Spiritual Joy

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It is God's life abiding in you. It is an awareness that lasts. It is something

added to any other happiness you might be feeling at any given moment. It is

important to realize that you are responsible for your own happiness. Since

Spiritual Joy is the basis of true happiness, you can begin to take

responsibility for achieving this Joy. What is needed is the simple desire to

love and enjoy God. Joy can fill you with a deep satisfaction, which will abide

with you on good days and bad. Eternal bliss may be a distant goal, but you

don¡¦t have to wait until you reach Heaven to enjoy your precious life. You can

begin right now. " ~Father Catoir

Joy is an essential spiritual practice growing out of faith, grace, gratitude,

hope, and love. It is the pure and simple delight in being alive. Joy is our

elated response to feelings of happiness, experiences of pleasure, and awareness

of abundance. It is also the deep satisfaction we know when we are able to serve

others and be glad for their good fortune.

Invite joy into your life by staging celebrations. Host festivities to mark

transitions and changes in your life. Toast moments of happiness you notice as

you go through your day. Dance ¡X jump for joy ¡X as often as possible. Life is

not meant to be endured; it is to be enjoyed.

When spiritual life and development are regarded from the traditional point of

view there is very often associated with them the idea of renunciation, of

suffering, labor, sorrow and pain. This is unfair, for a single aspect is over

accented. It arouses perplexity, even repugnance and discourage the novice on

the spiritual way.

Suffering constitutes the preponderant and characteristic element of only one

phase, one level, of the spiritual life ¡V the phase of purification which

follows the awakening of the soul, the first revelation of our indwelling

Spirit. That awakening is full of joy and exultation and joy is the note of the

state that follows purification, the state of the illumined soul. After the

¡§dark night of the soul¡¨, that new period of shadow, labor and sorrow, comes

the glorious goal, the transfiguration of the soul in God, the conscious

communion of the individual with the universal Spirit. The Orientals call this

Moksha and Vinmuhti (liberation, Nirvana) and the Occidentals the Mystic

Marriage and the Unified life.

In this state the soul is filled with bliss, an enduring and ineffable joy. We

should not marvel at it for bliss is the essential quality of the Supreme

Spirit. Both Orientals and Occidentals testify to this. According to the Hindus,

the three essential attributes of the Supreme Spirit are Sat, Chit, Ananda;

namely, being, knowledge, bliss. Other authorities as the Manduka Upanishad call

these characteristics of Atman, the Supreme Self, ¡§shantam, shivam, advaita¡¨;

or peace, bliss, unity.

According to the Christians the communion with God in this life and the next

gives conscious enjoyment of Him, of His glory and His bliss.

Spiritual Joy must not be confused with the pleasures and joys of another

nature. It possesses characteristics which enable us to distinguish it easily

and surely. Spiritual Joy, above all, is permeated with peace. It gives a sense

of calm, of security, of complete quiet which is entirely lacking in the

tumultuous pleasures, in the violent excesses of another nature. Its effects are

different, often opposite. The egoistic pleasures and exaltations make the whole

being vibrate, consume the nervous energy and are followed by a reaction of

weariness, depression and lack of vitality. On the other hand, Spiritual Joy

gives strength instead of taking it away. It does not provoke reactions but

leaves behind it a wave of energy and courage and often real physical relief.

Finally, while the egoistic pleasures tend to separate us from others, to make

us forget all the world in our own little personal satisfactions, Spiritual Joy

is, by its nature, expansive. It renders us more loving, more compassionate and

inspires us with the desire to help others participate in our joy.

Spiritual Joy possesses another trait that at first may seem strange and

paradoxical, but which on closer examination is seen to be natural and befitting

the character of that Joy, namely, it can co-exist with pain. Such an apparent

contradiction cannot be explained as the materialists pretend, who know nothing

of the Spiritual life. They consider it an anomaly, a perversion, a form of

physic masochism. It can be easily interpreted, however, in the light of the

Spiritual conception of man and of his complex inner structure. This is a

conception which has been and is being continually strengthened by the recent

development of analytic and synthetic psychology.

A human being, in his present stage of evolution, is not a harmonious and

coherent unity. He is made up of a mass of heterogeneous and contrasting

elements grouped around different centers that are found at different levels

relatively independent of each other. For the purpose of this article we need

not investigate the more subtle distinctions between these elements and centers.

It is enough to remember that they can be divided into two great groups. Those

that compose the ordinary human personality and those that constitute the

superior individuality, the Soul properly so called. Now, while the ordinary

joys and pleasures are felt by the personality, Spiritual Joy is the property of

the individuality. The ordinary man lives inclosed in his own personality and

ignores even the existence of the superior elements. On the other hand in ¡§the

perfectly awakened one¡¨, in the liberated Spirit, in the soul completely and

permanently united with God, the personality is dissolved and its elements

regenerated and transfused into the individuality so that the whole being is

unified.

The man who finds himself in an intermediate state, in whom the Spiritual

consciousness is awakened but who still retains many elements of the ordinary

man, has a more or less conscious duality of feeling and reaction. Thus we can

understand how it often happens that while the personality mechanically suffers,

the individuality exults in the Light of the Spirit.

It is to be noted further that the stages of the Spiritual development are not

rigidly separated from one another but are often superimposed and partially

interpenetrating. Thus during the phase of illumination the activity of

purification generally goes on and it is the interweaving of these two which

causes the co-existence of joy and pain.

The illumined soul which has vitally experienced the purifying and elevating

action of suffering not only does no longer flee it, not only endures it

patiently and accepts it with good will, but finally comes to rejoice in it. The

strength of the Spirit renders the cross light, the light of the Spirit renders

the cross luminous.

There is nothing abnormal in all this but rather something supernormal. It is a

noble and beautiful experience and those who ignore or condemn it do not

understand that ¡§to suffer and to be unhappy are not at all the same thing¡¨.

They are the blind who are not to be heeded but pitied.

It is true that there have been some cases, especially in past centuries in

which the thirst for, and the pleasure in, suffering have assumed an excessive

intensity and an abnormal character. However, these are deviations from the true

Spiritual path, impure admixtures, counterfeits of the genuine mystical

experience.

The distinction between the egoic pleasures of the personality and the Spiritual

Joy of the individuality also aids in explaining the error of those who (as we

pointed out in the beginning) on the basis of a too rigid, dualistic and

pessimistic view of life and religion, accentuate exclusively the side of

sacrifice and suffering. They view with suspicion and with condemnation anything

which speaks of the joy of the soul. In reality, Spiritual Joy is not only

permitted to all but is truly a duty, and it is so for many reasons. In the

first place it greatly helps the outpouring of gratitude and the voluntary

dedication of oneself which constitute the best response of the soul to the

flood of light which has been poured upon it from on High. Spiritual Joy also

facilitates the transformation and sublimation of all the personal elements, a

work which the soul must accomplish in ever increasing measure upon the

ascending path.

Finally, Spiritual Joy is a duty towards others. At every step on our way we

should help our brothers to share in the treasures which we have discovered, in

the benefits which have been showered upon us, in the powers which are

developing in us. This is the unchangeable law of justice and of love, the

direct expression of the fundamental unity of all beings. Thus whoever attains

the first illuminations must share them with others. One of the most effective

ways of doing this is by pouring out upon them our own joy.

Poor humanity, tormented by a thousand sorrows, agitated by a thousand fears,

distracted by a thousand doubts, searches anxiously (whether it knows it or not)

for peace, certainty, a serene and stable joy. It is irresistibly attracted

towards anyone, who by the example of his own life, by his own silent radiation,

shows that he has touched that inner center of calm, of harmony and of

satisfaction.

It is only after having proved the positive results, after having recognized the

value and benefit of the Spiritual life, that a man is willing to subject

himself to the necessary discipline, to pay the price that at first may seem

excessive, but that later will show itself justified, indeed inadequate, for

such an inestimable treasure, our possession for eternity.

At this time it is right course and our plain duty towards ourselves, towards

others and towards God, not only freely to accept Spiritual Joy but

intentionally to awaken it within ourselves and to preserve and increase that

which we have obtained.

Let us then adopt the glorious motto of St. , fervently aspiring to live it

every day „o

¡§Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice¡¨.