Holiday Joy – Page 3

Holiday Joy

Joyful Easter!

Posted on March 31, 2024March 31, 2024 by Neal Saye

What a wonderful Easter service at our Asbury Memorial Church this morning here in Savannah.

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH

One: We believe in God:

All: who is older than eternity,and younger than our next breath; who is beyond describing, yet knows us all by name; who inspires faith,yet cannot be contained by religion.

One: We believe in Jesus Christ, flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone:

All: He came in the body to give worth to every human life. He touched the untouchable, loved the unlovable, forgave the unforgivable, and endured slander, persecution, and death in order that through suffering love God’s kingdom might come on earth. He rose from the grave as living proof that what is laid down in faith will be raised in glory

One: We believe in the Holy Spirit:

All: who leads us into truth and freedom, who gives good gifts to all God’s children, who inspires research, enables prayer, and wills that human economics and politics should prioritize justice, care of the earth, and the healing of nations.

One: We celebrate the potential of the Church:

All: the life in our bodies, the yearning in our souls, the promise of good things in store, and the opportunity to love and serve one another.

Amen.

Water, River, Spirit, Grace,

Sweep over me, Sweep over me!

Recarve the depths your fingers traced

In sculpting me, in sculpting me.

PlymouthChurch DSM

HR and I hope that you are having a peaceful Easter 2024.

In front of our church’s Living Cross this stunningly beautiful Easter morning.

Holiday Joy, Peace

Taize Four: “Living Water”

Posted on March 20, 2024March 20, 2024 by Neal Saye

Tonight was the fourth and final Taize service at our church, Asbury Memorial, in Savannah. Next on the Christian liturgical calendar is this weekend’s Palm Sunday.

(Here’s a link to my first post about Taize, with a bit of explanation about what it’s all about: https://nealenjoy.com/2024/02/28/taize/)

Tonight’s final service was again splendidly simple and peace filled.

The emphasis was upon Living Water.

From the order of service:

“After Pope John Paul Il visited the ecumenical, monastic Taizé community in France in 1986, he said:

One passes through Taizé as one passes close to a spring of water. The traveler stops, quenches his thirst, and continues on his way. The brothers of the community do not want to keep you.

They want, in prayer and silence, to enable you to drink the living water promised by Christ, to know his joy, to discern his presence, to respond to his call, then to set out again to witness to his love and to serve your brothers and sisters in your parishes, your schools, your universities, and in all your places of work.

So come into this place of peace & let its silence heal your spirit;

Come into this place of memory & let its history warm your soul;

Come into this place of prophecy & power & let its vision change your heart.”

CHANT: Let all who are thirsty come. Let all who wish receive the water of life freely. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

May the peace that passeth understanding, the peace of God, which the world can neither give nor take away, be among us, and abide in our hearts. Amen.

Holiday Joy

Happy St. Patty!

Posted on March 17, 2024March 17, 2024 by Neal Saye

Holiday Joy

Taize Three: “Balm”

Posted on March 13, 2024March 13, 2024 by Neal Saye

Tonight’s service, again, was beautifully simple and peaceful.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out this post post real quick:

https://nealenjoy.com/2024/02/28/taize/

Taize

The chant tonight was centered around this theme:

“There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole.”

Yes! There IS hope, there is the possibility of healing, there is a balm.

So again on this night, may Peace be your Portion.

Holiday Joy, Peace

Taize Two: “Bless”

Posted on March 6, 2024March 6, 2024 by Neal Saye

Last Wednesday, I introduced the first of our church’s four Taize services before Easter. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out last week’s post real quick:

Taize

Tonight was beautifully simple and peaceful.

The theme revolved around the idea of our souls blessing God, instead of the usual other way around.

***************

“Bless the Lord, my soul,

And bless God’s holy name.

Bless the Lord, my soul,

Who leads me into life.”

PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is error, truth;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

To be understood as to understand;

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Again, May Peace be your Portion

Beauty, Holiday Joy

Taize

Posted on February 28, 2024February 28, 2024 by Neal Saye

I love this current liturgical season of Lent on the Christian calendar. For me, it’s a time to calm down, quiet down, and reflect before the exuberant excitement of Easter.

For the four Wednesdays before Palm Sunday, the church that Robert and I attend, Asbury Memorial here in Savannah, holds brief and beautifully simple Taize services.

“The Taizé prayer service is from an interfaith community founded in Taizé, France in 1940. A Taizé service provides a meditative style of song and prayer known for its simplicity and focus on Christ. Today the Taizé community comprises those of Catholic and Protestant backgrounds from regions around the globe. At a Taizé service we pray as we sing, as we reflect on the Scripture reading, as we sit in silence, and as we offer our prayers to Christ.” jaxcathedral.org

Whatever your belief, or lack of, may Peace be your Portion at this time of year.

Here is a neat article with more info about Taize, if you are in the slightest bit interested …

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/a-look-at-the-taize-community/?amp

Holiday Joy

Ashy

Posted on February 14, 2024February 14, 2024 by Neal Saye

So today Robert and I invited ex-wife Donna to join us for our church’s noon day Ash Wednesday service, which was beautifully somber and peaceful, marking the beginning of the forty days of Lent in the Christian liturgical calendar.