Believing in Joy

"Believing in Joy" is the title of the third meditation in the book I am using for prayer and have been talking about this week. The title is "Open Mind, Faithful Heart" and the whole idea so far is that we need to really cultivate our friendship with Jesus. Jesus wants our joy to be complete. We are speaking about the joy that comes from the Holy Spirit and is a sign of the presence of God. Pope Francis says that our joy in God generates missionary enthusiasm.

I know that a sad saint is a sorry saint and that really nothing can take away our supernatural joy. I have always felt drawn to joy and loved learning as a novice that joy was a sign of the Good Spirit at work; I have found that joy is contagious, too. But what really strikes me now is that I have a vocation within my vocation to give joy to God. As I think I have mentioned before, I have this Christmas card framed on my prayer shelf that has a youngster piping a song of joy to the Infant Jesus. I just feel that is what I am called to do and one way to feed joy is to be grateful.
That is enough to think about for today. Just remember that Jesus says in John 15:11: "I have said these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves."