Thoughts on Joy
David L. Miller hosts an upcoming Christos Advent online retreat, Enter The Joy: Christmas Stories From Then and Now, for five Wednesdays starting November 8, 2023. He talked with us about the importance of joy in our spiritual lives. He has served Christ’s Church as a pastor, journalist, author and retreat leader. He currently directs a small group through the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola as a partner in Christos’ Ignatian Spirituality program. He studied Christian spirituality at Catholic Theological Union, Loyola University and The Claret Center, all in Chicago. He was a senior and executive editor of The Lutheran Magazine before becoming the first Cornelsen Director of Spiritual Formation at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. He is the author of Friendship with Jesus, A Way to Pray the Gospel of Mark, an exploration of Ignatian Contemplation. He blogs at prayingthemystery.blogspot.com. David and his wife, Dixie, live in Downers Grove, IL.
Why is this topic something that touches your heart?
The topic of joy urges me on because it is a missing ingredient in many lives. So much in contemporary life weighs heavily on our hearts, leading to sadness or even cynicism about our lives and times. Social, political and family divisions color the news of the day, every day, threatening to sap our energy, hope and verve. Speaking personally, I see a great deal of church life that is listless, dour or so focused on anxiety about declining membership--or anxious attempts to be relevant to societal concerns--that we miss the joy of knowing ourselves enveloped and filled with the Love God is. We miss the joy of the Lord which is our strength.
How are Christmas stories of joy important in our world today?
Leaving his disciples, Jesus prayed that they might experience his joy, the joy of knowing and dwelling in the immensity of divine love. When St. Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit, the second thing he mentions is joy, right after love. Amid the challenges of life, the Spirit invites us to lives of joy, which is the fountain from which Christian life and service flows. Experiencing this joy and exploring of what joy is and how it comes to us has increasingly become a primary focus in my spiritual life. The joy of knowing God's all-possessing love touching and filling the heart is the primary gift the Christian Church has to offer the world.
More thoughts on joy from David’s blog, prayingthemystery.blogspot.com:
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