Advent 2 - Joy (2017.12.10 Sermon)

Advent 2 — Joy (2017.12.10 Sermon)

Gideon Tsang, our friend and pastor of Vox Veniae, continued our Advent reflections with an invitation to live with joy.
Quotes and Resources:

“If I do not feel a sense of joy in God’s creation, if I forget to offer the world back to God with thankfulness, I have advanced very little upon the Way. I have not yet learnt to be truly human. For it is only through thanksgiving that I can become myself.” — Kallistos Ware
“If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.” — Meister Eckhart
“My own personal task is not simply that of poet and writer; it is basically to praise God out of an inner center of silence, gratitude, and ‘awareness.’…my task is simply the breathing of this gratitude from day to day, in simplicity, and for the rest turning my hand to whatever comes, work being part of praise, whether splitting logs or writing poems, or best of all simple notes.” — Thomas Merton
“Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about God.” — Thomas Merton
“I don’t think you can make a decision that ‘I’m going to be present.’ What does that mean?… But if you’re actively noticing things – so you’re going to go home tonight and, if you live with somebody, notice five new things about that person. And what will happen is, the person will start to come alive for you again, and that facilitates the relationship… And this person that you thought you knew will feel different, and that person will respond to you differently.” — Ellen Langer

“If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.”