Day 7: Creative Joy

OPENING PRAYER

We rise this morning and commit ourselves to being a dancing monk and cultivating creative joy in our lives. We celebrate with St. Benedict who asked in his Rule “What is more delightful than this voice of the Holy One calling to us?” and invites us to let our hearts “overflow with the inexpressible delights of love.”

OPENING SONG: Let Our Hearts Overflow (Words inspired by St. Benedict)

Let our hearts overflow,
Let our hearts overflow
with the inexpressible delight of love,
with the inexpressible delight of love.

FIRST READING: Thomas Merton

The Lord plays and diverts Himself in the garden of His creation, and if we could let go of our own obsession with what we think is the meaning of it all, we might be able to hear His call and follow Him in His mysterious, cosmic dance.

For the world and time are the dance of the Lord in emptiness. The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. . . Indeed we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not.

Yet the fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance.

SUNG PSALM OPENING

O Beauty, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. (Repeat)

PSALM 149

Hallelujah!
Praise God by yourself
Praise the One of many names in the congregation of the faithful.
Praise Him with song and movement
Praise Her with silence and stillness.
Praise the Unnamable in your work, in your rest,
in your love, in your anger.
Seek the Holy One in the midst of the city
and in the heart of the wilderness.
See the Beloved’s imprint in the eyes of friend and foe,
the sick and the well,
the rich and the poor,
the citizen and the stranger.
Open your heart to the One heart of love and peace.

SUNG DOXOLOGY

Glory to the Maker, Lover, and Keeper; as ago, in this breath, and will be ever. Amen, Amen.

SECOND READING: 2 Samuel 6:1–5 (NRSV)

David again gathered all the chosen people of Israel, thirty thousand. David and all the people with him set out and went from Baale-judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the LORD of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim. They carried the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart with the ark of God; and Ahio went in front of the ark. David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the LORD with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.

SILENT CONTEMPLATION

PRAYERS OF CONCERN

We offer prayers now for all that is on our hearts.

Thank you Creator for being made in your image. Forgive us when the gift of imagination has been used to destroy instead of to build, to bring suffering and death instead of healing and life.

Sung Response – O God of Love, lead us into dancing. (Repeat)

O Spirit of inspiration, forgive us for not believing that we are all artists and poets, capable of expressing beauty and truth through creativity. Give us courage to let go of the rules and paint outside the lines.

Sung Response – O God of Love, lead us into dancing. (Repeat)

Help us Divine Creator to embrace our creative natures, to be purveyors of beauty in the service of the Holy. May we experience joy in the small creative acts of the everyday and discover the glory in the grey.

Sung Response – O God of Love, lead us into dancing. (Repeat)

Please add the prayers you are longing to express.

Sung Response – O God of Love, lead us into dancing. (Repeat)

CLOSING SONG: Miriam of the Dance

I am Miriam.
I am Miriam.
I am Miriam,
Miriam of the Dance, Miriam of the Dance.

CLOSING BLESSING

Blessed Source of Joy
carve out room in us for the
inexpressible delights of love.
Let our hearts become fountains overflowing
into the world with your love and compassion.
Help us to pause each day and whisper “thank you”
for the most ordinary graces and gifts.
In the way that you looked upon your Creation
and called everything so good, kindle in us
that kind of generous vision.
Lift us beyond our narrow concerns and help us
to see how there is no separation, we are all connected.
Support us in honoring our bodies as sacred temples
and losing ourselves in the great cosmic dance.

SUNG AMEN