{"id":5353,"date":"2015-07-08T11:20:57","date_gmt":"2015-07-08T16:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/?p=5353"},"modified":"2026-02-26T13:47:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:47:53","slug":"franciscan-bookshelf-one-thousand-gifts-a-dare-to-live-fully-right-where-you-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/2015\/07\/08\/franciscan-bookshelf-one-thousand-gifts-a-dare-to-live-fully-right-where-you-are\/","title":{"rendered":"Franciscan Bookshelf: “One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Messy Jesus Business<\/em>\u00a0guest blogger K.P.<\/p>\n

\u201cEucharisteo<\/em> always precedes the miracle.\u201d– Ann Voskamp<\/em><\/p>\n

\"51lWAOBT9rL._SX342_BO1,204,203,200_\"<\/a>The concept of eucharisteo<\/em>, as Ann Voskamp explains in One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are<\/em>, is a practiced and disciplined form of perpetual adoration: a choice to thank God in every season, every action, every moment. As she describes in this interview<\/a> with The High Calling<\/em>, it is \u201cthe word that can change everything\u201d: thanksgiving,<\/em> which \u201cenvelopes the Greek word for grace, charis<\/em>. But it also holds its derivative, the Greek word chara<\/em>, meaning \u2018joy.\u2019 Charis<\/em>. Grace. Eucharisteo<\/em>. Thanksgiving. Chara.<\/em> Joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, I made my covenant affiliation to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and participated in the program’s live-in for five days prior to that ceremony. On Wednesday morning we were visited by two sisters who spoke passionately about perpetual adoration. I confess that, prior to the live-in, I found perpetual adoration to be the most mystifying and distant aspect of my community\u2019s charism. I have sat in the perpetual adoration chapel many, many times, and I\u2019ve experienced peace; I\u2019ve prayed and felt the effects of my prayers; I\u2019ve left prayer requests for others. And I felt that I understood\u2014intellectually\u2014the significance of perpetual adoration and the way it has marked the history and experience of the FSPAs in La Crosse, Wisconsin. But I did not fully understand this ministry and its immediate application to my life. I was grateful that others dedicated their time to adoring the monstrance\u2014not just FSPAs, but countless affiliates, prayer partners and occasional visitors. But I did not understand how<\/em> or why <\/em>I should make this a regular, meaningful part of my own spiritual journey.<\/p>\n

One of the sisters that morning spoke fervently of perpetual adoration as a form of being prayerfully active in the world, and I recalled immediately Voskamp\u2019s own word for such a practice, eucharisteo<\/em>. Voskamp\u2019s text is meaningful to me because I credit her book\u2014and my dog-eared, much-loved copy\u2014for introducing me to the power of the everyday spiritual practice. It was after I read One Thousand Gifts<\/em> that I began to explore lay orders and other spiritual communities and disciplines; it was after I watched interview after interview with Voskamp that I began to recognize and appreciate mundane holiness and the need for loving presence in every moment. One Thousand Gifts<\/em> helped me understand that I would be remembered for how I loved, how I brought peace\u2014not for what I owned or accomplished. In this way, I would place Voskamp in powerful company: her book was as quietly revolutionary, for me, as was Shane Claiborne\u2019s Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and the work of Richard Rohr. Her revolution is a whisper. A silent, persistent prayer of gratitude. A microaction, prompted by a profound call to her own version of perpetual adoration.<\/p>\n

And so, even though Voskamp is not Catholic nor is she Franciscan (though I believe that, as we say, she has a \u201cFranciscan heart\u201d), her word eucharisteo<\/em> remains with me as I begin my new journey as an affiliate of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Messy Jesus Business\u00a0guest blogger K.P. \u201cEucharisteo always precedes the miracle.\u201d– Ann Voskamp The concept of eucharisteo, as Ann Voskamp explains in One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, is a practiced and disciplined form of perpetual adoration: a choice to thank God in every season, every action, every moment....","protected":false},"author":71495039,"featured_media":5358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[115341],"tags":[698755375,19104,327977,49990216,373676077,7816,18208701,5840,1276784,21674,15318,9834765],"series":[698756626],"class_list":["post-5353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-equity-and-justice-equity-and-justice","tag-book-review","tag-chara","tag-charis","tag-eucharisteo","tag-franciscan-bookshelf-one-thousand-gifts-a-date-to-live-right-where-you-are","tag-god","tag-irresistible-revolution-living-as-an-ordinary-radical","tag-joy","tag-perpetual-adoration","tag-spiritual-journey","tag-thanksgiving","tag-the-high-calling","series-messy-jesus-business"],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/51lwaobt9rl-_sx342_bo1204203200_.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/feed\/podcast\/messy-jesus-business","embedCode":"

Franciscan Bookshelf: “One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are”<\/a><\/blockquote>