Better Than Happy - The Joy of Your TRUE Calling

[Francis Coffee]

"I was a postulant with the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity when I learned that there is a difference between being happy and being joyful. Up until then, I had thought the terms were interchangeable. Someone could be happy being able to see their friends. A new smartphone could spark joy.

My postulant directress thought differently......

https://fscc-calledtobe.org/2021/03/08/better-than-happy-the-joy-of-your-true-calling/

 

[Guest]

Quote

"Joy on the other hand is based on reality. It’s a choice. A person can feel hurt by someone’s betrayal, depressed from mourning the loss of a loved one, or exhausted from living with a mental illness, and still choose to find joy. They acknowledge and take care of the negative, while choosing to see the positive."

[Anastasia]

I would substitute "joy" with "hope". Hope in Christ, that He will not let a person sink into darkness and in a time He will give them joy. I believe true joy (of seeing a cute moth or a rainbow) comes from Him.

"Joy" for me is a very strong word so I would not like to put on anyone in the circumstance listed above the burden of "choosing to find Joy". "Rejoice in God always" - perhaps it is a hope? Also "rejoice with joyous, cry with those who cry".

[gloriana35]

This vaguely reminds me of Francis of Assisi, and his words on 'perfect joy.' Considering his circumstances then, what is telling is that he says that, if negative things could happen, and he, a highly sensitive man, would not be upset - that would be perfect joy. I very much like Anastasia's comment. It can be devastating for those who are suffering, or who have depression, to be told they can choose to be joyful.

[Guest]

My (of necessity limited) take - and my limited experience has been in that loving God's Will even in His Permissive Will and the negative things (minor or major) that come along can mean that practice means a level of achievement in a continual "work in progress" that the journey is until death.  Perfect is for Heaven alone in all things.

Such earthly type Joy is a Joy in one's will.

Hence, even in the negative and I have been through much in my journey (including deep depression and serious mental illness), one can be joyful, because one chooses to be joyful in the Permissive Will of God.  That Joy is not of necessity a feeling (passions***) thing - it is on a different level which seems to have been 'achieved' through long practice of achieve and failure, repent and rise.  One recognizes that "all is Grace" (St Therese of Lisieux).  That is, something is achieved which is a work of Grace alone, even the steps to any level of achievement are works of Grace, God's Perfect Gratuitous Gift.

"All is Grace"

The Joy one chooses (in one's will) does not mean that all suffering is wiped away.   The former (Joy) is in the will, the latter is in the feelings/or the passions.  One can still feel suffering it to its dreadful depths and to its fullest extent. There probably is a point where the Joy in the will transcends and unites feelings perhaps - and all is Joy in the will and is a felt Joy too.  That is only a presuming, a supposition, of mine, a possibility or potential here on earth.

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*** https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a5.htm