word with Sarah Christmyer | Bible Study | Lectio Divina | Journals | Retreat.