Prayers for Joy
Joy in Christian use is not the same as cheerfulness, and it does not require good circumstances. These prayers ask for it as a gift.
Some are for celebration. Others are for asking that joy be restored when it has gone missing for a long time.
11 prayers
- Canticle of the Sun (Canticle of the Creatures)
Composed by St. Francis of Assisi in 1225, near the end of his life and while nearly blind. It is generally considered the earliest…
- Come, True Light (St. Symeon the New Theologian)
The invocation of the Holy Spirit by St. Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022), the great Byzantine mystic of the vision of divine light. It…
- Glory to God for All Things (Akathist)
An akathist composed in the Soviet labour camps, associated with Metropolitan Tryphon of Moscow and with Fr. Grigory Petrov, who died in…
- Habakkuk's Prayer — Yet I Will Rejoice
The closing lines of Habakkuk (3:17–19), written as Judah faced invasion. The prophet spends the book arguing with God about injustice and…
- Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee (St. Bernard of Clairvaux)
Edward Caswall's translation of the medieval Jesu dulcis memoria, traditionally ascribed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Sung in Catholic,…
- Prayer of a Soul Taken with Love (St. John of the Cross)
From the Sayings of Light and Love, written by St. John of the Cross for the nuns under his direction. It is the boldest statement of…
- Prayer of Mechthild of Magdeburg
Mechthild of Magdeburg (c. 1207–1282), a Beguine and later a Cistercian nun, wrote The Flowing Light of the Godhead in Low German — one of…
- Psalm 126 — They That Sow in Tears Shall Reap in Joy
A psalm of return from exile, when the mouth was filled with laughter. Its promise about sowing in tears is prayed by those in a long…
- Psalm 150 — Let Every Thing That Hath Breath Praise the Lord
The doxology that ends the psalter: six verses naming every instrument in the temple. It closes Lauds on feast days and is the traditional…
- Psalm 84 — How Amiable Are Thy Tabernacles
A pilgrim's psalm, longing for the courts of the Lord and blessing those who pass through the valley of weeping and make it a well. Sung at…
- The Easter Proclamation (Exsultet)
The great proclamation sung by the deacon before the paschal candle at the Easter Vigil, in use since at least the fourth century. Its line…