joyful intent

Let the father of the Just rejoice greatly;

let thy father and thy mother be joyful,

and let her rejoice that bore thee.

(Prov. 23, 24, 25) from the Introit of the Mass,

Sunday within the Octave of the Epiphany:

Feast of The Holy Family

These words from the Introit of the Mass leapt off the page of my missal at Mass this past Sunday. In my meditations and prayers about this new year, I determined that my work for 2009 is joy and focus or, more succinctly, Joyful Intent.

By intent, I mean a vision for each moment with the focused attention to bring each task to completion. Not being derailed unneccessarily. Not procrastinating~consciously or sub-consciously~by allowing or creating distractions. In small matters and large.

::Begin a task, project, or conversation and focus to completion::

And by joy, I mean an attitude of gratitude, contentedness, and general cheer. And I mean to laugh out loud. This is a challenge. My sense of humor is dry, sardonic even. Quircky things make me giggle, common jokes make me politely chuckle at best. How I envy those humans bestowed with a large and easy laugh. I have a son who is rather prone to serious cases of the giggles and a daughter whose peals of laughter and jiggly belly laughs shake the house. So sweet.

Laughter, though, must come naturally or as a gift from the Lord. Grant it to me, o Lord. A strange request; perhaps it makes you laugh that I even ask it. But joy can be given or intently chosen. My mother taught me this when I was young. If I was in an inconsolably foul mood over nothing in particular or over some small matter, she would advise: You must choose to be happy, to be joyous, now; it isn't what you feel or what you want, but you must make a choice in this moment that you are going to be happy. We would turn on some good music and force a few smiles, chat a bit and, soon enough, joy was triumphant. Still works.

Happiness depends on happenings; joy depends on Christ. Anonymous

Of course, joy is even more than happy; it is delighted, blissful, sustains a keen pleasure and is felicitous. It comes from within. But the truest and most lasting joy comes from above and permeates all of our being and all of our doings. Thus is born joyful + intent. Take joy in all action, joyfully undertake even the most mundane chores by offering them as a gift or as a prayer.

Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing. William Shakespeare