Ordinary Time 
Pause
May your soul grow deep, may your joy run wild,
May your heart know the face of mercy has smiled,
May your faith come to let you believe like a child,
This is my prayer for you.
Julie Miller and Bill Mallonee in “Last Song” (1997)
Listen
Celebrate with Jerusalem; be happy with her, all you who love her!
Rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her, so that you may nurse and be satisfied from her comforting breasts, that you may drink and be refreshed from her full breasts.
The Lord says: Look, I’m extending prosperity to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like an overflowing stream.
You will nurse and be carried on the hip and bounced upon the knee.
As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; in Jerusalem you will be comforted.
When you see this, your heart will rejoice; your entire being will flourish like grass.
The Lord’s power will be known among his servants, but his fury among his enemies.
Isaiah 66:10-14
Think
Superheroes in TV shows, movies, and books usually have superpowers that make them “superhuman.” There’s super speed, invisibility, super strength, flight… And while we non-superpower humans don’t necessarily have magical abilities, we do have a super gift that is easily neglected but important in our calling to serve. This is the gift of joy.
Isaiah 66 calls for rejoicing, celebration, and joy for the people who have just experienced great loss and hardship. So, it may seem hard to believe the scripture asks them to celebrate. But the verses do not ask the people to embody joy and celebration at the cost of ignoring or forgetting their hurting. The verses hold both things to be true: there can be joy and mourning, comfort and sorrow.
The work God sends us out to do can be challenging, especially amidst a hurting, mourning, grieving world, and it may even feel irresponsible to have joy amidst the hurting. But God’s gift of joy can be a part of what we turn to for strength on our journey.
Valerie Lott
Pray
God of Joy, thank you for giving me permission to have joy even when it feels hard to find some days.
Help me to know that you are big enough and strong enough to hold my hurts and mourning, my joy and celebration.
Amen.
Go
May God console you, may God affirm you, may God shepherd you, may God delight you out of the inexhaustible stores of divine love and joy.
Terry J. Stokes, from “Benediction”
in Prayers for the People: Things We Didn’t Know We Could Say to God (2021)
