May PEACE and JOY be with each one of you, friends! And may you gift yourself this season with times to be still and enter into the Inner Sanctuary of your heart, that in the Silence you may awaken to a new birth of JOY.
For, the soul tastes the supreme joy of being, not only in the cave of the heart, but also in the endless multiplicity of her contacts with the world and nature of which she is part. Every moment is a sacrament of eternity; every event a sign and a sacrament of the perfect Bliss; for nothing in the universe can escape being transformed by Divine Love at every moment of time. In the crucible of faith and love, all our joys, the greatest as well as the least, and our sorrows, too, are taken up into the one eternal Joy in the heart of God and in the hearts of saints.
Joy is a gift from Universe and Divinity.
Sorrow and Pain are there for the healing.
Through touching of the heart,
the Heart is Opened.
Then the Knowledge may enter,
To return the seeker to Balance.
Watch now, for the Joy and Sorrow
dance together,
And in that is their dissolution,
Leaving nothing to perceive by Truth.
Embrace the Truth, for always it is precisely
who you are in your Eternal Being.
When you live life from your center, you operate from the indwelling spirit outwards into the visible world, like the spokes of a wheel, radiating God's love, wisdom and power. This is what is meant by being in the world but not of it. You remain calm in a crisis. You carry this calmness with you through the ordinary activities of the day, even when things go wrong... Centered in peace, you experience JOY... This is the culmination of growth in being. What you ARE, far more than what you say or do, will be the witness of your faith.
When selfishness vanishes, all you want from life is to give. It is a constant source of joy. Not that you are blind to sorrow. Personal suffering is gone, but for that very reason there is no barrier separating you from the suffering of others. And that immense empathy releases intense action. "What one takes in by contemplation," Eckhart says, "one pours out in love." You live to give, to alleviate the sorrow and improve the lives of those around you, and in that giving is more joy than the world knows. It is the perfect fusion of the inward and outward currents of life, of meditation and action.
I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!
If we are committed in our lives to the force of lovingkindness, then people know that they can trust us. We will not deceive them; we will not harm them. By being a beacon of trustworthiness in this world, we become a safe haven for others. We become a good friend to people, and can experience the JOY of intimacy with life.
JOY is experienced when true spiritual grace allows one to transcend suffering.
Essentially, prayer is attentiveness to God, and this has various degrees, from weak or faltering to total. This attentive attitude is itself the fruit of love; God's love becomes the dominant commitment of the will. The person has achieved purity of heart and spiritual wholeness. Joy takes hold of the heart, transmuting every moment into the irresistible attraction and power of divine love.
Unless we can give up the old life, we can never experience the new. In our youth, we lived in the today and looked forward to the future and the challenge it would hold. As we matured, we became hypnotized by repetition and the habits of everyday life, feeling secure in our routine. So many times we find ourselves settling for what is a full cup of yesterdays. If you desire JOY in your life, have the courage to empty the cup of yesterdays so that it might be filled with the newness of today.
A joyful mind is very ordinary and relaxed... When your aspiration is to lighten up, you begin to have a sense of humor. Things just keep popping your serious state of mind. In addition to a sense of humor, a basic support for a joyful mind is curiosity, paying attention, taking an interest in the world around you... Noticing everything. Appreciate everything, including the ordinary. That's how to click in with JOYfulness.
All meditation aims to bring the person, mind and body to silence, stillness and simplicity of spirit by means of an inner "object of attention". The act of attention is the inner sacrifice, and the work of paying attention is the school of letting go. The utter simplicity of such a way to joy and peace makes one laugh. God seduces us by simplicity.
I would not dance, unless Thou leadest me.
Wouldst Thou that I spring mightily,
Then must Thou sing for me.
Thus will I leap into love,
From love into knowledge into joy,
From joy beyond all human senses.