Morning Prayer
Good morning, God of light and mercy. Before this day asks anything of us, we want to begin by saying thank You — for breath, for waking, for the plain mercy of another beginning. Thank You for the week we are finishing and for the rest that waits at the end of it. We come with open hands instead of long lists, because the first thing we need this morning is not a better plan but Your company. Meet us here, in the quiet before everything starts.
Teach us to look for joy in Your presence today. Not the thin cheerfulness that depends on everything going well, but the deeper gladness that comes from knowing we are near to You and fully known by You. Let that joy show up in small and unglamorous places: in the way we greet the people we pass, in the patience we bring to work that has worn us thin, in our willingness to notice what is good instead of cataloguing what is missing. And where the day brings disappointment, keep us from mistaking it for abandonment. You are just as present in the hard hour as in the easy one.
Guide our steps, Lord. Show us the path of life inside the actual choices in front of us — how to spend this morning, what to say and what to leave unsaid, when to be quiet, whom to help. As the hours unfold, keep drawing us back to You, the source of every good thing we will enjoy in them. Let our joy be steady enough to share, and let someone be a little lighter today because we were nearby. We step into these hours gladly, because we do not step into them alone. Amen.
A Word of Reflection
David does not locate joy in good circumstances but in a person: “You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” — Psalm 16:11. Notice the order — the path comes first, then the joy, and both come from being near to God rather than from getting what we wanted. That means joy is available on ordinary mornings and difficult ones alike, because its source does not fluctuate with our schedule. We are not asked to feel happy about everything today; we are invited to stay close to the One who fills us. Presence, not perfection, is the doorway. And the joy found there tends to spill over onto everyone we meet.
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