PIERRE TEILHARD de CHARDINJoy is the infallible sign

of the presence of God. 

DIETRICH BONHOEFFERMusic... (can) help dissolve your perplexities and purify

your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow,

will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.

DALLAS WILLARDWe should, to begin with, think that

God leads a very interesting life, and that He is full of joy…

He is simply one great inexhaustibleand eternal experience of all that is good

and true and beautiful and right…This is His life.

DALLAS WILLARDTo God there is available…

“Towering clouds of gasses trillions of miles high, backlit by nuclear fires

in newly forming stars, galaxies cart wheeling into collision and sending explosive shock waves boiling through

millions of light years of time and space.”

DALLAS WILLARDThese things are all before Him,

along with numberlessunfolding rosebuds,

souls and songs – andimmeasurably more

of which we knowNOTHING…

NEHEMIAH 8:10…the joy of the LORDIs your strength.

LUKE 1:46b-47And Mary said,“My soul magnifies the Lord,and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…”

ECCLESIASTES 3:11…He has put eternityinto the heart of mankind…

C.S. LEWISAll joy emphasizes our pilgrim status;

always reminds, beckons,awakens desire.

Our best havings are wantings.

C.S. LEWISWhat does not satisfy

when we find it, was not the thing we were desiring.

C.S. LEWISIt would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

We are half-hearted creatures,fooling about with drink and sex and

ambition when infinite joy is offered us,like an ignorant child who wants to go on

making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday

at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

DAVID STEINDL-RASTThe root of joy is gratefulness…

It is not joy that makes us grateful;it is gratitude that makes us joyful.

JOHN CALVINThere is not one blade of grass,

there is no color in this world,that is not intended to

make us rejoice.

JAMES 1:17Every good and perfect giftcomes from above, coming down from the Father of lights who doesnot change like the shifting shadows.

HENRI NOUWENJoy does not simply

happen to us.We have to choose joyand keep on choosing

it every day.

ANNE LAMOTTPeace is joy at rest,

and joy is peace on its feet.