JOY, HAPPINESS AND PEACE

Greetings, Sisters, Brothers, and Friends...

I pray that this note finds you all well and at peace.

I came across some interesting characteristics of joy, happiness and pleasure that I thought I would share with you, and have you think about them this coming week. Perhaps you have some additional thoughts about these that you would like to share as well...

One way to look at these three feelings is to associate each of them with the three aspects of who you are - a mind, a body, and a spirit. Using this set of relationships, one could match up happiness with the mind, pleasure with the body, and joy with the spirit.

It is interesting to note that both happiness and pleasure have latent opposites, but when we are talking about our spirit essence, there isn't any. With happiness comes the potential for sadness, and with pleasure comes the potential for pain. But joy (often mistaken for happiness) is really of the spirit, and there is no opposite. Joy is a state of our permanent being, and not just an emotion.

We can pursue happiness, and we can pursue pleasure, but joy is already with us, within us, and all we have to do is let it out. Happiness and pleasure are fleeting, transient. Joy is a permanent part of us that is fueled by the Spirit of God. It is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

When we catch ourselves wrapped in the issues of the past, or are anxious about the things in the future, we often look for ways to give ourselves pleasure or happiness so that we can "escape." But when we focus on being in the present moment, connected to God and not to the things of the past or the future, the inherent joy of our own souls begins to shine through.

Observe yourself this coming week as you wrestle with your schedules and your issues and problems. See how often your mind drifts to the past needlessly, or speculates about the future aimlessly. Then bring yourself back into the present moment and the joys that can only be found there.

Know that you are loved by Your Father who is at your side. Continue in your prayers, study, service, and practice of the present moment.

Your time-traveling brother,

Br. Daniel-Joseph, CTG
Guardian