“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God…” (Isaiah 61:10)

On this Gaudete Sunday of Advent we are called to “Rejoice!” Given all the staggering challenges that surround us these days, finding our joy grooves may be a difficult task.

All during this season we hear carols about joy and songs of good cheer. It’s easy sometimes to confuse joy with merrymaking and happiness, but joy is so much more.

“Joy is the noblest human act.” St. Thomas Aquinas

Joy is not superficial happiness that depends on what happens. Joy comes from within the heart, sometimes deep within when horribles squash and pummel our hope to oblivion.

Joy chooses faith in God’s love, mercy, and grace to carry us through tough times. Joy sustains our hurting hearts, however deep our hurts may be.

Joy does not mean pain-free living, but does not let pain drive us to darkness. Joy chooses to follow the Light, even when it’s hard at times to see the dimmest flicker.

Joy finds value in the rubble of decimated lives, because those lives are valuable. Joy comes from a well of Love transported on wings of compassion that lift up the brokenhearted.

Joy finds and grows roses in the rubble of our lives (and rubble that surrounds us), watering them with extra helpings of faith, hope and love.

At the end and beginning of each day, joy is a choice.

“Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to God and have found in God our refuge…” Henri Nouwen

Joy comes in all shapes and sizes, and Joy is what this season of Advent is all about.

Light coming into darkness. Love incarnated. Emmanuel, God-with-us.

Joy is possible, because Jesus Christ is.

grace, peace & joy

Virginia : )

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour…”