The Power of Spiritual Joy
"St. Francis was sure that spiritual joy is the safest remedy against the thousand snares and wiles of the enemy. He used to say, 'The devil is most happy when he can snatch from a servant of God true joy of spirit. He carries dust with him to throw into the smallest chinks of conscience and thus soil one's mental candor and purity of life. But if joy of spirit fills the heart, the serpent shoots his deadly venom in vain.'" --Celano, Second Life, 125
There are lines in a letter written by Fra Giovanni, a 15/16th-century friar, that have become my motto: "The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. Take Joy!" Taking joy in the Lord and all that He is should be the way of life for his children.
"St. Francis was sure that spiritual joy is the safest remedy against the thousand snares and wiles of the enemy. He used to say, 'The devil is most happy when he can snatch from a servant of God true joy of spirit. He carries dust with him to throw into the smallest chinks of conscience and thus soil one's mental candor and purity of life. But if joy of spirit fills the heart, the serpent shoots his deadly venom in vain.'" --Celano, Second Life, 125
There are lines in a letter written by Fra Giovanni, a 15/16th-century friar, that have become my motto: "The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. Take Joy!" Taking joy in the Lord and all that He is should be the way of life for his children.
No comments:
Post a Comment