Beginning Each Day with a Joyful Heart

Sunday, November 10, 2024

Lucinda Alton, RScP, with Sherri Dotter, RScP, and musician Dalton Fitzgerald.

Video Chapter Index

0:00	Taizé	Clicking on a chapter link will play the segment in a new YouTube tab. Your link to this page will remain open in this tab, but the video will play in the new window. Clicking on the Play arrow in the video screen above will play both Taizé and the Conscious Conversation on this page. To make the picture bigger, you may click the full screen icon in the lower right corner: To cast the video to your Smart TV, click the Play on TV button: . Also, we now have Closed Captioning available! To access Closed Captions, start the video and click on the CC icon next to the gear in the lower right of the video screen:
14:15	Guided Meditation
41:36	Conscious Conversation

Taizé

Lucinda – We follow the sound of the bell inward…      3 Bells

Sherri – Opening Prayer

Lucinda – Good Morning and welcome…and good morning to you in the Zoom Room, Facebook or wherever you are watching from. If you’re new with us here this morning, my name is Lucinda Alton, and I am a Certified Prayer Practitioner here at Mystical Heart Spiritual Center. We are an Interfaith Community that teaches Universal Principles and Practical Spirituality. We welcome you home to the Guidance and Wisdom of your own Mystic Heart. We begin our Taizé with a musical prayer with Dalton.

Dalton – Opening Music

• Welcome Home to Your Mystic Heart, written by Diana & Chris Johnson
• Thank You, God for Everything written by Eddie Watkins, Jr.

Lucinda Beginning our time by going into our center. Take a deep breath in…and slowly release it as we let go of everything that has come before this moment…Breathe in peace…breathe out love…Allowing love to fill you to overflowing…and see it radiating out from you into the world…see the connection from you to each one you send love to…allowing yourself to be a conduit for love to flow outward to the community….seeing your connection to each one the love touches…allow the love to continue to flow through you as it spreads even further to all beings…the animal beings…the plant beings…the rock and mineral beings…and feel the love that returns to you…feel the flow of the love that flows through the mind of God…always there…and always including each of us when we open to it.

Lucinda Our theme for the month of November is Amazing Grace and this morning we are contemplating Beginning Each Day with a Joyful Heart. I know that that can sound like a big goal to some. So, let’s talk about some ways that we can move in that direction.

Gratitude: “Focusing on one thing that you are grateful for increases the energy of gratitude and raises the joy inside yourself,” – Oprah Winfrey. I find that when I start the day by thinking about the things that I’m grateful for, my day just seems to go a little better. And there are so many things that I can be grateful for.

Let’s take a look at developing a joyful heart using the Six Pillars of Spiritual Life that Reverend Diana has shared with us.

Meditation: Taking the time to clear my mind and listen within. There are a variety of methods and a great way to learn about them is through –

Spiritual Study:  Studying a variety of spiritual topics helps to widen our spiritual horizons and helps us to understand more about our own beliefs – especially the beliefs that we hold that we are not consciously aware of. Beliefs that may be holding us back without us realizing it.

Affirmative Prayer: Edward Viljoen (Centers for Spiritual Living) advises us to meditate on what we would like to pray for. I have found that to be very helpful when I am troubled about something. I often think that I know exactly what the problem is, but during meditation, listening to the voice within me, I have realized that the issue was something totally different. When I listen to my own deep wisdom, I know what I really want to pray about…if I haven’t already received my answer during meditation.

Sherri – Guided Meditation

If you haven’t done so, please close your eyes. In your mind’s eye, see yourself leaving this room….As you walk out of the door to go outside, you find yourself stepping into a field of lush green grass…It is a beautiful sunny day…The temperature is perfect for you…As you look around, you can see patches of flowers dotting the landscape…Butterflies are flying over the flowers…As you continue to look around, you see a group of spherical objects…As you watch, they appear to be playing a game – chasing each other over the soft grass…You can almost hear their laughter…One of the spheres leaves the group and floats toward you…As it gets closer, you see that its surface is covered with slowly swirling iridescent colors…You realize that you are seeing a bubble moving closer to you…You hold out your hands and the bubble lands in them…You look into the swirling colors and see the thing that you are the most grateful for in this moment…Person, place, object, event?  Looking into the bubble brings a smile to your face…After a moment, the bubble drifts up and back to its group…Another bubble breaks away and starts toward you…A few, but not all, of the bubbles have something to show you today…Take a few minutes to see what they want to show you…

Silence

It’s time to return now…Waving goodbye to the bubbles, you return to the classroom…Thank you, Spirit for all of the beings whose presence I am grateful for in my life…and thank you for the awareness of their importance to me…and of the importance of letting them know how important they are for me.

Dalton – Musical Meditation

• Gratitude, written by Jason Mraz

Lucinda Continuing with the things we can do in order to start each day with a Joyful Heart, Sacred Service: is the practice of serving God by serving others without expectation of reward or of a specific result. I had a different talk planned, but one day last week I overheard two members of my spiritual family talking as they were installing part of our new kitchen. They were laughing and enjoying themselves even as they were working hard to get things ready for our first Sunday service in our new location. Serving others can be a source of great joy for the one serving. There are so many ways to serve when we look for them. And each one of us has something we can give whether it is serving here in the Mystic Heart Gathering Place or within the community at large.

According to Rev. Diana, Circulation encourages right relationship to the flow of life through balancing giving, receiving, asking, forgiving and gratitude.

And Celebration:  According to Rev. Diana, “Celebration is the practice of seeing, experiencing, and rejoicing in the Presence of the Divine in one another, in all of creation, in all conditions, everywhere, all the time!”  As we head into the holiday season, focus on all of the things you are grateful for. Breathe. Things don’t have to be perfect. It’s about the joy and love of spending time with your loved ones. And if you know that someone you care about doesn’t have a family celebration to look forward to, maybe contemplate sharing yours. Most of all, open to and enjoy the love that you share with others.

I have touched on a variety of practices that you could include in you daily practices.  And they are all valuable. But, the most important thing is to ask yourself “what makes me happy?” The answer will no doubt change over time, but if you ask yourself that periodically, and remember the answer, you will live each day with a joyful heart.

I invite you to come back into the awareness of your body…notice the atmosphere in the room, and when you feel ready, gently opening your eyes and allowing your gaze to take in whatever is before you.

Feel free to look around and say good morning to everyone who is here celebrating with you this morning.

This is your Spiritual Family…one of your support systems. These are some of the people who care about you and who are there for you.

Lucinda – Love Offering

As we close our Taizé Meditation, we offer the opportunity for you to share  your financial good in support of the work we do in the world. If you’re joining us online, you can find a Donate Button and our mailing address at mysticheart.org. We thank you in advance for your gifts. We acknowledge and give thanks for the infinite abundance of Spirit.

Dalton – Offertory Music

• There’s a Healing Going On, written by Jami Lula

Lucinda – Blessing for the Offering

Lucinda – Feel free to grab a cup of something warm in the coffee room and meet us back at 10:30 for a Conscious Conversation. And if you are leaving, thank you for being here. We’ll bless you on your way with a song.

Dalton – Taizé Closing Song

• A Soul’s Blessing, written by Chris Johnson

Conscious Conversation

Sherri – Opening Prayer

Lucinda – Good morning…and welcome, or welcome back…and welcome to those joining online. If you’re new with us here this morning… my name is Lucinda Alton, and I am a Certified Practitioner here at Mystic Heart. We are an Independent Interfaith Community that teaches Universal Principles and Practical Spirituality. We open our doors in welcome, trusting that you will be led to the  Guidance and Wisdom of your own Mystic Heart.

Dalton – Opening Music

• Welcome to the Mystic Heart, written by Diana & Chris Johnson
• One Big Family, written by Robin Hackett & Gary Lynn Floyd
• Amazing Grace, written by John Newton & William Cowper

Let’s join together for a journey into the imaginal realm as we contemplate a Love-Soaked World. See and feel with me a world where all beings treat each other with kindness and generosity.

A world where we live in peace with each other. We have outgrown war and separation. A world where we have outgrown the need for violence and war. A world where you and a neighbor or relative can disagree with each other and not only settle things peacefully, but still love each other. A world where anyone can safely go for a walk to admire the stars. Where everyone is supported living in the home of their choice.

Envision a world where social systems are grounded in integrity, and support and each person in living exactly as they choose. A world where each person is valued as the unique individual that they are. A world loving relationships are the norm, and each person is free to love as they choose.

Feel the loving connection to each other and to Mother Earth. We support her and she supports us. Imagine a world where you can step outside and smell pure fresh air – no matter where you are. Where the water and food are safe and healthy no matter where you live. Where every entity is valued and thanked for their service.

See a world where abundance is the norm in health, relationships, and finances.

Stand with me in this imaginal world and feel the peace and joy that surround us.

We can begin to bring this world forth with our words and actions right now.

With deep joy and gratitude, I turn this over to God – the one who gets it done.

And so it is. Amen

Our theme for this month is Amazing Grace and today we are contemplating Living with a joyful heart.

This morning for Taizé, we talked about how gratitude is important. We also looked at the 6 Spiritual Pillars of a Spiritual Life that was introduced by Rev. Diana. Let’s talk about what each of those things and how they can help to develop a Joyful heart.

What is your favorite form of meditation and how would practicing it help you to live each day with joy? For me, it is a time to relax and get out of my head. I often get ideas and answers that I might not see otherwise.

What would be your reasons for spiritual study? How would you benefit from taking a spiritually oriented class? For me, I benefit from hearing things from different points of view. It might be the same information, just said in a way that makes me see things from a different point of view. That happens often is class.

I talked about meditation and affirmative prayer. Of meditation before you pray. For me, it often changes what I feel called to pray about.

Sacred Service – How can serving others benefit you? Looking for a sense of belong, having fun, a sense of giving back.

Circulation: I like Rev. Diana’s definition: “encourages right relationship to the flow of life through balancing giving, receiving, asking, forgiving and gratitude.”  What are your thoughts on circulation? For me, it is a way of giving and receiving. For instance, if I see something that I just know a friend would love so I get it and give it to her, giving it to her feels good. Or sometimes it’s just a hug, but it makes us both feel good.

Celebration:  I love Rev. Diana’s description of this one: “Celebration is the practice of seeing, experiencing, and rejoicing in the Presence of the Divine in one another, in all of creation, in all conditions, everywhere, all the time!”  What does celebration mean to you? For me, it’s having a good time with friends as we celebrate something like moving into a new home, or an occasion that is important – such as a birthday or anniversary.

And we talked about gratitude and the importance of gratitude in developing a Joyful heart. I know that several of you have some kind of a gratitude practice.  How does practicing gratitude help you feel joy?

I want to share a practice from Rick Hanson. Just One Thing: Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time

Close your eyes and bring to mind the sense of being with people who care about you, and then open to feeling cared about. Let this feeling fill you, warming your heart, softening your face. Sink into this experience. It’s okay if opposite thoughts arise (e.g., rejection); observe them for a moment, and then return to feeling cared about—which will warm up the neural circuits of being loving yourself. Sense into the area around your heart, and think of things that evoke heartfelt feelings, such as gratitude, compassion, or kindness. To bring harmony to the tiny changes in the interval between heartbeats, breathe so that your inhalations and exhalations are about the same length, since inhaling speeds up the heart rate and exhaling slows it down. The heart has more than a metaphorical link to love; the cardiovascular and nervous systems lace together in your body like lovers’ fingers, and practices like these will nurture wholehearted well-being in you and greater warmth for others. Strengthen these loving feelings with soft thoughts toward others, such as I wish you well. May you not be in pain. May you be at peace. May you live with ease. If you feel upset with someone, you can include these reactions in your awareness while also extending loving thoughts like I’m angry with you and won’t let you hurt me again—and I still hope you find true happiness, and I still wish you well.

There is a notion that being intentional about love makes it false or at least second-rate. But actually, loving at will is doubly loving: the love you find is authentic, and the effort to call it forth is deeply caring. To love is to have courage, whose root meaning comes from the word “heart.” I’ve been in a lot of hairy situations in the mountains, yet I was a lot more scared just before I told my first real girlfriend that I loved her. It takes courage to give love that may not be returned, to love while knowing you’ll inevitably be separated one day from everything you love, to go all in with love and hold nothing back. Sometimes I ask myself, Am I brave enough to love? Each day gives me, and gives you, many chances to love.

Come back into the room…What parts of this exercise were easy?

Which parts weren’t easy?

I want to close with this quote. “We are not going to change the whole world, but we can change ourselves and feel free as birds. We can be serene even in the midst of calamities and, by our serenity, make others more tranquil. Serenity is contagious. If we smile at someone, he or she will smile back. And a smile costs nothing. We should plague everyone with joy. If we are to die in a minute, why not die happily, laughing?” ― Swami Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras.

I close with this thought. There are many ways to be happy. We touched on some today, but I bet you can come up with a bunch more. What makes you happy and joyful?

Please join me in prayer. Each month, the Practitioners post a community prayer on Mystic Heart.org. This is this month’s prayer.

Holding this prayer as the Truth for all that reach out in prayer…please know this Truth for yourself, trusting that in our Oneness, it is True for all beings. Wholeness is forever being revealed… In the coolness of this beautiful autumn morning, I pause, knowing that the One Source of all that I see, all that I experience is also the Source of my life. I take a deep breath and release it, feeling myself relax as I feel deep gratitude flow through me. Knowing that I am also a manifestation of the One Source, I am deeply grateful for my life. Feeling the Love that flows through each and every part of my life, I am filled with a sense of wonder as I acknowledge the perfection of God throughout my life. The energy of the One flows easily and gracefully throughout my life, supporting me in every way. I am healthy, I have plenty to eat, a warm place to live, I love, and I am loved. I am supported financially. I have all that I could possibly want or need. My life is filled with possibilities each day. I have a myriad of ways to be of service with joy and laughter. I know that taking care of myself is a part of supporting my service. Selfcare ensures that I am able to serve. I have a choice of fun things to do. As the holiday season approaches, I remember to breathe. I am grateful for the love, laughter and joy of celebrating with loved ones in our new Spiritual Home and I am glad that I can share that love with others. And I am grateful for the peace that fills my world. I speak my Word into Law, knowing that it already is coming into fruition. I say thank you Father, Mother, God. And so it is. Amen.

Lucinda – Love Offering

I invite you to join in the celebration of the work we are doing in the world by sharing of your financial Good, should you choose to.

If you are at home, you can go to mysticheart.org to use our Donate Button or to find our mailing address.

We also have a Gracious Giving Program for those who would like to make a heartfelt monthly commitment of support so that we can more effectively budget and plan for our growth.

Dalton – Offertory Music

• If Not Now, written by Carrie Newcomer

Sherri – Blessing for the Offering

Sherri – Invitations

• The Mystic Heart Book Club meets on Tuesdays from 3-5 pm. We are reading Conversations With God, Book 2 by Neale Donald Walsch.
• Fast Track to Wellness resumes this Thursday. We are reading Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Joe Dispenza
• Metaphysical Bible Study also resumes this Thursday. We are reading The Gospel of Thomas.

Mark Your Calendars…

• Gratitude Drum and Music Circle – Please join Mystic Heart on Friday, November 22^nd from 6:30 – 8:00 pm in our new Sanctuary. Contact Rev. Diana or April Jimenez for more information.
• This year’s Shasta Interfaith Thanksgiving Service will be held on Sunday, November 24^th from 6:00 – 7:30 pm at the First United Methodist Church, 1825 East Street, Redding
• Namaste Café! Friday, December 6^th, 6:30 – 9:00 pm at the Mystic Heart Gathering Place. Join Mystic Heart for its first Open-Mic Night. Mark your calendars…tell your friends. Check the bulletin for more information.
• Share the Light – Join Mystic Heart for our annual Candle Lighting Ceremony on Wednesday, December 18^th, 6:30-8:00 pm. This year’s celebration brings lots of music, a bit of message, and closed with our ritual of Sharing our Light with the world. We will have childcare this year for this Sacred Time.
• Please remember, now that we are settled…bring in your socks, gloves, and hats this month for our 12 Days of Kindness. We’ll add the smaller items early in December. I already have a commitment for the bottled water. We have a tub in the Practitioner Room to receive them.
• And finally, we are taking part in Giving Tuesday again this year. Please let your friends and family know and consider offering a gift online to Mystic Heart on December 3^rd at

https://www.northstategives.org/organization/Mystic-Heart-Center.

There is more information available in the October Bulletin and online at Mystic Heart.org.

Information Cards if new people

Prayer Requests: I am available after service for prayer, in the Practitioner Prayer room or if you like, fill out a prayer card and I will get your request to our Prayer Team for daily prayer.

Dalton – Closing Song

• Love Be With You, written by Lainey Bernstein & Gary Lynn Floyd

©2024 Mystic Heart Spiritual Center, All Rights Reserved
Permission is granted to duplicate for non-commercial educational use only.
All rights to music performed remain with the copyright owners.
Diana Johnson’s music is © by Barefoot Angel Publishing, ASCAP.
Chris Johnson’s music is © by SeaJay Music & Publishing, ASCAP.