Month / April 2014

by Stacey Gleddiesmith

The Fruit of Lent (Easter Sunday): Joy

Fruit of the Spirit

Fruit of the Spirit

Week 1: Peace

Week 2: Forbearance
Week 3: Goodness
Week 4: Faithfulness
Week 5: Gentleness
Week 6: Self-Control
Good Friday: Love
JOY

You are a joyful God, and you invite us to share in your joy.

Forgive us, Jesus, for we have preferred sorrow to joy. Forgive us for focusing on our failures, on the things we don’t have, on the things that have not gone as we wanted or expected – and so failing to recognize your blessing. Forgive us for seeking individual happiness over and above the joy we find only in you, and in the community you have formed for us. Thank you for the great gift of your Son, for his life, for his offer to share in his joy through the power of the Spirit and in concert with his church. Spirit, teach us how to live fully within the joy of Christ. Help us to enjoy each other, and your good creation, as you intended us to. Thank you, once again, for your wonderful, sacrificial gift that fuels our everlasting joy.

Sung Response:  Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy on us. (x2)

Your sin has been crucified with Christ Jesus, and you are forgiven. You are free to walk in the fullness of the life offered to you by the Spirit of God. You are raised, with Christ, to eternal life!

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

by Stacey Gleddiesmith

The Fruit of Lent (Good Friday): Love

Fruit of the Spirit

Fruit of the Spirit

Week 1: Peace

Week 2: Forbearance
Week 3: Goodness
Week 4: Faithfulness
Week 5: Gentleness
Week 6: Self-Control
LOVE

You are a loving God, and you ask us to love one another.

Forgive us, Jesus, for we have forgotten what it means to love. We so often forget your great gift of love to us. We so often forget that love gives without asking anything in return; so often we pursue the return rather than love itself. Forgive us for failing to love you with our whole hearts. Forgive us for turning our backs upon those we have deemed unworthy of our love. Forgive us for the many times we fail to pursue your example of sacrificial love, choosing the easy road instead. Spirit, teach us how to chase after this difficult love. Help us to understand the fullness of Christ’s gift to us, and thereby gain the strength to extend that gift to each other, to our family, our friends, and especially to those who seem unlovable, who give us nothing in return.

Sung Response:  Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy on us. (x2)

Your sin has been crucified with Christ Jesus, and you are forgiven. You are free to walk in the fullness of the life offered to you by the Spirit of God.

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

by Stacey Gleddiesmith

Page CXVI: Good Friday to Easter

cxvi_friday_1600Dear Readers,

Next week (April 15th, to be exact) Page CXVI releases their final album in their Church Calendar series. They have graciously given me an advance copy to review (and have given me a link to share with you as a sneak peak preview! – see below). This is a beautiful, rich album. Stronger, I think, than their previous release (Lent to Maundy Thursday). It’s an album that lends itself to the necessary contemplative waiting of Good Friday and Holy Saturday – and then enters with weighty joy into Easter Sunday.

As I generally find the music of Page CXVI to be useful for contemplative listening/prayer (consider buying a few of their hymn albums if you’re planning a personal retreat some time in the future), I would recommend listening to the album this way: make a playlist of tracks 1-3 and play it on repeat as you have time for contemplation on Good Friday and especially on Holy Saturday; then, start your Sunday morning with tracks 4-8. Tracks 4-8 are not jumping-up-and-down-joyful. They are, as I expressed to a friend recently, a celebration of Christ’s resurrection – and of what the cross accomplished – but they celebrate the gain without dismissing the cost.

Listen here, for a sneak peak – The record will be available on pagecxvi.com, iTunes, and other digital media stores on April 15th!

 

by Stacey Gleddiesmith

The Fruit of Lent (week 6): Self-Control

Fruit of the Spirit

Fruit of the Spirit

Week 1: Peace
Week 2: Forbearance
Week 3: Goodness
Week 4: Faithfulness
Week 5: Gentleness
SELF-CONTROL

You are a righteous God, and you ask us to live according to your word and character.

Forgive us, Jesus, for we struggle to control ourselves in the midst of a world filled with temptation. Forgive us for giving into our impulses without considering the consequences, without considering the order you have established in this world. Forgive us for bowing down to our own desires. Spirit, teach us to resist that which will harm us. Help us to understand our bodies and our own desires so that we can make good decisions.

Sung Response:  Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy on us. (x2)

Your sin has been crucified with Christ Jesus, and you are forgiven. You are free to walk in the fullness of the life offered to you by the Spirit of God.

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

by Stacey Gleddiesmith

The Fruit of Lent (week 5): Gentleness

Fruit of the Spirit

Fruit of the Spirit

Week 1: Peace
Week 2: Forbearance
Week 3: Goodness
Week 4: Faithfulness
 
GENTLENESS

You are a gentle God, and you ask us to be gentle with each other.

Forgive us, Jesus, for we have forgotten who we are in light of you. Forgive us for treating the sins of others without compassion. Forgive us for endlessly putting ourselves forward, and setting others behind us. Spirit, teach us how to treat one another with gentleness. Help us to understand our equality before you, and therefore extend our hand to those who have fallen, helping them up rather than sitting in judgement over them.Sung Response:  Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy on us. (x2)Your sin has been crucified with Christ Jesus, and you are forgiven.  You are free to walk in the fullness of the life offered to you by the Spirit of God.Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.