daily spiritual practice

Cultivate gratitude each day this month.

Colossians 3:15  — Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

Reflection: May peace arise from the perspective offered by gratitude. May thanksgiving find its roots in the fertile soil of inner calm and focus. Our bodies are integrated physically, intellectually, spiritually and emotionally. Each emotion offers connection to others … each feeling becomes a doorway that allows resilience to enter through the channel of tour hearts and minds, as this line from a letter written by the Apostle Paul so deftly reminds each of us.

Prompt: Find a moment to pause and take stock of your inner peace. What helps you become calm? Focused? Centered? Grounded? Present to the now? When you are at peace within yourself, do you notice that you are also appreciative, too?

SONG: Thank You by Diso – https://youtu.be/1TO48Cnl66w?si=iud_yvmAALwV6cNG

This Day We Say Grateful
A Sending Blessing — Jan Richadrson

It is a strange thing
to be so bound
and so released
all in the same moment,
to feel the heart
open wide
and wider still
even as it turns
to take its leave.

On this day,
let us say
this is simply the way
love moves
in its ceaseless spiraling,
turning us toward
one another,
then sending us
into what waits for us
with arms open wide to us
in welcome
and in hope.

On this day,
in this place
where you have
poured yourself out,
where you have been
emptied
and filled
and emptied again,
may you be aware
more than ever
of what your heart
has opened to
here,
what it has tended
and welcomed
here,
where it has broken
in love and in grief,
where it has given
and received blessing
in the unfathomable mystery
that moves us,
undoes us,
and remakes us
finally
for joy.

This day
may you know
this joy
in full measure.

This day
may you know
this blessing
that gathers you in
and sends you forth
but will not
forget you.

O hear us
as this day
we say
grace;
this day
we say
grateful;
this day
we say
blessing;
this day
we release you
in God’s keeping
and hold you
in gladness
and love.