{"id":25380,"date":"2025-06-17T09:29:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T13:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=25380"},"modified":"2025-06-17T10:25:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T14:25:24","slug":"25380","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=25380","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Matt Redman - Blessed Be Your Name (Lyrics And Chords)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tTpTQ4kBLxA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Joy: An Embodied Presence<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In one of Dr. Barbara Holmes\u2019 (1943\u20132024)<\/em>&nbsp;<em>final teachings for&nbsp;<\/em>CAC\u2019s Living School: Essentials of Engaged Contemplation<em>, she focused on joy as a practice and presence:&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joy as embodied presence is an abiding awareness of the gift given to each and every one of us, no matter our circumstances in life. I want to begin talking about joy embodied from scriptural sources. In John 15:11, Jesus says, \u201cThese things I have spoken to you that <strong>my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be ful<\/strong>l.\u201d In 1st Thessalonians 5:16\u201318, we read, \u201c<strong>Let your joy be your continual feast.<\/strong> Make your life a prayer, and in the midst of everything, be always giving thanks, for this is God\u2019s perfect plan for you in Jesus Christ.\u201d In James 1:2\u20133, \u201c<strong>Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds<\/strong>, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brothers and sisters, true joy is a limitless, life-defining, transformative reservoir waiting to be tapped. It <strong>requires only the utmost surrender and like love, it\u2019s a choice to be made that ultimately transcends time. True joy is not circumstantial. It doesn\u2019t require that things be going well.<\/strong> You can have joy during imprisonment as Nelson Mandela did, or while impoverished, as many do in Haiti. Joy is even available in war-torn parts of the globe today.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Make no mistake about it, there\u2019s a<strong> real difference between happiness and joy.<\/strong> The sources of happiness are very fleeting. Buy something new and see how fleeting it is. That new car, that new house, they lose their luster in a mere few weeks. True joy is foundational. It\u2019s a basis of God\u2019s love for us, sealed with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Could there be any firmer foundation?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Holmes reveals how our egos keep us from experiencing true joy:&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finding your joy <strong>may also require that you dismantle the false construct that your life is about you.<\/strong> Now, it\u2019s not our fault that we believe that the journey is all about us. From the moment we\u2019re born, all eyes are on us. Attention is necessary to make certain that we\u2019re breathing, that we have a safe passage through the womb, and adoring parents who continue that focus or not. Somehow, we begin to believe that everything is about our comfort, our future, our well-being, our pain. As I\u2019m entering the latter phase of my life, I\u2019m finally beginning to realize that the <strong>scaffolding of self that was erected from birth was a necessary but temporary support. It was a place I could hang my dreams and my visions, but it was never meant to be permanent<\/strong>. It\u2019s only <strong>by faith and by our journey through a few dark nights of the soul do we relinquish the overwhelming chatter of ego, a feat that is all struggle and many setbacks.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stavanger, Norway.    (from Diana Butler Bass)<br>June 14, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Dear Cottage friends,&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m writing to you from Norway. And this Sunday Musing has become a Sunday rumination. Because of everything.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Around the world, the news is bad. Very bad. Donald Trump has gone full authoritarian \u2014 and officials in his administration are talking about \u201cliberating\u201d California from their elected government and have sent military troops to occupy Los Angeles. From what I can gather, immigrant round-ups have escalated. As I write, Israel is attacking Iran. And we\u2019re only hours away from Trump\u2019s self-aggrandizing military birthday parade in Washington, DC. And \u201cNo Kings Day\u201d rallies have barely begun in protest. We just heard of political assassinations in Minnesota. Everything is on a razor\u2019s edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m not there. Instead, I\u2019m staring out the window of my hotel and looking over the North Sea. My heart is heavy; my head hurts. I wonder what comes next, when I return home next week. Several people have texted notes like, \u201cIt is scary. Really scary.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wish I could tell you that everything will be alright. But I can\u2019t. I don\u2019t know that. I would, however, like to share a story with you.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before arriving here, we spent two days in Amsterdam. And, of course, we visited the Rijksmuseum, one of the most beautiful museums in Europe.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It wasn\u2019t my first time at the museum. I visited Amsterdam once before \u2014 in 1980. My first and only visit to the city and its glorious museum was forty-five years ago. Forty-five years! Then, I was a starry-eyed, optimistic 21 year-old wondering what the years ahead would bring and how my life might unfold.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During that long-ago trip, I loved exploring the Rijksmuseum \u2014 and was enthralled by Rembrandt\u2019s paintings. No work, however, spoke more strongly to me than \u201cJeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t know exactly what moved me so deeply then. Perhaps it was my latent fear that the world would end before my life really began \u2014 childhood fears of nuclear destruction, teen-age evangelical fears of the Rapture and Armageddon. I stared at it for a long time, transfixed by the face of the prophet. An old man, surrounded by the wreckage of the city he loved and tried to warn, full of grief. It was too late. All was lost.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so, forty-five years later, I stood in front of the painting that I never forgot, an image that etched itself in my soul-memory. I looked at it again, remembering then. The ancient lamentation went through my mind:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>A horrible and shocking thing<br>has happened in the land:<br>The prophets prophesy lies,<br>the priests rule by their own authority,<br>and my people love it this way.<br>But what will you do in the end?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My husband interrupted, \u201cDoes it still speak to you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I replied, \u201cDifferently. I\u2019m his age now. I\u2019m probably as old as the model for the painting. And I feel like I\u2019m looking out on a landscape of destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He glanced at me. \u201cIt feels too close to home,\u201d I said flatly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I turned to walk away, lamenting my own country and the years that have flown by, when I noticed that Jeremiah wasn\u2019t alone. He was hanging next to another painting, one that hadn\u2019t even registered with me forty-five years ago:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second painting is Rembrandt\u2019s \u201cOld Woman Reading, Probably the Prophetess Anna.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She pulled me over. She drew me. As I had stared at the Jeremiah painting decades ago, I became lost in this one. Her kindness, her curiosity, and her diligence at reading. Her aged hand tenderly following the words on the page, no doubt her eyes failing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anna. Luke\u2019s gospel tells her story in a few words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jeremiah and Anna. Two prophets. One lamenting destruction; the other awaiting a promise<\/strong>. Compared to her \u201cof a great age,\u201d Jeremiah was a youngster! <strong>She had seen much in her long life, and lost much, but she never gave up. She trusted and acted on hope \u2014 and she was, eventually, rewarded.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jeremiah and Anna side-by-side, lament and hope. Grief and joy.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once Jeremiah moved me to tears. And now? Anna does. The world is full of Jeremiahs these days \u2014 me included! But how I long to be that old woman who never stopped seeking after the promise. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Decade after decade. And then \u2014 finally \u2014 the Child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Both prophets. One overseeing an end. The other glimpsing a beginning. Both are necessary. Both are spiritual callings. But we have too much of one right now and too little of the other.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As far as we know, Rembrandt painted Jeremiah once. And he produced at least eight versions of Anna \u2014 three painting and five etchings. Her story is so much shorter and simpler. Did he, too, as he grew older, tire of lament and long ever more for the promise of hope? Did he find more power in the old woman prophet? <strong>Is hope harder to craft?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>It certainly appears to be more elusive.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I know which calls my heart now. It has taken forty-five years, but I finally understand.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Love,&nbsp;<br>Diana<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joy: An Embodied Presence In one of Dr. Barbara Holmes\u2019 (1943\u20132024)&nbsp;final teachings for&nbsp;CAC\u2019s Living School: Essentials of Engaged Contemplation, she focused on joy as a practice and presence:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Joy as embodied presence is an abiding awareness of the gift given to each and every one of us, no matter our circumstances in life. I want [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25380"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25380"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25390,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25380\/revisions\/25390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}