Joy Dare Monday: Giving Thanks...

-
"The gifts of God for the people of God" is said right before we receive communion in my church. It's an Episcopal Church tradition that I'm sure is not unique to my church.

Communion, or Eucharist.

It's not a big leap to eucharisteo, especially when the liturgy leading to the actual distribution of communion is called "the Great Thanksgiving." Jesus's Last Supper is one of the key images that Ann Voskamp uses in her book to illustrate eucharisteo.

The whole service is a thanksgiving: preparing ourselves to be present with God ("cleanse the thoughts of our hearts..."), remembering how God has always been a part of our story (the readings from the Old and New Testaments) and giving thanks, giving thanks.

Giving thanks for a God who became incarnate, a God who took our sufferings, our wrong-doings onto Himself, out of all time and in all times, and died to give us salvation.

How could we not give thanks?

Thinking back, I'm astonished that I ever thought my church's liturgy was dull. That's the hazard of growing up in the church, I guess. You never think through to the power of what's happening -- and are surprised when you feel the uplifting Holy Spirit.

It should be like that from beginning to end, not just when I'm transported by singing a hymn, or by an isolated moment...

Every word. Is thanks.

142. hibiscus in flower


143. almost missed pelicans gliding
144. a little blue hat (will blog about this later!)
145. husband's delight over little Valentine's Day gift (we don't normally do Valentine's)
146. sound of rain overnight
147. heart-shaped puddle




148. spectacular and unusual giant flower floating above succulent
149. holding off reading a blog post, and then finding the information I needed this week.
150. bucketed down rain!
151. overdue lunch with a friend
152. good talk with another friend
153. walking around the lake with a friend and good conversation (5 miles!)




154. beautiful flowering eucalyptus




155. pizza and garlic bread for this starving walker!
156. cupboard doors fixed
157. first wisteria bloom




158. hibiscus bud
159. lunch with "senior" friends



Am linking this up to Ann Voskamp's "multitudes on Mondays" (or will as soon as it goes up!)

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 22, 2012 at 9:46 PM

    I think it was definitely the wisteria blooms that made me start smelling flowers. So beautiful! I wish I didn't kill every plant I try to raise!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pam @ FripperyFebruary 23, 2012 at 4:39 AM

    Beautiful and true post Leanne. Sometimes a thing becomes routine and we start to overlook it's essence

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment.

Popular posts from this blog

Where Bloggers Create Party!

-
Image
My Desert Cottage Not much has changed in my art room since last year . I had a substantial to-do list this year and I didn't quite get to all of them. Here's what was on my "to-do" that got t'done: 1) I made pretty labels for my binders: 2) I cleaned out my closet. (There is no before picture: just imagine stacks of boxes, giant plastic containers and the like.) The closet now holds some stamp storage (off to the side behind the purple velvet dress that's hanging; a chest of drawers packed with fabric (now consolidated into one space except for another drawer in last year's pink chest of drawers); and a sacred space. The wall has book pages taped onto it. I got the idea and the technique from Aunt Peaches . Eventually, the small stained glass cross will move and be above the ombry that I have on permanent loan (currently holding my prayer books and a bible), which is a bit of a long story, but basically when I no longer have a use f
Read more

Where Bloggers Create Party II: My Room 2010 (with lots of pictures)

-
Image
I'm excited to be joining the Where Bloggers Create Party for the first time. I discovered it last year, ages after it happened and I literally spent the day looking through them all! I hope you enjoy my space. The sign on my door. I made it as a make-and-take a couple of years ago. Here's an overall view of my room. You can't tell because of the lighting but the walls are not pink. They're pale lavender. The bookcase I bought from Target a year or two ago. It's "Shabby Chic". The bottom drawer holds my German scrap and the "transparent" stuff. The bookcase from Target that used to be under the window is now vertical. The addition to the top of pink chest of drawers is a library card file that was gonna be tossed from church until I rescued it. It holds rolls of seam binding and millinery. I might paint it next year.... Next to it is a tiered holder of mostly lace, but some feathers and flowers. The chest of drawers holds glue, large photos, fa
Read more

Where Bloggers Create 2015

-
Image
I am going to start out by saying, I could do with a serious purge of stuff. That said, I have so much because I've flitted from scrapbooking to 3D creations (birdhouses) to fabric creations to painting on canvas to art journaling. It shows. On the other hand, I've gone from working part-time to not working to working full-time, so I know there are projects I really want to get to. (Like the Madonna art display quilt from a swap I was in several years ago.) I've taken a break from this blog party for the last couple of years, but if you want to see how my creative space has changed and developed (just in case you haven't seen enough creative spaces for one day!), you can see: in 2009 in its barest of bones (I didn't participate in the blog party, but wanted to show in 2010 how my room, which is a small third bedroom, had looked before.) in 2010 which is like a complete reveal with an additional post on my homemade hanky curtains in 2011 after an overha
Read more