Joy

Gregg’s Reflection

What brings you joy? What delights you? My friend Aaron Doverspike has me hunting delight, because it flows from the heart. The basic movement of the spiritual journey seems to be moving from the head to the heart, where we can embrace mystery and touch soul.

As people of faith, what do we have to offer others if we don’t have joy? Why would others follow our path if joy is not a fruit of our journey? An encounter with God evokes deep feelings of peace and joy, deepening our trust, and making us yearn for an even closer walk.

Journaling Prompts

Reflect on what Wisdom teaches us about joy, an essential element of God’s character, and how joy flows into and through the lives of believers. Given the fleeting nature of happiness, how do you tap into the deep well of joy in any circumstances? How can your joy in life be a witness to your faith?

Scripture

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you…..Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice. Isaiah 60: 1, 5

I have set the Lord always before me; because God is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices; my body also shall rest in hope. Psalm 16:8-9

Although the hearing of Scripture can be a disturbing event, the ultimate result for obedient and careful listeners is joy. Joy is not to be equated with momentary happiness; rather, biblical joy is a deep sense of peace that all is well with one's soul. The psalmist knew this deep peace when he wrote, "May those who sow in tears, reap with shouts of joy." (Ps 126:5). RENOVARE Bible notes on Nehemiah 8:10-12

These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be filled. John 15:11

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

Joy is the fruit of a life lived in close relationship with God, the fruit of a life formed in Christ. RENOVARE Bible notes on Phillipians, NT p. 348

Although you have not seen him, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your soul.1 Peter 1:8-9

Ancient Writings

God’s very nature makes love endless and miraculous. God will never stop loving us. Consider this truth, and, if by grace you can make love your own, do. For the experience is eternal joy; its absence is unending suffering. 

The Cloud of Unknowing, Carmen Acevedo Butcher p.14.

Happy the soul that, inflamed with love, lovingly preserves in the tranquility of her heart the sacred feeling of the presence of God. 

Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of Od, ch 1. McGuinn, Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism, p. 467

I am a string in the concert of God’s joy.

Jacob Boehme, Confessions, p. 164

God is most joyful, and is therefore supremely conscious.

Thomas Aquinas

For Acquinas, Joy is not just our noblest act but a birthplace of consciousness. Because God is most joyful, God is most conscious. The more joy we tap into, the greater our consciousness. Can we, when we want more self-awareness and conscious understanding, reach for joy? Can we birth a culture that puts joy first?

Matthew Fox, Christian Mystics, p. 78

God delights. God is always rejoicing and doing so with a single and simple delight. Love and joy are the only human emotions that we can attribute literally to God. Joy is a human being’s noblest act. 

Thomas Aquinas. Matthew Fox, Christian Mystics, p. 79

We will not take possession of our birthright of never-ending joy until we find ourselves fully gratified with God and all his actions and judgments, loving and nonviolent toward ourselves and toward all our fellow seekers and able to love everything God loves.

Julian of Norwich, Matthew Fox, Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic—and Beyond, p. 25

The constant seeking of the soul pleases God very much, for the soul can do no more than seek, suffer, and trust, and this is brought about by the Holy Spirit. The seeking with faith, hope and love pleases our Lord and the finding pleases the soul and fills it with joy. 

Julian of Norwich, The Complete Julian, Fr John-Julian, p. 99

Modern Writings

Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The most joyous persons are the ones who have the eyes of a child at 70 and who are filled with the joy of the Lord, for they who have entered the silence of God are filled with God's joy. Yes, life should be truly joyous with the quiet joy of the Lord and this will be visible. He will have the eyes of a child even if his face is old. You cannot fool people as to such things as the presence of love and joy in a human being. 

Celtic Daily Prayer, p. 805

Our joy is not confined to ourselves but radiates out to all. Just as Jesus intended to enter into us, that his joy might be in us and our joy might be full (John 15:11), so neither can we contain our joy: our peace and happiness envelop all those around us.

Beatrice Bruteau, The Easter Mysteries, p. 183.

Joy is the beginning and end of all we do; it is the best we do. 

Matthew Fox, Christian Mystics 

The great joy of the solitary life is not found simply in quiet, in the beauty and peace of nature, song of birds, nor in the peace of one’s heart, but in the awakening in a tuning of the heart to the voice of God. 

Thomas Merton, A Year with Thomas Merton, p. 159

Joy and resentment cannot coexist. 

Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 6/2/21

Joy is essential to the spiritual life. Jesus reveals to us God’s love so that his joy may become ours and that our joy may become complete. Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing—sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death—can take that love away. Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to God and have found in God our refuge and our safety and that nothing, not even death, can take God away from us.

Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 6/1/21

Joy and sadness are as close to each other as the splendid colored leaves of a New England fall to the soberness of barren trees. Joy and sadness are born at the same time, both arising from such deep places in your heart that you can’t find words to capture your complex emotions. But this intimate experience in which every bit of life is touched by a bit of death can point us beyond the limits of our existence. It can do so by making us look forward in expectation to the day when our hearts will be filled with perfect joy, a joy that no one shall take away from us.

Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 9/9/20

The joy that Jesus offers his disciples is his own joy, which flows from his intimate communion with the One who sent him. It is a joy that does not separate happy days from sad days, successful moments from moments of failure, experiences of honor from experiences of dishonor, passion from resurrection. This joy is a divine gift that does not leave us during times of illness, poverty, oppression, or persecution. It is present even when the world laughs or tortures, robs or maims, fights or kills. It is truly ecstatic, always moving us away from the house of fear into the house of love, and always proclaiming that death no longer has the final say, though its noise remains loud and its devastation visible. The joy of Jesus lifts up life to be celebrated.

Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 6/7/20

Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing—sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death—can take that love away. Joy is not the same as happiness. We can be unhappy about many things, but joy can still be there because it comes from the knowledge of God’s love for us. . . . Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to God and have found in God our refuge and our safety and that nothing, not even death, can take God away from us.

Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 6/1/20

A Current of Joy. Celebration is not just a way to make people feel good for a while; it is the way in which faith in the God of life is lived out, through both laughter and tears. Thus celebration goes beyond ritual, custom, and tradition. It is the unceasing affirmation that underneath all the ups and downs of life there flows a solid current of joy. Joy offers the solid ground from which new life can always burst. Joy can be caught neither in one feeling or emotion nor in one ritual or custom but is always more than we expect, always surprising, and, therefore, always a sign that we are in the presence of the Lord of life.

Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion

Joy is based on the spiritual knowledge that, while the world in which we live is shrouded in darkness, God has overcome the world. Jesus says it loudly and clearly: “In the world you will have troubles, but rejoice, I have overcome the world.” The surprise is not that, unexpectedly, things turn out better than expected. No, the real surprise is that God’s light is more real than all the darkness, that God’s truth is more powerful than all human lies, that God’s love is stronger than death. 

Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 12/14/23

Any joy that does not overflow from our souls and help others to rejoice in God does not come to us from God.

Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, McGuinn, Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism, p. 549

The more we inquire into what it is that brings us joy by listening closely to our hearts, we will see that joy arises the more we are real and the more we face our truth, because this takes us one step closer to our depths. 

Sandra Maitri, Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram, p. 239

Joy Unspeakable: Erupts when you least expect it, when the burden is greatest, when the hope is gone, after bullets fly.  It rises on the crest of impossibility, it sways to the rhythm of steadfast hearts, and celebrates what we cannot see.

Barney Warren

What might a joyful mind be? When your mind does not need to be right. When you no longer need to compare yourself with others. When you no longer need to compete.  When your mind can be creative, but without needing anyone to know.

When you can live in contentment with whatever the moment offers.  When you do not need to analyze or judge things. When your mind does not need to be in charge.

When your mind follows the intelligent lead of your heart.  When your mind is curious and interested, not suspicious and interrogating.  When your mind does not brood over injuries.  When your mind does not need to create self-justifying story lines.

When your mind does not need the future to be better than today.  When your mind can let go of obsessive or negative thoughts.  When your mind can think well of itself, but without needing to.  When your mind can accept yourself as you are, warts and all.  When your mind can surrender to what is.  When your mind does not divide and always condemn one side or group.  When your mind can find truth on both sides.

When your mind can give the ‘benefit of the doubt’ for both friend and enemy. When your mind can critique but also detach from the critique.  When your mind can wait, listen and learn.  When your mind can live satisfied without resolution or closure.

When your mind can forgive and actually forget.  When your mind can admit it was wrong and change.  When your mind can stop judging and critiquing itself.

Finishing Richard Rohr’s Naked Now, I found this beautiful description of the joyful mind. 

Joy is not the same thing as happiness, but tapping into a deep well of love. Joy is deep and abiding presence, whereas happiness is a fleeting quality.

Our capacity for joy is in proportion to our capacity for sorrow, so the more we resist our grief, the more we also resist the treasure of joy available to us in abundant measure. Not the bitterness and resentment that Benedict counsels us to avoid, but the deep wells of sorrow we each carry within our hearts over losses and brokenness, betrayals and wounding. Following our principle of inner hospitality, we are called to welcome in these feelings, and in the process we carve out space for joy and love as well.

Christine Valters Paintner