{"id":4955,"date":"2012-10-17T08:21:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-17T08:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/2012\/10\/17\/the-happiest-place-on-earth\/"},"modified":"2023-05-10T02:34:01","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T02:34:01","slug":"the-happiest-place-on-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/2012\/10\/17\/the-happiest-place-on-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"The happiest place on earth…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cLet us shout for joy
\nto the great King, creator of the universe. In Him Louis lives, sharing the
\nglory of the saints.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>– these words were
\nsung during Matins as we celebrated the feast of St Louis Bertrand \u2013 patron of
\nnovitiates.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
Postulants and Novices provides entertainment for the community on the feast of <\/span>St Louis Bertrand<\/span> <\/span><\/div>\n
Happiness occupies too great a place in all human experience
\nto be missing from religious life. All men are made for happiness and aspire
\nonly to eternal beatitude. When one leaves the world one is renouncing its
\ninsignificant and fleeting pleasures only to discover full and sincere
\njoy.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

The religious state is a vocation to a greater happiness
\nbecause it is a call to a higher sanctity.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

This divine joy, the fruit of the Holy Ghost, should
\nflourish particularly in Novitiates, where a religious rising generation has
\nneed for expansion, eagerness and enthusiasm in the arduous work of its
\nformation.\u00a0 <\/span>It possesses all varieties of
\nit, there are divine joys and human joys, continual joys and joys only for a
\nday, joys which enrich the soul or simply embellish life.<\/span><\/div>\n
THE GREAT HAPPINESS<\/span><\/div>\n

To belong entirely to God and to live only for God: that is
\nmore than joy, it is happiness, more than happiness, it should be like a
\nprelude to beatitude.\u00a0 <\/span>There is the
\nhappiness which arises all day long from the three theological virtues, faith,
\nhope and charity.\u00a0 <\/span>These after all, unite
\nus intimately to God.<\/p>\n

Gaudium in
\nveritate:\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>There is happiness in
\nknowing oneself to be a child of the Father, the friend and living member of
\nJesus Christ, the spouse of the Holy Ghost, the spiritual temple of the Holy Trinity
\nwith whom one can live in continual communion.<\/span><\/div>\n

Gaudium in spe: <\/i>\u00a0<\/span>There is happiness in always being able to
\ncount upon God, upon His power, His goodness, His mercy, on the abundance of
\nHis graces and on the heritage of His heaven.<\/p>\n

Gaudium in caritate<\/i>:\u00a0 <\/span>There is above all the joy of being able to
\nlove God and of approaching closer and closer to His Heart by the royal road
\nof poverty, chastity and obedience. \u201cThe only happiness for man on earth,\u201d said
\nthe Cure of Ars, \u201cis that of loving God and knowing that He loves us.\u201d<\/span> <\/span><\/div>\n

All this happiness \u2013which is the essence of Christian living
\n\u2013is experienced, but in the heart of the religious is strengthened and
\nincreased tenfold because she has been chosen and blessed by God who has called
\nher to a higher, and for that reason happier, life. For it is from the fullness
\nof life that joy overflows.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>SMALL\u00a0 <\/span>JOYS<\/span><\/div>\n

Now to add to these great joys are many smaller pleasures of
\nconventual life. \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>There is the pleasure of obliging, rendering
\nservice, offering a word of sympathy, consolation or congratulation, of giving
\na pleasant surprise, for \u201cit is a more blessed thing to give rather than to
\nreceive.\u201d (Acts XX, 35)<\/p>\n

Family feast provide joys, regaling the mind and the heart!<\/span><\/div>\n

Another source of healthy gaiety is the daily recreation.
\nThe great St Teresa (who\u2019s feast day we celebrated this past week) wished her
\ndaughters to use their talents and their minds to enliven community. \u201cWe women
\nare already foolish enough by nature, what would happen if we became more so by
\ngrace?\u201d \u201cGod preserve us,\u201d she said, \u201cfrom gloomy saints.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Not that community life may always be free
\nfrom sacrifices and renunciations, but these little crosses, offered to Christ
\nin loving sacrifice, becomes a joy too.
\n<\/span>Thenceforward \u201call is grace and all is joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The influence of joy in the spiritual life and especially in
\nthe formation of young religious can hardly be overestimated.\u00a0 <\/span>In the Novitiate joy is a source of light,
\nstrength, enthusiasm and emulation. It creates an atmosphere, not indeed of
\nillusions or romantic excitement, but of moral optimism and generosity.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

St Louis patron of Novitiates pray for us that
\nwe may \u201cwith glad hearts start to run along the road of the divine precepts,
\nwith ineffable sweetness of love\u201d in order to share the glory of the saints in
\nheaven with you.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u201cLet us shout for joy to the great King, creator of the universe. In Him Louis lives, sharing the glory of the saints.\u201d\u00a0 – these words were sung during Matins as we celebrated the feast of St Louis Bertrand \u2013 patron of novitiates.\u00a0 Postulants and Novices provides entertainment for the community on the feast of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-convent-life","infinite-scroll-item","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4955"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5233,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955\/revisions\/5233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}