Joy

+JMJ+

We are almost in another new year...and what will this one offer we who seek, we who search and try to hear that voice, stirring inside, beckoning us to Magis: more.

I beleive the key is joy...and always has been. I read from St. Maria Faustian, Bl. Mother Therese and Papa John Paul today...and what did they reecho? A call to live a lifestyle of joy.

What is joy? It is not a momentary delight, the smile that comes after you win 5 bucks off a scratch ticket. No, joy is much deeper and abiding. It walks hand in hand with suffering. But you ask, how can that be?

Think of Mary. A dear friend reminded me today how even in the moment of greatest suffering, as she watched her beloved Son die on the Cross, she experienced JOY, because her will is totally aligned with the will of God.

Joy is seeing someone say Yes to God. Joy is feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. It is making a visit to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament on a lunch hour, or getting up early to go to daily Mass before the 9-5 rush. Joy is closing your eyes and making a Spiritual Communion. It is remembering how much you are loved, how much you matter. It is a mother holding her newborn infant...and a little child kissing the Christ Child's feet in the Nativity Scene after Mass.

Joy is simple, it is humble. It is a lifestyle of trusting and delighting in everything God gives, even the Cross. It is being complete in God, and allowing that completion to shine through. It is being the face of Christ to those suffering for Love, and not needing to say a word, because your eyes shine forth God's grace.

I pray that in this New Year, you may make a commitment, or renew a commitment to live a lifestyle of Joy...that Christ's Joy may be in you, and your Joy may be complete.

God bless you!
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, Pray to Jesus for us!