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Joy

Beyond Experience

Beyond Experience 1080 1080 Nicole

To be eirenic is to be aimed at peace, oriented toward reconciliation. As a centering prayer I have adopted the prayer attributed to St. Frances, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. So, that is why I call my website Eirenicole – a composite of eirenic and Nicole. For Lent, we are using the…

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Radiant Truth

Radiant Truth 1080 1080 Nicole

To be eirenic is to be aimed at peace, oriented toward reconciliation. As a centering prayer I have adopted the prayer attributed to St. Frances, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. So, that is why I call my website Eirenicole – a composite of eirenic and Nicole. For Lent, we are using the…

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Lost in Time

Lost in Time 1080 1080 Nicole

To be eirenic is to be aimed at peace, oriented toward reconciliation. As a centering prayer I have adopted the prayer attributed to St. Frances, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. So, that is why I call my website Eirenicole – a composite of eirenic and Nicole. For Lent, we are using the…

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Embracing Joy

Embracing Joy 1080 1080 Nicole

To be eirenic is to be aimed at peace, oriented toward reconciliation. As a centering prayer I have adopted the prayer attributed to St. Frances, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. So, that is why I call my website Eirenicole – a composite of eirenic and Nicole. For Lent, we are using the…

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Joy in Infancy

Joy in Infancy 1080 1080 Nicole

To be eirenic is to be aimed at peace, oriented toward reconciliation. As a centering prayer I have adopted the prayer attributed to St. Frances, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. So, that is why I call my website Eirenicole – a composite of eirenic and Nicole. For Lent, we are using the…

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Members of Joy

Members of Joy

Members of Joy 2560 1920 Nicole
Joy is an orientation, a disposition of awe and wonder. The joy foretold by Isaiah is not necessarily a conjuring of an elated feeling, mustering excitement about life when nothing in life seems to be going right, worth celebrating. The joy foretold by Isaiah is that those who did not have full use of their body – can now see, jump up and down, sing…. All will be made right. There will be joy because not even fools will make unhealthy, unproductive choices; and we will sing together – and everyone will be happy about the music choices! Jesus is why these things are being made right, even now. And because we are already made right with God, we are empowered to, and deployed to be a part of this right-making. The justice described in Isaiah happens because of reconciled relationships. In James, we know joy when we stop grumbling and judging each other. Joy happens when we do life together without malice – spiteful, bitter – in easy company. When the shepherds saw the star – effulgent – they stopped and were filled with joy (Mt2.10). As soon as Elizabeth’s baby heard the sound Mary’s voice, this young woman carrying the savior of the world inside her own womb, when Elizabeth’s baby heard that voice, he leapt for joy inside Elizabeth. The delight and wonder in a child who just got what she always wanted – effulgent! Joy. But when we try to manage each other, when I attempt to squash that divine spark (the soul that is made in God’s very image) of someone else, I do great harm. When you see me for who I am and affirm that, encourage it, everything is right and good – what joy! How much more so when we are oriented in this way with our children – all of our children: the ones born to us and the ones incorporated into us by way of baptism and membership vows. Will you walk with me through this week of Advent with a disposition of awe and wonder, an expectation of opening a new day as a child who exclaims, “just what I always wanted!” because we have each other, members of covenant? It is such a good feeling to know we’re alive! Together, members of joy! read more

Be Present to Joy

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Date night with my partner-in-life to see Cabaret at the Paramount Theater, Aurora, IL. On being present to Joy, Sister Wendy Beckett says: “It is inadequate, even misleading, to speak of ‘experiencing joy’, though it is impossible to find another phrase that can suggest what is meant. Joy is too great to be experienced. It is…

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Joy: Cultivating Delight During Advent

Joy: Cultivating Delight During Advent 2560 2560 Nicole

  https://eirenicole.com/wp-content/uploads/ep205-cultivating-delight-during-advent.m4a Joy: Cultivating Delight During Advent This week, in practicing hope, the longing or desire for something –accompanied by the belief in the possibility that it will actually occur, I noticed something happening: during moments of frustration and discouragement, a sense of hope arose unbidden. Reflecting on this, something else surfaced: joy. Joy is…

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Flesh and Blood

Flesh and Blood 150 150 Nicole

I love the Message translation of John 1:14­—“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Parent, like Child, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.” Advent prepares us for the celebration of this event: God-with-us. And then, it…

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Breathe: Life and Generosity, Suffering and Joy

Breathe: Life and Generosity, Suffering and Joy 150 150 Nicole

One of the contributors to the On Being blog, Omid Safi, recently spoke to suffering and finding joy therein. Safi found that, as a human experience, openness to suffering opens one to another’s suffering. He draws from Rumi: This being human is a guest house Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness,…

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