A Joy Ever New – A Joy Which Is Shared. Sr. Ellen LaCapria, DC continues her weekly visual prayer reflection.
As we continue to bask in the glow of the Easter Resurrection our response to the risen Christ is a resounding Alleluia! Pope Frances shares that he never tires of repeating those words of Benedict XVI which take us to the very heart of the Gospel: “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a  person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” How do we communicate this joy to the world?

A joy ever new – A joy which is shared (PDF)

A Joy Ever New, A Joy Which Is Shared

The intersection of crosshatching lines reflect the world wide web, telecommunications and the dizzying way the world can pass us by.

7. Sometimes we are tempted to find excuses and complain, acting as if we could only be happy if a thousand conditions were met. To some extent this is because our “technological society has succeeded in multiplying occasions of pleasure, yet has found it very difficult to engender joy.” I can say that the most beautiful and natural expressions of joy which I have seen in my life were in poor people who had little to hold on to. I also think of the real joy shown by others who, even amid pressing professional obligations, were able to preserve, in detachment and simplicity, a heart full of faith. In their own way, all these instances of joy flow from the infinite love of God, who has revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ. I never tire of repeating those words of Benedict XVI which take us to the very heart of the Gospel: “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” 1.

Do I feel the sting of being caught-up in a “technological society [that] has succeeded in multiplying occasions of pleasure, yet has found it very difficult to engender joy?”

In prayer we remember not only those who have little to hold on to, but help us not to forget the others who, even amid pressing professional obligations, were able to preserve, in detachment and simplicity, a heart full of faith, and in some way engender joy as well.

1. APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION EVANGELII GAUDIUM OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY, CONSECRATED PERSONS AND THE LAY FAITHFUL ON THE PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL IN TODAY’S WORLD