Transcript Joy in your pocket PowerPoint

‘Joy is prayer
Joy is strength.
Joy is love.
Joy is a net of love by which
you can catch souls.
God loves a cheerful giver.
She gives most who gives with joy.
The best way to show our
gratitude to God and the people
is to accept everything with joy.
A joyful heart is the normal result
of a heart burning with love.
Never let anything so fill you
with sorrow as to make you
forget the joy of Christ risen.’
Mother Theresa of Calcutta
The fruit of the spirit
is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control.
If we live by the Spirit,
let us also be guided by the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22 and 25 (NRSV)
One needs to have become very quiet inside,
to hear the soft sound of this word at all.
Joy lives in quietness and in incomprehensibility.
Indeed, comprehensible this joy is not.
But the comprehensible never brings joy.
It is the comprehensible and yet the true,
the real, the alive that ignites joy.
Therefore, real joy is always something
incomprehensible for others, as well as for the one
who experiences it.’
Dietrich Bonhoeffer from a collection of his writings ‘The Mystery of Easter’ Edited by Manfred Weber. Used with permission of The Crossroad Publishing
Company, New York.
‘Joy is more than happiness; it has a
quality of eternity and promises deep
contentment that withstands the ups and
downs of each day’s journey.’
Michaela Youngson
May the God
of hope fill
you with all
joy and
peace in
believing, so
that you may
abound in
‘The fullness of joy is to behold God in all.’
Julian of Norwich, 1342-1416
hope by the
power of the
Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13
(NRSV)
‘Our sense of joy is the way we lean into the future and
have a longing for something beyond ourselves.’
Christine Elliott
‘If you do a good job for others, you heal yourself at the same
time, because a dose of joy is a spiritual cure.’
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Beaming with love, O Lord.
What fear have I of earthly woe
Or of the frown of sorrow?
As the first ray of the dawning sun dispels the dark.
So too, Lord, when Thy blessed light
Bursts forth within the heart.
It scatters all our grief and pain
with sweetest balm.
When on Thy love and grace
I ponder,
In my heart’s deepest depths.
Tears of joy stream down
my cheeks
beyond restraining.
Anonymous
‘Where others see but the dawn coming over the hill,
I see the soul of God shouting for joy.’
William Blake
and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field
exult, and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for
joy before the Lord.
Psalm 96:11-12 (NRSV)
I would ask of you, my loving God,
where is joy in this dark place
where love is gone cold,
where hearts are breaking,
where empty bellies belie
a world over fed with stuff,
where joy is bought,
downloaded,
exchanged for cash,
fought over, stolen,
hoarded, hidden and marketed
by clever souls who seldom smile?
And where is joy in a concrete world
where green is covered by grey and colours
by the clever dreariness of invention?
Look and I will show you.
Look closely at the cracks
in the stones.
Look closely and see
a dandelion, breaking out,
roots deeply in the soil.
Gentle power to fracture
the stiffness of death.
Listen closer still and
I will sing to you
of mornings that follow dark nights,
of spring that follows cold winter,
of the risen one who comes to
warm our hearts
and declare good news
and joy everlasting.
Mark Wakelin
Joy – to the world!
In the birth of the Christ-child
In the resurrection of Christ-crucified
In the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Joy – to the world!
Michaela Youngson
Joy to the world! The Lord is come:
Let earth receive her King,
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heaven and nature sing.
Joy to the earth! The Saviour reigns:
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy.
Isaac Watts
Give me joy in my heart, keep me praising,
Give me joy in my heart, I pray,
Give me joy in my heart,
keep me praising,
Keep me praising ‘till the break of day.
Traditional
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord.
Let the floods clap their hands;
let the hills sing together for joy.
Psalm 98:4,6,8 (NRSV)
‘I felt my heart strangely warmed…
But it was not long before the enemy
suggested, “This cannot be faith; for where
is thy joy? ” Then was I taught that peace
and victory over sin are essential to faith in
the Captain of our salvation; but that, as to
the transports of joy that usually attend the
beginning of it, especially in those who
have mourned deeply, God sometimes
giveth, sometimes withholdeth, them
according to the counsels of His own will.
After my return home, I was much buffeted
with temptations, but I cried out, and they
fled…’
John Wesley
Gracious God
Source of all joy,
Revealer of all beauty,
Centre of all love,
I thank you for this day,
Open my soul, eyes and heart
to the gifts you offer.
Amen.
Michaela Youngson
As the Father has loved me so I have loved you;
abide in my love. If you keep my commandments,
you will abide in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and abide in his love.
I have said these things to you
so that my joy may be in you, and that
your joy may be complete.
‘This is my commandment,
that you love one another as I have loved you’
John 15:9-12 (NRSV)
How many moments
of genuine joy have I
had in my life?
‘The first rush of love, the birth of a
child, a winning goal in injury time, the view from
the summit, the sudden, shocking certainty of God’s love.
Not many. Add them all up and it is a lot less than a lifetime.
Joy can be rare, and is precious, but it sustains us. So enjoy it,
share it, cherish it, give it. Being joyful always is not easy when
faced with real life, but there are far worse goals.’
George Mountford
‘Joy – the smile of my child,
the laughter of a good friend,
the crunch of leaves on an autumn path.’
Michaela Youngson
Loving God
You fill me with joy
You have called me by name
You have assured me I am your own
And my heart feels like singing
Your grace has enfolded me
Your love continues to fill me
And I want to dance at the sound
of your name
You are my joy
my heart is overflowing,
overflowing with love
May my joy in you become infectious
for others,
so that one day all creation will dance
and sing for joy;
for joy at all you have done for us
in Jesus.
Stephen Poxon, President of the Methodist
Conference 2008-9
For you shall go out in joy, and be
led back in peace; the mountains
and the hills before you shall burst
into song, and all the trees of the
field shall clap their hands.
Isaiah 55:12 (NRSV)
Rejoice always
1 Thessalonians 5:16 (NRSV)
May the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace in
believing,
so that you may abound in
hope by the power of the Holy
Spirit
Romans 15:13