{"id":3736,"date":"2024-09-03T23:25:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T23:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/?p=3736"},"modified":"2025-12-31T15:30:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T15:30:53","slug":"vessels-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/vessels-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Vessels of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In her new work, Vessels of Love<\/em>, Joyce Rupp<\/a>, one of the most popular spiritual guides of our time, offers a collection of prayers and poems addressed to readers \u201cin the later years of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each of them is an invitation to greater faith, hope, and most of all love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As she writes in her introduction to Vessels of Love: Poems and Prayers for the Later Years of Life<\/em><\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHave you ever thought of yourself as a \u2018vessel of love\u2019? This image speaks to what I envision for the elderhood years \u2026 During this lifetime, whether we\u2019ve been aware or not, a Presence of immeasurable love has been flowing through [our lives], quietly filling the vessel of our inner being. Like vats of matured wine, our ripened goodness has readied itself to move outward. . . Now is the efficacious time to tend \u2018our tiny vessel\u2019 so this graced goodness strengthens in us and benefits the life of those we encounter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, as a sample, is the first prayer in the book:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Accepting the Life I Now Have<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

We must be willing to get rid of the life we\u2019ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

~\u00a0 Joseph Campbell<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Abiding Companion, what a gift you are as I participate in the continual movement of aging in my final years of life. With your graced assistance I am ready to profess my trust in your loving guidance and to accept being in this stage of elderhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I renew my resolve to leave behind aspects of life that no longer fit for me, to divest myself of them in order to gain inner freedom and peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I value and am grateful for the experiences that brought insight, meaning and pleasure, for how they led to unimagined, personal growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I savor the presence and pleasure of people and events that have been part of my journey and influenced the person I have become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I release strong clutching to the past of any leftover, negative attitudes that prevent me from entering calmly into my current situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I rejoice at the knowledge, insights, and wisdom that have deepened and expanded my internal and external approach to living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I continue to resolve inner conflicts, to recognize what keeps peace away, and to accept with a firm resolve what is unchangeable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I forego hanging onto old dreams no longer achievable due to physical limitations, because clinging to them impedes my contentment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I embrace graced opportunities for continuing to mature in ways that bring out the best in myself and contribute to the benefit of others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I acquiesce to what is a part of my aging process, joining countless others who experience similar effects of constant adjustment in their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I nurture a spirit of wonder at the often overlooked beauty of nature and the enduring kindness residing in the human spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I trust that my remaining years will contain treasures of pleasure and satisfaction if I graciously acknowledge and receive these gifts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I see myself as a person filled with light and goodness, resplendent with ever fuller transparency and divine splendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I remind myself that you, Treasure of My Soul, dwell within me, an essence of pure goodness.\u00a0 When moments of hesitancy or a reluctance to change stirs within me, gather me to your heart where I can find strength to restore my confidence and the ability to receive what awaits to revive my joy.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beloved spiritual writer Joyce Rupp explores spirituality of aging in her recent work, Vessels of Love, published by Maryknoll\u2019s Orbis Books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":3737,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_eb_data_table":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,170,36],"tags":[350,351,352,271,353,354,356,355,357],"class_list":["post-3736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-departments","category-fall-2024","category-orbis-books","tag-ageing","tag-aging","tag-joyce-rupp","tag-maryknoll-fall-2024","tag-orbis-books","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-publisher-robert-ellsberg","tag-vessels-of-love"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVessels of Love - Maryknoll Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vessels of Love - 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