Ave Maria Meditations
JOY! Here is a meditation for this joy filled season of Advent:
The pleasure, satisfaction, contentment, rest and happiness experienced as a result of the possession of basic human good. Christ is seen as the cause of all authentic Christian joy because He fulfills the Old Testament promises, brings forgiveness, grace, truth and divine love. Joy for the Christian is result of charitable actions, forgiveness for sin and life under the promise of redemption and salvation. Essentially, Christian joy is sharing in the joy of Christ at the accomplishment of the works of divine salvation. Joy is the completion of happiness, the aim of human life and the completion of human action and existence.
The Augustinian tradition asserted that only God could provide the fullness of human joy as only He could meet all of our human needs and fulfill all of our human longings. The Christian conception of joy is significantly different from that of the Marxist, materialist or agnostic concepts because it affirms that God provides it perfectly. Agnostics or materialists would be skeptical of this, for they would contend that joy is ultimately materialist in its nature and content. Christian Faith affirms that the spiritual joy of union with discipleship of Christ made possible by faith and grace is of a different order from that which others can imagine or ask.
A meditation from the Apostles of the Holy Spirit
And to read how St. Francsi taught Brother Leo that Perfect Joy is only in the Cross: http://feastofsaints.com/perfectjoy.htm
a meditation from the Apostles of the Holy Spirit
‘And now hear the conclusion, Brother Leo. Above all the graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit which Christ gives to His friends is that of conquering oneself and willingly enduring sufferings, insults, humiliations, and hardships for the love of Christ. For we cannot glory in all those other marvelous gifts of God, as they are not ours but God’s, as the Apostle says: ‘What have you that you have not received?’ But we can glory in the cross of tribulations and afflictions, because that is ours, and so the Apostle says: ‘I will not glory save in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ.'”
How ironic that I should e-mail someone earlier today about suffering and joy never being inseparable. Then I read this saying by St Francis.
Please, those of you who read the AirMaria postings, keep my little disabled son in your prayers. He has a cyst on his brain, and breaking through his seizure medication. I love him dearly. He has never uttered a word in 21 years, but he brings me more happiness than anything in the physical world. I thank God that he is my son. 🙂
God bless you for your prayers.