At Judgement Day everyone will have to give an account for every good thing which he might have enjoyed and did not enjoy. Talmud, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.218.
Do not look for rest in any pleasure, because you were not created for pleasure: you were created for JOY. And if you do not know the difference between pleasure and spiritual joy you have not yet begun to live. Thomas Merton, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.276.
Be strong in God. I desire that through you the whole world may get to know the God of joy. Our Lady of Medjugorie, May 25, 1988. Words from Heaven, P.75.
I would like each of you to discover the joy and the love that exists only in God and that only God can give. Our Lady of Medjugorie, May 25, 1989. Words from Heaven, P.77.
The only true joy on earth is to escape from the prison of our own false self, and enter by love into union with the Life Who dwells and sings within the essence of every creature and in the core of our own souls. Thomas Merton, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.276.
Pray that your life be a joyful thanksgiving, which flows out of your heart like a river of joy. Our Lady of Medjugorie, August 25, 1988. Words from Heaven, P.78.
Do not be afraid! I wish that you would be filled with joy and that the joy could be seen on your face. ( ) Our Lady of Medjugorie, August 17, 1981. Words from Heaven, P.97.
For me it is a beautiful day. With respect to you, persevere in the faith and in prayer. Do not be afraid. Remain in joy. It is my desire. Let joy appears on your faces. ( ). Our Lady of Medjugorie, September 08, 1981. Words from Heaven, P.103.
Dear children, seek to make your hearts happy through the means of prayer. Dear children, be the joy for all mankind, be the hope of mankind. You will only be able to obtain it through the means of prayer. Pray, pray! May 3, 1986. Words from Heaven, P.175.
Dear children, my call to you is that your prayer be the joy of an encounter with the Lord. I am not able to guide you as long as you yourselves do not experience joy in prayer! From day to day I desire to lead you more and more in prayer, but I do not wish to force you. ( ). Our Lady of Medjugorie, August 14, 1986. Words from Heaven, P.235.
Dear children, I am calling you to a complete surrender to God. ( ) Be strong in God. I desire that through you the whole world may get to know the God of joy. Neither be anxious nor worried. God will help you and show you the way. I want you to love all men with my love, both the good and the bad. Only that way will love conquer the world. ( ) Our Lady of Medjugorie, May 25, 1988. Words from Heaven, P.250.
Dear children, today I invite you all to rejoice in the life which God gives you. Little children, rejoice in God the Creator because He has created you so wonderfully. Pray that your life be a joyful thanksgiving, which flows out of your heart like a river of joy. Little children, give thanks unceasingly for all that you possess, for each little gift, which God has given you so that a joyful blessing always comes down from God upon your life. Thank you for having responded to my call. Our Lady of Medjugorie, August 25, 1988. Words from Heaven, P.251.
Dear children, here is my Son in my arms! I would like to ask you to be a light for all in the year to come. ( ) your Mother does not ask words from you, I ask for deeds. Your mother will help you and She will give you the strength to continue. And tonight I would like to tell you: Rejoice! Our Lady of Medjugorie, December 25, 1989. Words from Heaven, P.301.
( ) Carry my messages with humility, in such a way that on seeing happiness in you, persons will desire to be like you. Do not carry my messages to simply throw them away to others. Our Lady of Medjugorie, July 1985. Words from Heaven, P.385.
(Jesus to Jelena) I am joyful but my joy is not complete until you are filled with joy. You are not yet filled with joy because you are not yet at the stage of understanding my immense love. October, 1986. Words from Heaven, P. 390.
( ) I do not desire for your life to be in sadness but that it be realized in joy for eternity, according to the Gospel. Only in this way will your life have meaning. ( ) Our Lady of Medjugorie, December 25, 1996. Words from Heaven, supplement.
Then Ezra said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." Nehemiah, 8:10.
"...I would say that it is very important in the contemplative life
NOT TO OVEREMPHASIZE THE CONTEMPLATION. If we constantly overemphasize
those things to which access is inevitably quite rare, we overlook the
ordinary authentic
real experiences of everyday life as real things to enjoy, things to
be happy about, things to praise God for. But the ordinary realties
of everyday life, the faith and love with which we live our normal human
lives, provide the foundation on which we build those higher things.
If there is no foundation, then we have nothing at all! How can we
relish the higher things of God if we cannot enjoy some simple little thing
that comes along as a gift from him! We should enjoy these things
and then we will be able
to go on to more rare experiences." Merton, Thomas. Contemplation
in a World of Action. P. 235. Submitted to L-Center Discussion Group by
Gary Horn ghorn@uswest.com
Joy comes from God. (...) for from Joy all beings have come, by Joy they all live, and unto Joy they all return. Taittiriya Upanishad, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World Wisdom, P.20-21.
If the mind is happy, not only the body but the whole world will be happy. Ramana Maharishi, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.47.
There remains, however, something more in the Jewish tradition, so gloriously revealed in certain of the psalms; namely a kind of drunken joy and surprise at the beauty and incomprehensible sublimity of this world, of which man can attain but a faint intimation. It is the feeling from which genuine research draws its intellectual strength, but which also seems to manifest itself in the song of birds (...). Alberta Einstein, The Sanctification of Life, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.218.
(...) I couldn't find anything in the world as intoxicating as this God of mine. When I drink this aged wine of my soul, a skyful of happiness throbs in my heart. Divine joy is in everyone. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.8.
(...) when I don't want to communicate, I shut off my five senses and live in the inexpressible joy of God. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.8.
His infinite nature is revealed to man through the intuitive superconsciousness of the soul. The joy felt in meditation reveals the presence of Eternal Joy spread over all creation.
Despite all the tests I have gone through for Him, in the end God has given me everything I wanted or needed of this world. And I have given it all back for He has bestowed on me a gift infinitely greater: Divine Joy, day and night. In that Joy all desires that come into me heart are satisfied. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.26.
The joy of God is boundless, unceasing, all the time new. Body, mind, nothing can disturb you when you are in that consciousness - such is the grace and glory of the Lord. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.44.
I am here to tell you that the very joy you are seeking in sex, money, wine, love, fame - that joy is within yourself. You don't have to go elsewhere. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.46.
(...) when you are joyful within, he invites the help of the inexhaustible power of God. (...) When your joy is sincere you are a smile-millionaire. A genuine smile distributes the cosmic current, prana, to every body cell. (...) Those smiles come from meditation. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.89.
The essential proof of Self-realization - of God's consciousness in you - is to be truly and unconditionally happy. If you are receiving more and more joy in meditation, without cessation, you may know that God is making manifest His presence in you. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.162.
The unalloyed happiness I find in communing with the Lord no words can describe. Night and day I am in a state of joy. That joy is God. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.110.
Joy lies in constantly thinking of God. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.129.
But greater than peace is bliss - bliss of the soul. It is an evernew joy that never disappears, but remains with your soul through eternity. That joy can be attained only be perceiving God. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.172.
The only thing that can last is the joy of God. When you have it you can smile all the time. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.173.
When your soul is filled with joy you are attractive. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.174.
Find joy within and express it in your face. When you do that, wherever you go a little smile will surcharge everyone with your divine magnetism. Everybody will be happy! Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.174.
For the world and time are the dance of the Lord in emptiness. The silence of the spheres is music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity and despair. But it does not matter much, because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things, or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed, we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not. (...) Yet the fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance. Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation. P. 297
Philosophy insists that there is a Joy which is absolute, which never changes. That Joy cannot be the same as the joys and pleasures we have in this life, and yet Vedanta shows that everything that is joyful in this life is but a particle of that Real Joy, because that is the only joy there is. (...) Vivekananda, quoted in: Nikhilananda, Vivekananda, A Biography, P.201.
To live religiously means to live joyously, to live religiously means to live meditatively. To live religiously means to live this world as a gift from God. Osho, Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic, P.156.
When suddenly you are clear, and a great joy and rejoicing arises in you and your whole being, every fiber of your body, mind and soul dances and you say, "Ah, this! Alleluia!" - a great shout of joy arises in your being - that is enlightenment. Suddenly stars come down from the rafters. You become part of the eternal dance of existence. Osho, Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic, P.161.
If a sorrowful thought stands in the way,
it is also preparing the way for joy.
It furiously sweeps your house clean,
in order that some new joy may appear from the Source.
It scatters the withered leaves from the bough of the heart,
in order that fresh green leaves might grow.
It uproots the old joy so that
a new joy may enter from Beyond.
Rumi, Mahnawi V, 3644 ..., quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.187.
The life of the body assumes its full significance only with the fulfillment of its inherent claim to joy. Bonhoffer - Ethics. Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, P.201.
My being is given me not simply as an arbitrary and inscrutable affliction, but as a source of joy, growth, life, creativity, and fulfillment. Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, P.221.
When men take the Gospel seriously and try to live it together, the result is inevitably joy and peace even when the cross is very present. Pennington, Basil. (1978). O Holy Mountain! Journal of a Retreat on Mount Athos. P.177.
Joy is the greatest cleanser, and it is the greatest testimony to our faith. Toil with happiness, my Lord once said to me. ( ) A kind face is a precious gift. P.34.
Last updated: 2008/10/29
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