Joy or happiness is something we all desire in life and we often go to great lengths to attain what we perceive might give us happiness, forgetting it's not something we can grasp in our hands, but a state of being that can be independent of environmental factors.
We are not helped by the commercialism of the upcoming festive season as we work ourselves into a frenzy of Christmas shopping.
It's just so easy to lose focus and make Christmas about giving and receiving unnecessary, expensive gifts, and feasting and drinking to excess. Where joy is understood as doing, doing, doing and not simply being.
I find that feeling happy is not something that makes an impact on my consciousness like despair, anger or gloom. I actually have to ask myself how I feel in order to identify my sense of wellbeing.
What gives me a sense of lightheartedness, inner peace or satisfaction is sometimes so nebulous and transitory that I have to reflect back on the day past in order to recognize these fleeting moments of quiet exultation or pleasure.
I am glad for the practice of prayer that allows me to connect to my interior life and my inner self, the self that is naked and trusting before the Lord, free to be beloved and beautiful.
This coming before Him and realizing that everything I have comes from Him enables me to recognize the blessings I have received in the day and to be grateful; to consequently give thanks.
In gratitude oft lies joy, and a peace "the world cannot give" so that even in difficult times, I can hope without losing faith or come tumbling down like a house of cards.
When Mary said yes to being the mother of Jesus, she must've known she was in for a tough time. How was she going to explain to Joseph, her fiance, that she was pregnant by and with God?
How was she going to explain the scandal of pre-marital pregnancy to her family and friends, something so dishonourable that it could lead to her death by stoning?
She must've been terrified and confused, yet filled with joy; desperate to have someone acknowledge her still secret condition, so when Elizabeth and the foetus John responded with such joyous affirmation, she simply burst into a song of great exultation.
The great joy evinced by the protagonists in the Visitation scene clearly marks them as people of unyielding faith (John was to demonstrate this when he grew up) and largely in tune with the Spirit.
During an Advent talk I attended, the concept of consecration was raised. To be set aside for God. If we are all created to be dedicated to God, to be holy people, how do we fulfil this aspect of our "design"?
Like Mary, Elizabeth and John the Baptist, we must be completely open to the Spirit who will guide us and not allow the joy of the Lord to abandon us even in times of uncertainty, destruction and loss.
As for me, I aim to live joyously, especially during this third week of Advent, for what could be more wonderful than the miracle of life given and redeemed?
We are not helped by the commercialism of the upcoming festive season as we work ourselves into a frenzy of Christmas shopping.
It's just so easy to lose focus and make Christmas about giving and receiving unnecessary, expensive gifts, and feasting and drinking to excess. Where joy is understood as doing, doing, doing and not simply being.
I find that feeling happy is not something that makes an impact on my consciousness like despair, anger or gloom. I actually have to ask myself how I feel in order to identify my sense of wellbeing.
What gives me a sense of lightheartedness, inner peace or satisfaction is sometimes so nebulous and transitory that I have to reflect back on the day past in order to recognize these fleeting moments of quiet exultation or pleasure.
I am glad for the practice of prayer that allows me to connect to my interior life and my inner self, the self that is naked and trusting before the Lord, free to be beloved and beautiful.
This coming before Him and realizing that everything I have comes from Him enables me to recognize the blessings I have received in the day and to be grateful; to consequently give thanks.
In gratitude oft lies joy, and a peace "the world cannot give" so that even in difficult times, I can hope without losing faith or come tumbling down like a house of cards.
When Mary said yes to being the mother of Jesus, she must've known she was in for a tough time. How was she going to explain to Joseph, her fiance, that she was pregnant by and with God?
How was she going to explain the scandal of pre-marital pregnancy to her family and friends, something so dishonourable that it could lead to her death by stoning?
She must've been terrified and confused, yet filled with joy; desperate to have someone acknowledge her still secret condition, so when Elizabeth and the foetus John responded with such joyous affirmation, she simply burst into a song of great exultation.The great joy evinced by the protagonists in the Visitation scene clearly marks them as people of unyielding faith (John was to demonstrate this when he grew up) and largely in tune with the Spirit.
During an Advent talk I attended, the concept of consecration was raised. To be set aside for God. If we are all created to be dedicated to God, to be holy people, how do we fulfil this aspect of our "design"?
Like Mary, Elizabeth and John the Baptist, we must be completely open to the Spirit who will guide us and not allow the joy of the Lord to abandon us even in times of uncertainty, destruction and loss.
As for me, I aim to live joyously, especially during this third week of Advent, for what could be more wonderful than the miracle of life given and redeemed?
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