Joy

[Annie12]

[size=5][font=times new roman', times, serif]I found this article, I havn't read it all but what I did read was spot on. Here it is:[/font][/size]
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[font=arial, helvetica, 'lucida grande', verdana, sans-serif][size=3][b] [size=5][font=times new roman', times, serif]True Catholic Joy[/font][/size][/b]

[size=5][font=times new roman', times, serif]by Fr. Roger Landry - April 24, 2009[/font][/size]
[size=5][font=times new roman', times, serif]Last Wednesday, I was in the capital of the world for the installation of Archbishop Timothy Dolan as the new shepherd of the Archdiocese of New York. Prior to the Mass, as I was waiting in line with over 800 priests waiting to process in to St. Patrick's Cathedral, I asked an older priest from New York for his first impressions of his new ordinary. "I'm amazed at how happy he seems to be," he replied.[/font][/size]
[size=5][font=times new roman', times, serif]It was Archbishop Dolan's Christian joy — even more than his incredible talent as a preacher of the Gospel — that was most on display during the installation festivities. During my years in seminary, he once gave a rector's conference on joy in which he stressed that joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God within. [color=#ff0000]He said that a man of God who is not joyful is an oxymoron who makes the Good News seem like a lie. He stressed that joy is a gift of God, a fruit of the Holy Spirit that flows from the conviction that God loves us, dwells within us when we're in the state of grace, sustains us with his providential care, and answers our prayers. He predicted that if Catholics were really joyful, people would be busting through the doors to invade our churches. The world is longing for this joy that the world can't give and take away, he asserted, but often does not find it in us.[/color][/font][/size]
[size=5][font=times new roman', times, serif]Well, last week, New Yorkers — and Catholics throughout the country through EWTN — were able to behold true Christian joy on full display in Archbishop Dolan and people were literally jamming through the doors to be a part of it.[/font][/size]
[size=5][font=times new roman', times, serif]In an op-ed in the New York Daily News on the morning of the installation Mass, Archbishop Dolan explicitly wrote about his joy and how the Catholic faith makes him — and should make us — joyous. "I aim to be a happy bishop, sharing joys and laughs with you. … Being Catholic is not a heavy burden, snuffing the joy out of life; rather our faith in Jesus and His Church gives meaning, purpose and joy to life. I love being a Catholic, I love being a priest, and I fully intend to love being archbishop of New York while loving all of you in the Church in New York."[/font][/size]
[size=5][font=times new roman', times, serif]On his first day on the job, he demonstrated for all how much he already seemed to love being Archbishop of New York as he pointed to the font of his joy and ours. In his homily, largely based on Jesus' encounter with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, he illustrated that the same Jesus who met those two along the way, helped them to understand how his sufferings fit into the context of God's plans, and revealed himself to them in the celebration of the Eucharist, was hoping to meet us all along the streets of New York to bring us from sadness to joy.[/font][/size]
[size=5][font=times new roman', times, serif]He first described how many of us Catholics in the northeast are comparable to those two disciples at the beginning of the Gospel scene, forlorn and lost. He described several of the reasons why: "We are tempted to fatigue in our works of service and charity; … We continue realistically to nurse the deep wounds inflicted by the horrible scandal, sin, and crime of sexual abuse of minors; … More and more of our people are burdened under financial woe and uncertainty; … Strains on the family take their toll, [and] the Church is ridiculed for her teaching on the sanctity of marriage; … We struggle to keep our parishes and schools strong, and recognize that we need a new harvest of vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, religious life, and faithful, life-long, life-giving marriage; … [There are] shortages and cutbacks, people mad at the Church or even leaving her, and [at] our seeming inability to get the Gospel message credibly out there."[/font][/size]
[size=5][font=times new roman', times, serif]All of these led him to ask, "Are we not at times perhaps like those two dejected disciples on the road to Emmaus? They were so absorbed in their own woes, so forlorn in their mistaken conclusion that the one in whom they had placed their trust was dead, so shocked by the shame, scandal, and scorn of last Friday that they failed to recognize Jesus as He walked right alongside of them![/font][/size]
[size=5][font=times new roman', times, serif]"I say to you, my sister and brother disciples now on the road to Emmaus, let's not turn inward to ourselves, our worries, our burdens, our fears; but turn rather to Him, the way, the truth, and the life, the one who told us over and over, 'Be not afraid!,' who assured us that He 'would be with us all days, even to the end of the world,' and who promised us that 'not even the gates of hell would prevail,' the one who John Paul the Great called 'the answer to the question posed by every human life,' and recognize Him again in His word, in the 'breaking of the bread,' in His Church. Let Him 'turn us around' as He did those two disciples. He turned them around because, simply put, they were going the wrong way."[/font][/size]
[size=5][font=times new roman', times, serif]He finished his exhilarating homily by calling his "new friends" to join their new pastor in an "adventure of fidelity," as together they turned "the Staten Island Expressway, Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, Broadway, the FDR, the Major Deegan, and the New York State Thruway into the Road to Emmaus, as we witness a real 'miracle on 34th street' and turn that into the road to Emmaus." They have every reason to be joyful along all those paths because, as their new Archbishop grasped and wanted them to grasp, "Christ is walking right alongside us!"[/font][/size]
[size=5][font=times new roman', times, serif]During his time as rector of the North American College, one of the central lessons that Msgr. Dolan tried to convey to us future priests by word and example was that the priesthood should be joyous and fun. Yes, the priesthood is serious business, in which we share in Christ's mission for the salvation of the world, but he emphasized that we must live with the joy that flows from knowing that we are the disciples and ambassadors of the one who has conquered sin, death and the world.[/font][/size]
[size=5][font=times new roman', times, serif]He showed that joy with his constantly buoyant sense of humor, with the happiness with which he would smoke cigars and play softball with us, with the mischievous relish with which he once smothered my face in pumpkin pie during a Thanksgiving day speech, and with the magnanimous way he would allow himself to be the butt of seminarians' humor.[/font][/size]
[size=5][font=times new roman', times, serif]Every November, the seminarians would put on a series of skits poking fun at the rector and other faculty members as well as the incongruities and imbalances we saw in seminary life. A few of the more serious and hypersensitive faculty members thought the student satires should be shut down lest someone's feelings be hurt, but Msgr. Dolan saw them as a way the seminarians could let off some steam, creatively collaborate, and most importantly have a good laugh, even if at his expense. While some of the skits may have pushed the envelope a little, Msgr. Dolan showed that he could take a joke as well as he could give one. [color=#ff0000]He could laugh at himself because he was never self-absorbed and, while he took his priestly work and formation responsibilities seriously, he refused to take himself too seriously.[/color] As many of my classmates were saying in New York last week, he was one of the reasons why our years in seminary were so fun and unforgettable, and he modeled for all of us how to be happy priests.[/font][/size]
[size=5][font=times new roman', times, serif]Now his mission is to show the faithful in New York — and bishops, priests and faithful throughout the country — how to be happy Catholics. He's off to a good start.[/font][/size][/size][/font]
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Edited August 19, 2012 by Annie12

[Clare~Therese]

You're right, it's spot on!
Now, if I could stop being so serious all the time...