Jan 12, 2016

 

Prayer of St. Francis (13)

Where there is sadness, joy

“When you do things from

Your soul, you feel a river

Moving in you, a joy.”

                                   Rumi

This meditation looks at bringing joy to our world of sadness.

Our media delights in bringing us news of sadness, horror, and shock. This is, of course, “what sells”. It seems like no one wants to buy the ordinary events of life, and it is only when a world figure such as a royal has a joyful event such as a new baby does joyful news seem interesting. Otherwise it is killing (usually), natural disaster, and other shocking events, including making up events that have not occurred to sell. (A whole genre of newspapers specialize in bizarre stories that blaze at you at the grocery store checkout counters, usually with very little truth involved.) And sadly, sufficiently enough of humanity loves it, and buys into it.

Such action can buy elections, such as the lies told about John Kerry destroyed his election chances as president, even though he did get more votes than the winner.

If we are to counteract the drive of ‘gloom and doom’ that pervades, we must present the Joy of God to our personal world that we do impact on a day to day basis. God is Love, and Love is Joy; there is no separation between these two emotions. We never feel gloomy when we are in love; and one of the first signs of a person newly in love is a silly grin on their face. Joy is one of the signs of God; and no one who knows God will be anything but joyful.

Joy is contagious. When someone is joyful, a smile on their face, nothing can help but find joy in everything they do. When you smile at another, a smile is the usual reflexive action from another. I have been accused of always smiling; that my usual greeting is a broad smile, and it is true, even when the event may be sad such as at a wake, I will always smile when I meet a friend or am introduced to someone; for Life is joyful. Just to be alive is joyful, and sense of Life is awesome and something to be joyful with.

The first thing in the morning I thank God for another day to experience Life. I spend time communing with God and looking outside at the beauty of nature that surrounds me, all year long.

Being Joyful is not being boisterous or loud, but is a quiet feeling inside that God is there, and all is right in the world, no matter what is going on that moment. It can be a seemingly disaster that we are in, someone close to us is passing or has just passed, our house has just burned down, one of our children is in the middle of some serious event, but still God is present, and all is right in the world, despite the event we are immersed in, and Joy can be found.

Yes, All is Right in the world, for God is present in all things, and there is nothing that will not be part of the growing fabric of Life that we Live in as part of God in this time of physicality.

We will continue this discussion on being joy to our world.

“Ideology, politics, and journalism,

which luxuriate in failure,

are impotent in the face

of hope and joy.”

1.                  J. O’Rourke

Questions to Ponder

Have you stopped today to thank God for the gift of Life? How does that thought impact you in bringing Joy to your thoughts?

Does the thought of the ever-presence of God bring Joy into your life?

Meditation

“Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.”

If this meditation post has been helpful, I would appreciate it if you would pass it on or share it.