Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 7:10-18
Mass: Haggai 2:1-9; Resp Ps 13; Lk 9:18-22
Hope in God; I will praise him, my savior and my God.
HEART OF JESUS, JOY OF THE WHOLE WORLD,
HAVE MERCY ON US.
Some weeks ago I included a quotation from Sister Mary David's The Joy of God. I passed along words she quoted from Dom Paul Delatte that bear repeating: "It is a duty for each one of us to be joyful. It is a remarkable religion in which joy is a precept, in which the command is to be happy, in which cheerfulness is duty" (p. 1) With those, I add a passage from The Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann, 1973-1983 (St Vladimir's, 2000) passed along to me yesterday. Father Schmemann writes: "I think God will forgive everything except lack of joy; when we forget that God created the world and saved it. Joy is not one of the 'components' of Christianity; it's the tonality of Christianity that penetrates everything-faith and vision. Where there is no joy, Christianity becomes fear and therefore torture. We know about the fallen state of the world only because we know about its glorious creation and its salvation by Christ. The knowledge of the fallen world does not kill joy, rather joy emanates in this world always, constantly, even as a bright sorrow" (p. 137).
In today's Gospel, St Luke tells us that Jesus was praying in solitude. May we take some time in solitude and think about the reasons for our joy. If our thoughts go to the fallen state of our world, our joy emanates even as a bright sorrow. Dom Delatte tells us that joy is a precept of our religion. Fr Alexander tells us that joy is the tonality of Christianity. Joy is our duty. May a quiet, bright joy pervade everything we do in our homes, communities, and places of work and play. Otherwise, life becomes fear and therefore torture.
SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL,
PRAY FOR US.
© Gertrude Feick 2019
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