Dear Friends,



Below are some spiritual resources that can lead us to discover the place of inner joy that lies within each person, not because we are happy or experiencing good things, but because that is how God created us. Joy is deeper than happiness which is at times flighty, capricious and evasive. Even in the midst of stress, struggle and sadness, joy is possible.

Scripture:

John 15:9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.

10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

Quote:

"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 and our safety and that nothing, not even death, can take God away from us."

― Henri J.M. Nouwen

Prayer:

Jesus, my joy, my hope and my life.

Music video: 

French: Jésus ma joie mon espérance ma vie,

ma joie mon espérance et ma vie.

English: Jesus, my joy, my hope and my life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDzytd1ZjII

Contemplative Practice:

In the silence, we are invited to say the following to help center us and bring us to that place within where the joy of Christ dwells.

I choose joy…

I choose joy…

I choose joy…

I write with love, with prayer, with trust, and with joy,

Jeff