Reaching for Joy

Author of Quotes:

Fra Giovanni Giocondo

Full letter: Source website Grateful Living

https://grateful.org/resource/joy-fra-giovanni-peace/

Letter from Franciscan friar Giocondo to Countess Allagia Aldobrandeschi on Christmas Eve, 1513. Images created using Night Cafe Studio by author.

God calls us to walk with Him in the present. We become anxious when we consider tomorrow apart from resting in His Presence today! Consider the Patriarchs of Abraham and Jacob. They were found to be faithful because they believed God’s Promises (Hebrews 11) Faith is a daily walk–a journey not a one time decision or past moment of inspiration.

Seek Rest in Heaven Now!

“No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant.”

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is our Light–we look to Him for salvation–grace to sustain us and hope to encourage us in our dark valleys. Our time on this earth is but a short season of a much greater eternity with Him. We walk by faith and not by faith.

“Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in darkness, could we but see. And to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look!”

Life is so generous a giver. But we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel’s hand that brings it to you.

What if the difficult moments and sorrows are gifts in disguise? Our Heavenly Father is the Author and Perfecter of His Creation. He transforms us and makes us anew into the likeliness of His Son.

“Everything we call a trial, a sorrow or a duty, believe me, that angel’s hand is there. The gift is there and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Your joys, too, be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts.“

We are all pilgrims on a journey. How can you encourage or strengthen those God places in your path?

“Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering, that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim it; that is all! But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together, wending through unknown country home.“