An Endless Cup of JOY

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The Best Part of Waking Up is…
JOY in Your Cup!
I’ve been letting the following words [provided by a priest, as well as the Pope!] steep well within my heart today, and hope you’ll find them well worth tasting, too: 
Joys are hidden in sorrows!
I know this from my own times of depression.  I know it from living with people with mental handicaps.  I know it from looking into the eyes of patients, and from being with the poorest of the poor. 
We keep forgetting this truth and become overwhelmed by our own darkness.  We easily lose sight of our joys and speak of our sorrows as the only reality there is.  
We need to remind each other that the cup of sorrow is also the cup of joy,
that precisely what causes us sadness can become the fertile ground for gladness. 
Indeed, we need to be angels for each other, to give each other strength and consolation. 
Because only when we fully realize that the cup of life is not only a cup of sorrow — but also a cup of joy — will we be able to drink it. [-By Fr. Henri Nouwen] 
“What is this joy?  Is it to be happy?  No, it is not the same.  To be happy is good, yet joy is something more.  It’s another thing.  It is something which does not depend on external motivations, or on passing issues: it is more profound. It is a gift.  To be ‘happy’ at all moments at all cost, can at the end turn into superficiality and shallowness.  This leaves us without Christian wisdom, which makes us dumb, naive, right?  All is joy… no.  JOY IS SOMETHING ELSE; it is a gift from the Lord.” −Pope Francis

Amen!  And, therefore, as I awake in the morning to my “cup”, I’ll also recall…
“We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.” −Fr. Henri Nouwen
May we choose well. God Bless. −EF

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