Prayer Cycle / Cultivating Seeds of Liberation / Day 6
Day 6: Joy
Video, Audio and Written Guides for Morning and Evening Prayer
Morning Prayer
Video podcast coming in 2026
Audio podcast coming in June 2025
OPENING PRAYER
God our Mother, Host, and Friend, open our hearts to receive your invitation to the feast you have spread before us. Nourish us with the assurance that we belong at this table. When we walk through shadowed valleys, fill us with subversive joy and with the promise that oppression and brokenness do not have the last word. Meet us in our hunger for flourishing and connection.
OPENING SONG: All Belong Here
Refrain
Come and remember who you are here
Do this to remember who I am
Come and remember you belong here
All belong here.
FIRST READING: Patrick Saint-Jean
When my ancestors found the strength to sing, to dance, and to rebel against their so-called masters, that was Resurrection. They looked at the stories of the Bible, and they saw that God had brought justice out of many impossible situations.
SUNG PSALM OPENING
O Joy, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. (Repeat)
PSALM 45
My heart overflows! I have done work of which I am proud.
I have followed my calling, and it is good!
I have been anointed with the oil of gladness
and turn to share it with others. Thank you.
God says, Gladly!
And now, let go of the past.
Embrace what is to come.
Joys and trials await you
in the future-triumphs, service and reward.
Be not afraid.
Open your heart.
SUNG DOXOLOGY
Glory to the Maker, Lover, and Keeper; as ago, in this breath, and will be ever. Amen, Amen.
SECOND READING: Tracey Michea’l Lewis-Giggetts
Our joy and our trauma both sit on a continuum. There isn’t one or the other. There isn’t a binary. The complexities of our experience means that joy can live just underneath the pain. In fact, it can live alongside it. It’s the mother who, after experiencing the pain of childbirth, can look down at the tiny face looking up at her and feel nothing but love.
SILENT CONTEMPLATION
PRAYERS OF CONCERN
God of wild grace, when the intensity of suffering numbs our capacity to notice your presence, draw us close to you. Ground us in both honest grief and profound gratitude, that we might be renewed and transformed, open to the fullness of our connection with the Divine in and around us.
SUNG RESPONSE
O God of Joy, receive the prayers we offer.
God of the poor and the outcast, our hearts break and burn at the injustice that touches every aspect of our life on this earth. Surround us with companions on the journey, and teach us to proclaim your persistent love, which makes a way out of no way. Call us into the practice of joy that resists the powers of oppression and announces your reign of peace.
SUNG RESPONSE
O God of Joy, receive the prayers we offer.
Creator and lover of the entire universe, you have made us as creatures attuned to wonder. The vastness of what we do not know or understand is often unmooring. Root us in the strength of your love, and grow our capacity to hold loss and miracle together, as we become more and more alive to the cosmic rhythms that embrace us.
SUNG RESPONSE
O God of Joy, receive the prayers we offer.
Please add the prayers you are longing to express.
SUNG RESPONSE
O God of Joy, receive the prayers we offer.
CLOSING SONG: Praise the Maker
Refrain
Praise the maker
Praise the maker
We howl, and we sing
Praise the maker
Praise the maker
Within all things
CLOSING BLESSING
Even the tiniest worker ant
knows uncontainable joy
deep in its miniscule exoskeleton—
the joy which is the celebration
of one small part of Creation
living into the wholeness of its existence,
even if just for a moment.
This joy, your joy,
in the face of all that would constrain you,
is the power God gives you.
This joy, your joy,
is the web God weaves you into
with delight.
Embrace the ant exploring the patch of clover,
and the cloud painting the cerulean sky,
and tears on your loved-one’s face,
and the cry of the seagull,
the laughter down the street,
the sharp ache of heartbreak,
the stars’ soft croon of lullaby,
and hold them all before the One
who is dancing in you,
singing joy
joy
joy,
“praise to the Loving that is our home.”*
*The last line is in reference to Alana Levandoski’s song “Praise the Maker”.
SUNG AMEN
Credits
All songs and texts used with permission. All rights reserved.
Opening Prayer written by Cassidhe Hart
Opening Song: All Belong Here by The Many, from the album Cultivating Seeds of Liberation: Songs of Justice and Joy. Lyrics by Lenora Rand; Music by Hannah Rand As recorded by The Many ©2017 Plural Guild Music
First Reading: Patrick Saint-Jean, Spiritual Work of Racial Justice: A Month of Meditations with Ignatius of Loyola. Harding House Publishing, Inc./Anamcharabooks, (2021) page 305.
Sung Psalm Opening and Doxology: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan from the album Monk in the World: Songs for Contemplative Living
Psalm 45: Interpretation by Christine Robinson, musical setting and sung by Simon de Voil
Second Reading: Tracey Michea’l Lewis-Giggetts, Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration. Gallery Books (2022) page xxi.
Prayers of Concern written by Cassidhe Hart
Sung Response: Words by Abbey Dream Team. Music by Betsey Beckman. Arranged and performed by Alexa Sunshine Rose and Simon de Voil © 2025
Closing Song: Praise the Maker, by Alana Levandoski from the album Cultivating Seeds of Liberation: Songs of Justice and Joy
Closing Blessing written by Cassidhe Hart. Final line in reference to “Praise the Maker” by Alana Levandoski
Prayers, readings, and blessings voiced by Claudia Love Mair and Jo-ed Tome. Audio engineering by Simon de Voil.
Please note: All of the songs and prayer responses are published on albums in the Abbey of the Arts collection unless otherwise noted. In addition, these songs & responses have accompanying gesture prayers and/or dances created by Betsey Beckman that can be found on the corresponding video collections. Audio and video recordings of the Prayer Cycles are available at AbbeyoftheArts.com.
Evening Prayer
Video podcast coming in 2026
Audio podcast coming in June 2025
OPENING PRAYER
Let us begin by connecting with the beat of our hearts. Each pulse is a smile we offer to the world. Each throb a sense of lightness we send out to every soul that needs to be uplifted. We breathe in peace and breathe out joy to all creation. May we drink from this well of lightheartedness and enlivening joy.
OPENING SONG: Joy to Life
Refrain.
Joy to life, joy to seasons
Joy to every living being
Joy to all beneath the moon and sun
Joy to life, joy to seasons
Joy to every living being
Joy to all and peace to everyone
Verse I.
To you, who hears our songs
Who makes the mountains strong
The hope of all the earth and seas
Even silence sings
Refrain.
Verse II.
At the ends of the world
Creation sings in awe
At the wonder of the evening and the wonder of the dawn
You call forth joyful song
Refrain.
Verse III.
You remember the earth with sweet water
Sending rivers to satisfy her ground
Make her soft with showers and bless all that grows
The hills rejoice all around
SUNG PSALM OPENING
O Joy, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. (Repeat)
PSALM 19
May the words of my mouth
and the meditations of my heart
find their home in You, my Godde,
My rock and safe keeper.
The heavens declare Your glory, O Godde,
the firmament shows the touch of Your hand.
Day to day in beauty You pour forth
and night after night You rest by our side.
In the silence Your voice is revealed,
Your song sings out through the land.
Your laws of creation are perfect,
bringing life down to our souls.
Your instructions, O Godde, are sure,
making wise our thoughtlessness.
Your commandments, O Lord, are pure,
giving light to our eyes —
more to be desired than gold,
sweeter than honey.
We already know Your ways, O Lord,
You are etched in our hearts.
I already know Your ways, O Lord,
for you quicken within me.
But who can detect their own error?
Please guide and instruct me
From my false presumptions, restrain me.
Let compassion abound
That my heart shall not be soiled,
Nor sin define me.
May the words of my mouth
and the meditations of my heart
find their home in You, my Godde,
My rock and safe keeper.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and shall be forever, amen.
SUNG DOXOLOGY
Glory to the Maker, Lover, and Keeper; as ago, in this breath, and will be ever. Amen, Amen.
READING OF THE NIGHT: Howard Thurman
Every moment is a divine encounter, every facet is an exposure to the boundless energies by which life is sustained and our spirits made whole. Thus we live joyfully into life and its restraints.
SILENT CONTEMPLATION
CLOSING SONG: Join in the Joy
Join in the joy of the cosmic dance,
Join in the joy.
La la la la la! La la la la la! La la la la la la la!
CLOSING BLESSING
As the day comes to a close, feel the gentle nearness of joy in your heart. We look back with gratitude for every moment touched by joy’s quiet glow. How they shimmer with grace!
O Joyful God, we feel your loving hands softening the edges of our hearts. Help us usher in lightheartedness so we can burst like fountains of unrestrained joy where others can drink and be refreshed.
May we welcome joy and allow it to dwell in us. Let our consciousness be fertile ground where joy can flourish. Our body and spirit thirst for laughter and await the invitation to dance in the song of creation’s delight.
Joy is a homecoming, a return to love’s unending wellspring.
SUNG AMEN
Credits
All songs and texts used with permission. All rights reserved.
Opening Prayer written by Jo-ed Tome
Opening Song: Joy to Life by Alexa Sunshine Rose from the album Cultivating Seeds of Liberation: Songs of Justice and Joy
Sung Psalm Opening and Doxology: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan from the album Monk in the World: Songs for Contemplative Living
Psalm 19: Interpretation, musical setting, and sung by Simon de Voil
Reading of the Night: Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart. Beacon Press (2023) page 106.
Closing Song: Join in the Joy by Richard Bruxvoort Colligan from the album Singing with Monks and Mystics
Closing Blessing written by Jo-ed Tome
Prayers, readings, and blessings voiced by Claudia Love Mair and Jo-ed Tome. Audio engineering by Simon de Voil.
Please note: All of the songs and prayer responses are published on albums in the Abbey of the Arts collection unless otherwise noted. In addition, these songs & responses have accompanying gesture prayers and/or dances created by Betsey Beckman that can be found on the corresponding video collections. Audio and video recordings of the Prayer Cycles are available at AbbeyoftheArts.com.
