This is the title of st Therese's autobiography, a book I highly recommend. As I mentioned previously, her story is not the sweet and sentimental one we have been fed for so many years. She struggled like us all. In the end she trusted in the midst of living in a dark desert of the Spirit. She trusted that God loved her and was present to her even though she had no felt experience of his presence.
It's that old "leap of faith" we keep hearing about, which is another way of saying that we have to trust in God 's live and care even when our senses tell us nothing is there.
Sometimes, oftentimes , happiness is so fleeting and superficial. But JOY...is deep ANC beyond the illusion of feeling and the uncertainty of emotion. It is intuition, a guy level experience that all is well of will be well. Joy is a gift of the Spirit, a Grace that penetrates into the heart of out souls.
We ALL have a story of the soul...our souls...waiting to be told. Write...journal...reflect.,,pray...seek a spiritual director...,the story of your soul needs to find expression in some fashion, most likely just for you. Knowing God's hidden Presence in your life and the ways that he has woven your life together with moments of grace is a Treasure beyond cost. This knowledge of the ways of God in your life is the very foundation of joy
I write this in the early morning hours just after arriving in Lourdes. Bernadette, herself, was posed by our Blessed Mother that she could not promise her happiness in this world but certainly in the next. We are made for joy, our destiny is to forever livd in joy. But this life is just the prologue, giving us a hint if what is to come in the main act of life which is the life waiting for us all when we pass through the gateway of death. In this time of the prologue, we journey and slowly "camino" our way through the uncertainties and sufferings that this pilgrim life brings out way. But we are not to be pilgrims forever but are destined to be permanent dwellers in the kingdom where the road we travel is called Joy. Buen camino. Padre
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