1. What are the rules for living a good life?

Your group can read St. Benedict’s answer, as well as the “golden rule” from Christ upon which the answer is based. Regarding loving one’s neighbor, you can also direct the group to Leviticus 19:18, “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.”

2. What are the three general qualities of a healthy and joyful relationship, and how can we see these in Romans 12:9-18?

The three qualities are an appropriate view of ourselves, being supportive and giving, and being patient and forgiving. In St. Paul’s list, the attitudes and behaviors he puts forth could be categorized like this:

An appropriate view of ourselves: being without hypocrisy; giving preferene to one another; fervent in spirit and serving the Lord; being of the same mind, not setting our minds on high things or being wise in our own opinions.

Being supportive and giving: being kindly affection with brotherly love; distributing to the needs of the saints and showing hospitality; rejoicing with those who rejoice, and weeping with those who weep.

Being patient and forgiving: blessing those who persecute us; not repaying evil for evil; living peaceably with others.

3. What does it mean to say, “It’s not about you?”

Emphasize that each of us is not “the center of the universe”—our attention should be directed outward, toward God and others. You can bring up St. Niketas Stithatos’ teaching about the “three-pronged barb”—point out that he’s talking about the passion of self-esteem. Lead your group in a discussion of some of the false messages our culture promotes about self-esteem: how do these messages teach us to manipulate—and even abuse—others to pursue our own agenda? Contrast these false messages with the Christian understanding of our worth: each person is valuable because he or she is created in God’s image, and is loved by God.

4. How can we be supportive and giving?

Ask your group: how can St. Gregory the Theologian’s teaching about love and charity be put into practice in our parish and community? What are some of the things that are currently being done to help others, and what more might be needed?

5. What are some of the lengths to which we might be called to be patient and forgiving?

St. Kosmas’ teaching is appropriate here. You can point out that a longsuffering response to provocation does not mean that Christians must be milquetoasts; we are not called to allow ourselves to be endlessly and pointlessly abused. For example, Christ explains the procedure for confronting Christians who wrong other Christians, beginning with personal exhortation and concluding with expulsion from the Church (Matthew 18:15-17). We should nonetheless always remember Solomon’s proverb, “Wise men turn away wrath” (Proverbs 29:8).

There are countless sayings, poems and songs telling us we need healthy relationships with other people to have a joyful life: “it takes two,” “one is the loneliest number,” “no man is an island”…the list goes on. At the same time, the overwhelming number of divorces in our society and tons of books and programs providing “relationship advice” demonstrate that, while we know we need other people, we often fail to build and maintain these desperately needed relationships.

What does it take to have a relationship—whether with friends or family—that gives others joy, and brings us joy in return?

THE QUALITIES OF A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP

The joyful life is, quite simply, the “good life”—it is the life all of us really want. St. Benedict of Nursia describes the “good life” like this, “What are the rules for living a good life? In the first place to love the Lord with all one’s heart, with all one’s soul and with all one’s strength. Then, to love one’s neighbor as oneself” (see Matthew 22:37-39; Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10:27). We saw in previous units the way in which our joy is increased—or decreased—by how much we love God; we now see that we also grow in joy as we grow in love for others.

But what does it mean to love others? The Holy Apostle Paul gives us a great description of how to build and maintain joyful, transforming relationships in his epistle to the Romans:

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. (Romans 12:9-18)

This is a long list, but the attitudes and behaviors mentioned by the apostle can be grouped together like this: healthy, joyful relationships involve an appropriate view of ourselves, being supportive and giving, and being patient and forgiving.

First, we need an appropriate view of ourselves, and this can be summed up in one phrase: it’s not about you. We’ll talk more about this in the next unit, but here we can tie it into the idea of vision—is your focus on others, or on yourself? An out-of-focus life is always directed on ourselves, while a joyful life is always focused on God and others. When your focus is entirely on your own desires, you suffer from what St. Paul describes in Romans 12:16 as setting “your mind on high things.” I like how Eugene Peterson puts it, “Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.”

When we think too highly of ourselves—and thus, badly of others—we’ve been stabbed with what St. Niketas Stithatos describes as “a three-pronged barb heated and forged by the demons out of vanity, presumption and arrogance.” Fortunately, he points out that there is hope for those of us with such a spiritual problem, adding, “Yet those who dwell under the protection of the God of heaven detect it easily and shatter its prongs, for through their humility they rise above such vices and find repose in the tree of life.” St. John Chrysostom explains how this works when he says, “For nothing is so acceptable to God as to number one’s self with the last. This is a first principle of all practical wisdom. For he that is humbled, and bruised in heart, will not be vainglorious, will not be wrathful, will not envy his neighbor, will not harbor any other passion.”

An appropriate view of ourselves leads to the second quality of healthy and joyful relationships: such relationships are supportive and giving. The key to joyful relationships isn’t what we can get out of them, but rather what we can give and put into them. St. Gregory the Theologian encourages us to give to others: “Help nature to the best of your ability, honor the freedom of creation, protect your species from dishonor, come to its aids in sickness, rescue it from poverty…Seek to distinguish yourself from others only in your generosity. Be like gods to the poor, imitating God’s mercy. Humanity has nothing so much in common with God as the ability to do good.”

We should not only be generous when sharing with others, but also thankful that we can assist others when they need help; we should not, as Ambrosiaster says, behave “as if somebody was twisting (your) arm to do it.” The attitude with which we give to others influences not only our own joy, but also the joy of those whom we help—notice what St. Isaac the Syrian says, “If you give something to one in need, let the cheerfulness of your face precede your gift, and comfort his sorrow with kind words. When you do this, by your gift the gladness of his mind surpasses even the needs of his body.”

Being supportive is particularly important when another person is suffering. Samuel Taylor Coleridge provides a wonderful image of friendship when he writes, “Friendship is a sheltering tree;” when life’s problems make us feel like we’re burning in the hot sun, good friends make us feel like we’re resting in the shade. St. Maximus the Confessor puts it like this, “A true friend is one who in times of trial calmly and imperturbably suffers with his neighbor the ensuing afflictions, privations and disasters as if they were his own.”

Finally, healthy and joyful relationships depend upon being patient and forgiving. This patience and forgiveness goes beyond simply putting up with a person’s irritating habits—it includes, when necessary, forgiving the most hateful attitudes and savage behavior. St. Kosmas Aitolos shows us the lengths to which we may be called to be forgiving when he says, “If a man insults me, kills my father, my mother, my brother, and then gouges out my eye, as a Christian it is my duty to forgive him. We who are pious Christians ought to love our enemies and forgive them. We ought to offer them food and drink, and entreat God for their souls. And then we should say: ‘My God, I beseech Thee to forgive me, as I have forgiven my enemies.’”

This seems shocking—how can forgiving such hatred and violence ultimately bring us joy? St. John of Kronstadt explains, “God is long-suffering and merciful to you: this you experience many times every day. Be long-suffering and merciful to your brethren, also fulfilling the words of the Apostle, who thus speaks of love before everything: ‘Love suffers long and is kind’ (1 Corinthians 13:4). You desire that the Lord should rejoice you by His love, rejoice on your part the hearts of others by your tender love and kindness.”

There are two important things we should realize from all  this. First, it is clear that joy involves others—we can only fully experience and grow in joy when we are in joyful, transforming relationships with God and others. Secondly, even when we are talking about our relationships with others, we must always remember that God is at the center of these relationships—as St. Paul points out, truly Christian relationships are “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord” (Romans 12:11). Christian relationships are joyful because, as St. Kosmas says, “Fortunate is the man who has these two loves in his heart, that for God and that for his brethren…Whoever has blessed love, firstly for God and secondly for his fellow Christian, becomes worthy of receiving the Holy Trinity in his heart.”

CARRY IT INTO DAILY LIFE

The joy we experience is dependent not only on how we think and act, but also upon the character of the people with whom we choose to have relationships—building relationships with people who have a good character should result in healthy and joyful relationships, whereas building relationships with people whose character is bad will make it far more difficult to grow in joy.

St. John of Karpathos warns against developing relationships with people whose lives are opposed to the Christian life: “Never form a close friendship with someone who enjoys noisy and drunken feasts, or who likes telling dirty stories, even though he may have been a monk for many years. Do not let his filth defile you; do not fall under the influence of people who are unclean and uncircumcised in heart.”

Evagrius the Solitary adds that, in addition to avoiding people whose attitudes and lifestyles will bring us down, we should also develop relationships with other people whose lives are truly Christian:

The friends that you do have should be of benefit to you and contribute to your way of life. Avoid associating with crafty or aggressive people, and do not live with anyone of that kind but shun their evil purposes; for they do not dwell close to God or abide with Him. Let your friends be men of peace, spiritual brethren, holy fathers.

The importance of friends in helping us to be faithful Christians can be seen in the proverb we read during Friday Vespers in the fifth week of Great Lent, “Let a friend be with you on every occasion, and let brethren be useful in necessities, for they are begotten for this reason” (Proverbs 17:19). One of the reasons Christians can be joyful is that true friends add to our joy and help it to grow.

There are countless sayings, poems and songs telling us we need healthy relationships with other people to have a joyful life: “it takes two,” “one is the loneliest number,” “no man is an island”…the list goes on. At the same time, the overwhelming number of divorces in our society and plethora of books and programs providing “relationship advice” demonstrate that, while we know we need other people, we often fail to build and maintain these desperately needed relationships.

What does it take to have a relationship—whether with friends or family—that gives others joy, and brings us joy in return?

THE QUALITIES OF A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP

The joyful life is, quite simply, the “good life”—it is the life for which all of us long. St. Benedict of Nursia describes the “good life” like this, “What are the rules for living a good life? In the first place to love the Lord with all one’s heart, with all one’s soul and with all one’s strength. Then, to love one’s neighbor as oneself” (see Matthew 22:37-39; Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10:27). We saw in previous units the way in which our joy is increased—or decreased—in proportion to our love for God; we now see that we also grow in joy as we grow in love for others.

But what does it mean to love others? The Holy Apostle Paul gives an excellent summary of how to build and maintain joyful, transforming relationships in his epistle to the Romans:

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. (Romans 12:9-18)

This is a long list, but the attitudes and behaviors put forth by the apostle can be placed into three general categories: healthy, joyful relationships involve an appropriate view of ourselves, being supportive and giving, and being patient and forgiving.

First, we need an appropriate view of ourselves, and this can be summed up in one phrase: it’s not about you. We’ll talk more about this in the next unit, but here we can tie it into the idea of vision—is your focus on others, or on yourself? An out-of-focus life is always directed on ourselves, whereas a joyful life is always focused on God and others. When your focus is entirely on your own desires, you suffer from what St. Paul describes in Romans 12:16 as setting “your mind on high things.” I like how Eugene Peterson restates this verse, “Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.”

When we think too highly of ourselves—and thus, lowly of others—we’ve been impaled with what St. Niketas Stithatos describes as “a three-pronged barb heated and forged by the demons out of vanity, presumption and arrogance.” Fortunately, he points out that there is hope for those of us with such a spiritual problem, adding, “Yet those who dwell under the protection of the God of heaven detect it easily and shatter its prongs, for through their humility they rise above such vices and find repose in the tree of life.” St. John Chrysostom explains how this works when he says, “For nothing is so acceptable to God as to number one’s self with the last. This is a first principle of all practical wisdom. For he that is humbled, and bruised in heart, will not be vainglorious, will not be wrathful, will not envy his neighbor, will not harbor any other passion.”

Developing out of an appropriate view of ourselves is the second quality of healthy and joyful relationships: such relationships are supportive and giving. The key to joyful relationships isn’t what we can get out of them, but rather what we can give and put into them. St. Gregory the Theologian stirringly encourages us to selflessly give to others: “Help nature to the best of your ability, honor the freedom of creation, protect your species from dishonor, come to its aids in sickness, rescue it from poverty…Seek to distinguish yourself from others only in your generosity. Be like gods to the poor, imitating God’s mercy. Humanity has nothing so much in common with God as the ability to do good.”

We should not only be generous when sharing with others, but also thankful that we can assist others in their time of need; we should not, as Ambrosiaster says, behave “as if somebody was twisting (your) arm to do it.” The attitude with which we give to others influences not only our own joy, but also the joy of those whom we help—notice what St. Isaac the Syrian says, “If you give something to one in need, let the cheerfulness of your face precede your gift, and comfort his sorrow with kind words. When you do this, by your gift the gladness of his mind surpasses even the needs of his body.”

This supportiveness is particularly important when another person is suffering. Samuel Taylor Coleridge provides a wonderful image of friendship when he writes, “Friendship is a sheltering tree;” when life burns us with difficulty and problems, we can rest in the shade of a joyous, supportive friendship. St. Maximus the Confessor puts it like this, “A true friend is one who in times of trial calmly and imperturbably suffers with his neighbor the ensuing afflictions, privations and disasters as if they were his own.”

Finally, healthy and joyful relationships depend upon being patient and forgiving. This patience and forgiveness transcends merely tolerating a person’s irritating quirks—it includes, when necessary, forgiving the most hateful attitudes and savage behavior. St. Kosmas Aitolos shows us the lengths to which we may be called to be forgiving when he says, “If a man insults me, kills my father, my mother, my brother, and then gouges out my eye, as a Christian it is my duty to forgive him. We who are pious Christians ought to love our enemies and forgive them. We ought to offer them food and drink, and entreat God for their souls. And then we should say: ‘My God, I beseech Thee to forgive me, as I have forgiven my enemies.’”

This seems shocking—how can forgiving such hatred and violence ultimately bring us joy? St. John of Kronstadt explains, “God is long-suffering and merciful to you: this you experience many times every day. Be long-suffering and merciful to your brethren, also fulfilling the words of the Apostle, who thus speaks of love before everything: ‘Love suffers long and is kind’ (1 Corinthians 13:4). You desire that the Lord should rejoice you by His love, rejoice on your part the hearts of others by your tender love and kindness.”

There are two important things we should realize from all  this. First, it is clear that joy is relational—we can only fully experience and grow in joy when we are in joyful, transforming relationships with God and others. Secondly, even when we are talking about our relationships with others, we must always remember that God is at the heart of these relationships—as St. Paul points out, truly Christian relationships are “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord” (Romans 12:11). Christian relationships are joyful because, as St. Kosmas says, “Fortunate is the man who has these two loves in his heart, that for God and that for his brethren…Whoever has blessed love, firstly for God and secondly for his fellow Christian, becomes worthy of receiving the Holy Trinity in his heart.”

CARRY IT INTO DAILY LIFE

The joy we experience is dependent not only about the attitudes and behaviors we exhibit in our relationships, but also upon the character of the people with whom we choose to build relationships—building relationships with people who have a good character should result in healthy and joyful relationships, whereas building relationships with people whose character is compromised will make it far more difficult to grow in joy.

St. John of Karpathos warns against developing relationships with people whose lives are opposed to the Christian life: “Never form a close friendship with someone who enjoys noisy and drunken feasts, or who likes telling dirty stories, even though he may have been a monk for many years. Do not let his filth defile you; do not fall under the influence of people who are unclean and uncircumcised in heart.”

Evagrius the Solitary adds that, in addition to avoiding people whose attitudes and lifestyles will bring us down, we should also develop relationships with other people whose lives are rooted in Christ,

The friends that you do have should be of benefit to you and contribute to your way of life. Avoid associating with crafty or aggressive people, and do not live with anyone of that kind but shun their evil purposes; for they do not dwell close to God or abide with Him. Let your friends be men of peace, spiritual brethren, holy fathers.

The importance of friends in reinforcing our life in Christ can be seen in the proverb we read during Friday Vespers in the fifth week of Great Lent, “Let a friend be with you on every occasion, and let brethren be useful in necessities, for they are begotten for this reason” (Proverbs 17:19). Christians can be joyful in part because true friends contribute to and reinforce joy within us.

1. Why do we experience restlessness?

Because—to use the term from unit 2—we have a vision problem: we look away from God, and to emotional or material things, to give us joy. We need to remember Blessed Augustine’s statement that “our hearts are restless until they rest in (God).” For more insights into how worship solves our problems with restlessness, look at the study and discussion guides for unit 1 of the Worship & You study, online at http://worshipandyou.com/study-units/unit-1-why-worship/.

2. What are some biblical passages that describe our joy in and with God?

The study guide mentions Zephaniah 3:17 and Psalm 67:4 (in the Orthodox Study Bible—68:3 in most other English translations). It might be helpful for your group to discuss the fact that the Church reads Zephaniah 3 on Palm Sunday—bring up the fact that our cry of “Hosanna” is both a statement of praise and joy, as well as a call to God for Him to save us: this reinforces the fact that our salvation—and therefore our joy—comes from God.

3. How can the Divine Liturgy be joyful?

Look at Khouria Frederica Mathewes-Green’s and St. John of Kronstadt’s descriptions of the Liturgy. Your group may appreciate a discussion of times when members have experienced true joy during the Liturgy—if they can remember specifically when in the Liturgy this occurred, you can look at that part of the Liturgy to see how the truth proclaimed there can inspire joy.

4. How can we bring joyful worship into our daily life?

Discuss the need for daily worship, as St. Seraphim of Sarov describes; you can particularly look at the daily prayer rule delineated by St. Theophan the Recluse. What rule for prayer and Bible reading do the members of your group practice?

5. What is the best way to overcome the chief obstacle to joy?

First, ask your group if they remember what that obstacle is (answer: sin). Then, you can discuss the importance of confession. To help us better understand how sin hurts our relationships, St. Nicolas Varzhansky groups our sins into three helpful categories: sins against God, sins against other people, and sins against ourselves.

Restlessness—just hearing the word makes us nervous. It makes us think of tossing and turning when we can’t sleep, or the sudden desire to drop out of school, or “pack up and move” to another place…restless feelings make us aware that we aren’t happy with our current life, and the feeling becomes like an itch we absolutely must scratch. The problem is that, on our own, we cannot soothe this feeling; like a person desperately trying to scratch an itch in an out-of-reach spot, we twist our lives into strained—and even painful—positions in futile attempts to get rid of the feeling.

Finally, exhausted and hurting, we gasp: where is the joy? Blessed Augustine looked at this problem and arrived at the only solution: “Everlasting God, in whom we live and move and have our being: You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

GOD AND JOY

We saw in the first unit that the acts and relations of the Holy Trinity are filled with joy—remember St. Athansius’ statement that “the Father delights (in the Son), and in the same joy the Son rejoices in the Father,” as well as St. Gregory Palamas’ teaching that the “rejoicing of the Father and Son is the Holy Spirit.” This joy isn’t something that only God experiences, while His creation suffers: God both rejoices because of us, and gives joy to us. This is made particularly clear in Zephaniah 3:17, where the prophet says, “The Lord your God is with you. The Mighty One shall save you. He shall bring gladness upon you and will renew you with His love. He will delight over you with joy as in a day of feasting.”

The fact that we read the passage from Zephaniah on Palm Sunday tells us a great deal about how we respond to the loving actions of our God. We do not stand in glum silence on Palm Sunday; instead, as the prayer at the blessing of the palm branches proclaims, we “carry palms and branches in our hands” and “join the crowds and the children who sang Hosanna to (Christ).” Orthodox worship is an essentially joyful activity: our God gives us joy, and we joyfully respond to Him.

JOYFUL WORSHIP

One of the greatest examples of joyful worship is Psalm 67:4, where the Holy King and Prophet David sings out, “And let the righteous be glad; let them greatly rejoice before God; let them be glad with merriment.” We read this during the Paschal Matins, when we’ve walked through the darkness outside the church building and are about to enter into the brightly lit, joyous celebration of Christ’s Resurrection. It is particularly appropriate to read this verse before celebrating the Resurrection—a day on which, St. John Chrysostom says, “the Angels leap with joy and all of the Heavenly Powers rejoice”—but this also highlights a great truth for our daily lives: even when problems seem to spread a cloud of darkness over our lives, we can enter into brightness and joy when we worship God. St. John of Kronstadt puts it like this: when you are praying, “and your spirit is dejected…remember then, as always, that God the Holy Trinity looks upon you with eyes brighter than the sun; and so do all the angels, including your own guardian, and the saints of God. Truly they do; for they are all one in God, and where God is there are they also. Where the sun is, thither also are all its rays. Try to understand what this means.”

St. John helps us see something important about joyful worship: joy comes from God, and He is the focus of our joy, but He is not the only one involved—we join with the angels, saints, and other Christians in a community of joyful worship. Khouria Frederica Mathewes-Green describes her experience of this during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy:

Heaven will strike earth like lighting on this spot. The worshippers in this little building will be swept away into a divine worship that proceeds eternally, grand with seraphim and incense and God enthroned, ‘high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple’ (Isaiah 6:1). The foundations of that temple shake with the voice of angels calling ‘Holy’ to each other, and we will be there, lifting fallible voices in the refrain, an outpost of eternity. If this is true, it is the most astonishing thing that will happen in our city today. I believe it is true.

As we thrill to the experience of entering into heavenly worship, we can agree with St. John’s description, “There is on earth nothing higher, greater, more holy, than the liturgy; nothing more solemn, nothing more lifegiving.”

This experience of joyful communion with God isn’t restricted to church services: it should also be part of our private worship. We can see a wonderful example of this in the life of St. Seraphim of Sarov, who tells us, “All the enjoyments of this world are not even a shadow of that which is prepared in the heavenly abodes for those who loved God: there, is eternal joy and triumph. So that our spirit will have freedom to uplift itself there and be nourished by sweetest conversation with the Lord, one must humble oneself with constant vigils, prayer and remembrance of the Lord.” He says he reads a Gospel book or epistle each day, then adds, “And I do not for a single day neglect to read the daily Epistle and Gospel, and also the readings to the saints. Through this not only my soul, but even my body rejoices and is vivified, because I converse with the Lord.”

Many, if not most, of us are unable to spend as much time reading and praying as St. Seraphim. We shouldn’t allow our busy schedules from keeping us from any praying and Bible reading, however, because this will prevent our growing in true joy. Instead, as St. John of Kronstadt says, we should remember, “It is well to pray long and continually, but all men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. It is better for those who are not capable of long prayers to say short prayers, but with a fervent spirit.”

St. John goes on to remind us of the reward for worshiping alone and with others: “The Lord does not forsake those who labor for Him, and who stand before Him; for with what measure they mete, He will measure to them in return, and He will reward them for the abundance of the sincere words of their prayer by sending into their souls a corresponding abundance of spiritual light, warmth, peace, and joy.”

JOY AND CONFESSION

We noted in the previous unit that one of the main obstacles to experiencing joy is sin. It should therefore be obvious to Orthodox Christians that Holy Confession is one of the most important things we can do to grow in joy. As our Lord tells us, “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7).

St. John of Kronstadt points out that our primary reason for confession is so that we may be with God forever. He adds “a second motive is inner calm. The more sincerely we confess our sins, the more calm will the soul be afterwards. For sins are secret serpents, gnawing at the heart of man, and never letting him rest; they are prickly thorns, constantly goring the soul, they are spiritual darkness.” We can therefore see that we can experience joy when we do what St. Cyril of Jerusalem says, “If any here is a slave of sin, let him promptly prepare himself through faith for the new birth into freedom and adoption; and having put off the miserable bondage of his sins, and taken on him the most blessed bondage of the Lord, so may he be counted worthy to inherit the kingdom of heaven.”

CARRY IT INTO DAILY LIFE

It is important to realize that true joy isn’t something you receive as a reward after your first attempt to pray, immediately enabling you to experience endless, unrestricted bliss forever after. Instead, as Archimandrite George, abbot of the monastery of Gregorios on Mt. Athos, explains, “All of this, of course, does not come about immediately. Throughout the whole of our life the Orthodox Christian must struggle, so that, slowly—slowly within the Church, with the Grace of God, with humility, repentance, prayer, and the holy Mysteries, he may be sanctified and deified.” This is one of many reasons why Orthodox Christians are called to engage in the spiritual life, and not just the spiritual moment.

St. Theophan the Recluse recommends this rule of prayer into which you can grow as you grow in your spiritual life. You should start with the first step; then, after becoming comfortable with it, you should move on to the next step, and forward.

1.    Attentively perform the morning and evening prayers in one of the Orthodox service books.
2.    Work at memorizing the prayers.
3.    Memorize psalms to maintain a prayerful attitude throughout the day. St. Theophan recommends beginning with Psalm 51, then progressing to Psalms 102, 145, 22, 23, 115, and 69.
4.    Extend the time spent in your prayers, and include prostrations into your prayers. St. Theoleptus of Bulgaria says about prostrations, “Let each genuflection be accompanied by the spiritual invocation of Christ; prostrating oneself soul and body before the Lord will make the God of souls and of bodies bend easily.”

You can learn more about the transforming power of Orthodox worship in the free study, Worship & You, online at worshipandyou.com.

Restlessness—just hearing the word makes us antsy. It brings up thoughts of tossing and turning through a sleepless night, or the sudden desire to quit our jobs, or the yen to “pack up and move” to another place…restless feelings make us aware that we aren’t happy with our current life, and the feeling becomes like an itch we absolutely must scratch. The problem is that, on our own, we cannot soothe this feeling; like a person desperately trying to scratch an itch in an out-of-reach spot, we contort our lives into strained—and even painful—positions in futile attempts to alleviate our restlessness.

Finally, exhausted and hurting, we gasp: where is the joy? Blessed Augustine looked at this problem and arrived at the only solution: “Everlasting God, in whom we live and move and have our being: You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

GOD AND JOY

We saw in the first unit that the acts and relations of the Holy Trinity are joyous—remember St. Athansius’ statement that “the Father delights (in the Son), and in the same joy the Son rejoices in the Father,” as well as St. Gregory Palamas’ teaching that the “rejoicing of the Father and Son is the Holy Spirit.” This joy isn’t something that only God experiences, while His creation suffers: God both rejoices over us, and gives joy to us. This is made particularly clear in Zephaniah 3:17, where the prophet says, “The Lord your God is with you. The Mighty One shall save you. He shall bring gladness upon you and will renew you with His love. He will delight over you with joy as in a day of feasting.”

The fact that we read the passage from Zephaniah on Palm Sunday tells us a great deal about how we respond to the loving actions of our God. We do not stand in glum silence on Palm Sunday; instead, as the prayer at the blessing of the palm branches proclaims, we “carry palms and branches in our hands” and “join the crowds and the children who sang Hosanna to (Christ).” Orthodox worship is an intrinsically joyful activity: our God gives us joy, and we joyfully respond to Him.

JOYFUL WORSHIP

One of the greatest examples of joyful worship is Psalm 67:4, where the Holy King and Prophet David sings out, “And let the righteous be glad; let them greatly rejoice before God; let them be glad with merriment.” We read this during the Paschal Matins, when we’ve walked through the darkness outside the church building and are about to enter into the brightly lit, joyous celebration of Christ’s Resurrection. It is particularly appropriate to read this verse before celebrating the Resurrection—a day on which, St. John Chrysostom says, “the Angels leap with joy and all of the Heavenly Powers rejoice”—but this also highlights a great truth for our daily lives: even when problems seem to spread a cloud of darkness over our lives, we can enter into brightness and joy when we worship God. St. John of Kronstadt puts it like this: when you are praying, “and your spirit is dejected…remember then, as always, that God the Holy Trinity looks upon you with eyes brighter than the sun; and so do all the angels, including your own guardian, and the saints of God. Truly they do; for they are all one in God, and where God is there are they also. Where the sun is, thither also are all its rays. Try to understand what this means.”

St. John provides us with an important insight into joyful worship: God is, of course, both the source and focus of our joy, but He is not the only one involved—we join with the angels, saints, and other Christians in a transformed (and transforming) community of joyful worship. Khouria Frederica Mathewes-Green describes her experience of this during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy:

Heaven will strike earth like lighting on this spot. The worshippers in this little building will be swept away into a divine worship that proceeds eternally, grand with seraphim and incense and God enthroned, ‘high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple’ (Isaiah 6:1). The foundations of that temple shake with the voice of angels calling ‘Holy’ to each other, and we will be there, lifting fallible voices in the refrain, an outpost of eternity. If this is true, it is the most astonishing thing that will happen in our city today. I believe it is true.

As we thrill to the experience of entering into heavenly worship, we can affirm St. John’s description, “There is on earth nothing higher, greater, more holy, than the liturgy; nothing more solemn, nothing more lifegiving.”

This experience of joyful communion with God isn’t restricted to church services: it should also be part of our private worship. We can see a wonderful example of this in the life of St. Seraphim of Sarov, who tells us, “All the enjoyments of this world are not even a shadow of that which is prepared in the heavenly abodes for those who loved God: there, is eternal joy and triumph. So that our spirit will have freedom to uplift itself there and be nourished by sweetest conversation with the Lord, one must humble oneself with constant vigils, prayer and remembrance of the Lord.” He says he reads a Gospel book or epistle each day, then adds, “And I do not for a single day neglect to read the daily Epistle and Gospel, and also the readings to the saints. Through this not only my soul, but even my body rejoices and is vivified, because I converse with the Lord.”

Many, if not most, of us are unable to give the extended time to Bible reading and prayer described by St. Seraphim. We should not allow limitations on our time to prevent us from any spiritual devotions, however, because this will prevent our growing in true joy. Instead, as St. John of Kronstadt says, we should remember, “It is well to pray long and continually, but all men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. It is better for those who are not capable of long prayers to say short prayers, but with a fervent spirit.”

St. John goes on to remind us of the reward for engaging in acts of corporate and private worship: “The Lord does not forsake those who labor for Him, and who stand before Him; for with what measure they mete, He will measure to them in return, and He will reward them for the abundance of the sincere words of their prayer by sending into their souls a corresponding abundance of spiritual light, warmth, peace, and joy.”

JOY AND CONFESSION

We noted in the previous unit that one of the main obstacles to experiencing joy is sin. It should therefore be obvious to Orthodox Christians that Holy Confession is one of the most important things we can do to grow in joy. As our Lord tells us, “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7).

St. John of Kronstadt points out that our primary reason for confession is so that we may spend eternity with God. He adds “a second motive is inner calm. The more sincerely we confess our sins, the more calm will the soul be afterwards. For sins are secret serpents, gnawing at the heart of man, and never letting him rest; they are prickly thorns, constantly goring the soul, they are spiritual darkness.” We can therefore see that joy can be found in adhering to the exhortation of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, “If any here is a slave of sin, let him promptly prepare himself through faith for the new birth into freedom and adoption; and having put off the miserable bondage of his sins, and taken on him the most blessed bondage of the Lord, so may he be counted worthy to inherit the kingdom of heaven.”

CARRY IT INTO DAILY LIFE

It is important to realize that true joy isn’t something you receive as a reward after your first attempt to pray, immediately enabling you to experience endless, unrestricted bliss forever after. Instead, as Archimandrite George, abbot of the monastery of Gregorios on Mt. Athos, explains, “All of this, of course, does not come about immediately. Throughout the whole of our life the Orthodox Christian must struggle, so that, slowly—slowly within the Church, with the Grace of God, with humility, repentance, prayer, and the holy Mysteries, he may be sanctified and deified.” This is one of many reasons why Orthodox Christians are called to engage in the spiritual life, and not just the spiritual moment.

St. Theophan the Recluse recommends this rule of prayer into which you can grow as you grow in your spiritual life. You should start with the first step; then, after becoming comfortable with it, you should move on to the next step, and forward.

1.    Attentively perform the morning and evening prayers in one of the Orthodox service books.
2.    Work at memorizing the prayers.
3.    Memorize psalms to maintain a prayerful attitude throughout the day. St. Theophan recommends beginning with Psalm 51, then progressing to Psalms 102, 145, 22, 23, 115, and 69.
4.    Extend the time spent in your prayers, and include prostrations into your prayers. St. Theoleptus of Bulgaria says about prostrations, “Let each genuflection be accompanied by the spiritual invocation of Christ; prostrating oneself soul and body before the Lord will make the God of souls and of bodies bend easily.”

You can learn more about the transforming power of Orthodox worship in the free study, Worship & You, online at worshipandyou.com.

1. What effect does the presence of habitual sin have in our lives?

Emphasize the corrosive effect it has, leading to a person fully experiencing spiritual—and even physical—decay. The Holy Prophet and King David’s psalms demonstrate two important effects: 1) It results in a loss in joy (because it breaks communion with God), and 2) the person will suffer because of this sinful life.

2. Beyond the corrosive effect of sin, what is another effect of sin in our lives that results in lost joy?

Sin necessitates God’s discipline. Hebrews 12 gives an excellent explanation of precisely why God disciplines us: it is not meant to be punitive, but instead to “yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness” and make us “partakers in holiness.” You will particularly want to point out that, even though the discipline itself is unpleasant, we can rejoice in the fact that God loves us enough to bring us back into communion with him.

3. What does it mean (within this context, of course) to have a vision problem?

It means to remove our focus from God—Who gives us joy—to material and emotional things that cannot do so (you can bring in St. Theophan’s teaching that these things give rise to depression because “they are unable to content the heart”).

4. How does our culture create vision problems?

Because our economy is largely consumer-driven, the emphasis is on consumption. Therefore, we are continually being prompted to buy more things, with the promise that these will bring us happiness. Lead your group in a discussion of some of the false messages being presented in modern commercials and advertisements they’ve encountered, particularly prompting them to identify precisely what is false about the message.

5. What is the cure for our vision problems?

Focus on St. Theophan’s exhortation to make a habit of thinking about God; be sure to bring in his call for each of us to examine ourselves in regards to our prayer life, because “maybe you will find the door to the peace of God there.”

Imagine you are standing at the railing of a ship sailing in the middle of an ocean. If someone asked what you see, what would you say? Water? Clouds? Perhaps another ship? Many of us, looking at a seemingly empty expanse of water stretching to the horizon, would probably say, “Nothing.”

Joy can be like this. In the previous unit we learned that God is joy; this means that we as Christians are surrounded by joy. To use the example of sailing, you could say we are carried by joy—perhaps even that we swim in it (as we “live and move and have our being” in Christ (Acts 17:28))! Unfortunately, however, like the person who sees nothing while looking at the open sea, we too often fail to experience the joy that God gives to us.

If joy is all around you, how could you possibly miss it? What might prevent you from experiencing true joy?

SIN

Nothing prevents us from experiencing true joy like making sin a habit in our lives. Blessed Augustine explains that, when we choose a sinful life that distances us from God, we “inhabit the land of commotion, that is, of carnal disquietude, instead of the enjoyment of God.” We can see this in the life of the Holy Prophet and King David who, when confessing to God that he committed adultery with Bathsheeba, cried out, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with Your guiding Spirit” (Psalm 50:14). In another particularly moving psalm David clearly describes how sin dampens joy: “Because I kept silent (i.e., did not confess his sin), my bones grew old from my groaning all the day long; for day and night Your hand was heavy upon me” (Psalm 31:3-4). Perhaps you’ve felt like this—sick inside, feeling too weak or brittle to even get out of bed, and desperately wanting true joy.

King David’s talking about God’s “heavy hand” shows that we may currently experience a lack of joy because God is disciplining us for our sins. St. Paul tells us that God disciplines us “for our profit, that we may be partakers in holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:10–11). As we saw in the previous unit, joy is a gift of grace from God; He may therefore temporarily withhold that gift in order to humble us and build up our relationship with Him.

St. John Chrysostom notes that God sent the Israelites into captivity “to discipline (them), and hinder their being hurried further into vice.” God similarly disciplines us when we sin in order to prevent us from wandering deeper into a sinful life. This is why, when being disciplined by God, we must always remember St. Paul’s words (quoting Proverbs 3:11–12), “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives” (Hebrews 12:5–6). It may be discouraging to be disciplined—the apostle himself says that being disciplined definitely does not seem joyful—but the very fact that we are being disciplined demonstrates how deeply God loves us, and that is a source of joy.

VISION PROBLEMS

In addition to the result of being disciplined for our sins, being unable to experience joy may be a problem of vision—not the ability to clearly see an eye chart on a wall, but the ability to clearly see and accept reality. Not only can we fail to see the joy God gives us (as we mentioned at the beginning of this unit), but we can also distort our vision of life through such attitudes and emotions as discontentment, greed and envy.

One of the most common ways in which we prevent the growth of joy is through discontentment. We become dissatisfied with our lifestyle, or how much money we have, or how we look, and increasingly believe that we are not living the lives we should. Over $412 billion dollars is spent each year on advertising in the United States alone—each dollar is intended to make us dissatisfied with our current situation in life, flooding us with images and messages carefully crafted to persuade us to chase after new possessions and experiences (often with the message that we deserve them). Notice what can happen: when we pay attention to these messages, we stop looking clearly at the many blessings we’ve been given in family, friends, and (by world standards) a comfortable lifestyle, and instead we focus on our desire for nicer clothes, or a faster car, or even—in a particularly sad case—to throw away friends and family for “new and improved” versions.

This distorted vision is a serious problem: when we lose our appreciation for God and the blessings He gives to us, and instead chase after other things, we become like the ancient Israelites who, in rejecting God for Baal, “changed their glory to a glory from which they will not profit” (Jeremiah 2:11). This is why St. Peter calls Christian teachers who are dedicated to satisfying their greed “accursed children” (2 Peter 2:14), and St. Paul states that those who know the judgment of God against greed—but are nonetheless greedy—are equal to those who hate God (Romans 1:29-32).

Discontentment and envy prevent us from experiencing joy not only because they harm our relationship with God—as serious as that is—but also because they destroy our relationships with others. St. Maximus the Confessor states, “What separates us from the love of friends is envying or being envied,” and St. Clement of Rome points out that “envy has alienated wives from their husbands,” crying out about the destructive power of these emotions when he adds, “Envy and strife have overthrown great cities and rooted up mighty nations.”

St. Theophan the Recluse sums up the spiritual effect that our desire for newer, more exciting things has on our souls, but also directs us to the cure for this problem:

It happens that amusements, especially pleasant ones, give rise to depression, because while they are not sinful, they are unable to content the heart. Generally speaking, the inconstancy of emotions is characteristic to us. It is necessary to discard and overcome this, being concerned that one thing does not change; that is, that your most important decision, the goal of life you chose for yourself (i.e., dedicating your life to God), always remains in force.

Can this really be?! God is asking your heart once and for all, and the heart desires God. For without God it is never satisfied, and is bored; examine yourself from this aspect. Maybe you will find the door to the peace of God there.

St. Paul makes a similar point in a letter to St. Timothy: people whose lives are dedicated to getting new things will ultimately be unhappy, whereas those who are fulfilled by God find that “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 6:6-11). We cannot overemphasize this: our vision distorts when we shift our focus from God to other things, whether “stuff” or emotions, and we will inevitably become less and less joyful. Like the passenger at sea who sees only water, we can be surrounded by joy and yet completely fail to see it.

This is why St. Theophan tells us,

Everywhere and always God is with us, near to us and in us. But we are not always with Him, since we do not remember Him; and because we do not remember Him we allow ourselves many things which we would not permit if we did remember. Take upon yourself this task—to make a habit of such recollection. Make yourself a rule always to be with the Lord, keeping your mind in your heart, and do not let your thoughts wander; as often as they stray, turn them back again and keep them at home in the closet of your heart, and delight in converse with the Lord.

All Christians would agree that we should delight in our relationship with God, but how can we do this? We’ll find out in the next unit.

CARRY IT INTO DAILY LIFE

As we will see throughout this study, living joyfully depends upon our ability to keep our vision undistorted. This is why St. John Chrysostom says a key activity in the spiritual life “consists in keeping the mind fixed on God, in not entertaining or approving impure thoughts, and in not paying any attention to the phantasms which the detestable, diabolic picture maker stirs up in our imagination.”

A great way to focus your attention on God is to begin the day with this morning prayer from St. Basil the Great,

As I rise from sleep, I thank Thee, O Holy Trinity…And now enlighten my mind’s eye, and open my mouth that I may meditate on Thy words, and understand Thy commandments, and do Thy will, and hymn Thee in heartfelt confession, and sing praises to Thine all-holy name: of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Imagine you are standing at the railing of a ship sailing in the middle of an ocean. If someone asked what you see, what would you say? Water? Clouds? Perhaps another ship? Many of us, looking at a seemingly empty expanse of water stretching to the horizon, would probably say, “Nothing.”

Joy can be like this. In the previous unit we learned that God is joy; this means that we as Christians are surrounded by joy. To use the sailing analogy, you could say we are carried by joy—perhaps even that we swim in it (as we “live and move and have our being” in Christ (Acts 17:28))! Unfortunately, however, like the person who sees nothing while looking at the open sea, we too often fail to experience the joy that God gives to us.

If joy is all around you, how could you possibly miss it? What might prevent you from experiencing true joy?

SIN

Nothing prevents us from experiencing true joy like the presence of habitual, unrepentant sin in our lives. Blessed Augustine explains that, when we choose a sinful life that distances us from God, we “inhabit the land of commotion, that is, of carnal disquietude, instead of the enjoyment of God.” We can see this in the life of the Holy Prophet and King David who, when confessing to God his adulterous relationship with Bathsheeba, cried out, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with Your guiding Spirit” (Psalm 50:14). In another particularly poignant psalm David clearly describes how sin dampens joy: “Because I kept silent (i.e., did not confess his sin), my bones grew old from my groaning all the day long; for day and night Your hand was heavy upon me” (Psalm 31:3-4). Perhaps you’ve felt like this—sick inside, feeling too weak or brittle to even get out of bed, and longing for true joy.

King David’s reference to God’s “heavy hand” shows that we may currently experience a lack of joy because God is disciplining us for our sins. St. Paul tells us that God chastens us “for our profit, that we may be partakers in holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:10–11). As we saw in the previous unit, joy is a gift of grace from God; He may therefore temporarily withhold that gift in order to humble us and once again make us partakers of holiness.

St. John Chrysostom notes that God sent the Israelites into captivity “to discipline (them), and hinder their being hurried further into vice.” God similarly disciplines us when we sin in order to prevent us from wandering deeper into a sinful life. This is why, when being disciplined by God, we must always remember St. Paul’s words (quoting Proverbs 3:11–12), “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives” (Hebrews 12:5–6). It may be discouraging to undergo such discipline—the apostle himself says that being disciplined definitely does not seem joyful—but the very fact that we are being disciplined demonstrates how deeply God loves us, and that is a source of joy.

VISION PROBLEMS

In addition to the result of being disciplined for our sins, our inability to experience joy may be a problem of vision—not the ability to clearly see an eye chart on a wall, but the ability to clearly see and accept reality. Not only can we fail to see the joy God gives us (as we mentioned at the beginning of this unit), but we can also distort our vision of life through such attitudes and emotions as discontentment, greed and envy.

One of the most common ways in which we prevent the growth of joy is through discontentment. We become dissatisfied with our lifestyle, or income, or appearance and increasingly believe that we are not living the lives we should. Over $412 billion dollars is spent each year on advertising in the United States alone—each dollar is intended to make us dissatisfied with our current situation in life, flooding us with images and messages carefully crafted to seduce us into continually pursuing new possessions and experiences (often with the explicit message that we deserve them). Notice what can happen: when we pay attention to these messages, we stop looking clearly at the many blessings we’ve been given in family, friends, and (by world standards) a comfortable lifestyle, and instead we focus on our desire for a larger home, or faster car, or even—in a particularly sad case—a “new and improved” spouse.

This distorted vision is a serious problem: when we lose our appreciation for God and the blessings He gives to us, and instead chase after other things, we become like the ancient Israelites who, in rejecting Yahweh for Baal, “changed their glory to a glory from which they will not profit” (Jeremiah 2:11). This is why St. Peter calls Christian teachers who are dedicated to satisfying their greed “accursed children” (2 Peter 2:14), and St. Paul states that those who know the judgment of God against greed—but are nonetheless greedy—are equal to those who hate God (Romans 1:29-32).

Discontentment and envy prevent us from experiencing joy not only because they harm our relationship with God—as serious as that is—but also because they destroy our relationships with others. St. Maximus the Confessor states, “What separates us from the love of friends is envying or being envied,” and St. Clement of Rome points out that “envy has alienated wives from their husbands,” lamenting the destructive power of these emotions when he adds, “Envy and strife have overthrown great cities and rooted up mighty nations.”

St. Theophan the Recluse aptly sums up the spiritual effect that our desire for newer, more exciting things has on our souls, but also directs us to the cure for this problem:

It happens that amusements, especially pleasant ones, give rise to depression, because while they are not sinful, they are unable to content the heart. Generally speaking, the inconstancy of emotions is characteristic to us. It is necessary to discard and overcome this, being concerned that one thing does not change; that is, that your most important decision, the goal of life you chose for yourself (i.e., dedicating your life to God), always remains in force.

Can this really be?! God is asking your heart once and for all, and the heart desires God. For without God it is never satisfied, and is bored; examine yourself from this aspect. Maybe you will find the door to the peace of God there.

St. Paul makes a similar point in a letter to St. Timothy: people whose lives are dedicated to pursuing and accumulating things will ultimately be unhappy, whereas those whose fulfillment comes from God find that “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 6:6-11). This cannot be overemphasized: our vision distorts when we shift our focus from God to other things, whether material or emotional, and we will inevitably become less and less joyful. Like the passenger at sea, we can be surrounded by joy and yet completely fail to see it.

This is why St. Theophan tells us,

Everywhere and always God is with us, near to us and in us. But we are not always with Him, since we do not remember Him; and because we do not remember Him we allow ourselves many things which we would not permit if we did remember. Take upon yourself this task—to make a habit of such recollection. Make yourself a rule always to be with the Lord, keeping your mind in your heart, and do not let your thoughts wander; as often as they stray, turn them back again and keep them at home in the closet of your heart, and delight in converse with the Lord.

All Christians would agree that we should delight in our relationship with God, but how can we do this? We’ll find out in the next unit.

CARRY IT INTO DAILY LIFE

As we will see throughout this study, living joyfully depends upon our ability to keep our vision undistorted. This is why St. John Chrysostom says a key activity in the spiritual life “consists in keeping the mind fixed on God, in not entertaining or approving impure thoughts, and in not paying any attention to the phantasms which the detestable, diabolic picture maker stirs up in our imagination.”

A great way to focus your attention on God is to begin the day with this morning prayer from St. Basil the Great,

As I rise from sleep, I thank Thee, O Holy Trinity…And now enlighten my mind’s eye, and open my mouth that I may meditate on Thy words, and understand Thy commandments, and do Thy will, and hymn Thee in heartfelt confession, and sing praises to Thine all-holy name: of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

1. How often are Christians expected to rejoice?

St. Paul tells us, “Always rejoice” (1 Thessalonians). Ask your group whether they always rejoice (the answer will, of course, probably be “no;” if someone says “yes,” ask for their secret!), and then use this to lead into the next question on how our culture actively—albeit, unintentionally—works against rejoicing.

2. How does our culture work against our ability to grow in joy?

There are two things you can emphasize: 1) our consumer-based culture is based upon being dissatisfied with life—advertising attempts to convince you that your life is inadequate without their product or program membership; and 2) as the “Carry It Into Daily Life” sidebar quote from Elder Macarius shows, even good things—like family—are inadequate for a fully joyful life. Ask your group to discuss some of the things the culture around them says will bring joy, and how these things fail to bring true joy.

3. What will bring true joy?

Emphasize Blessed Augustine’s answer: only God. You can bring in the point that the relationship among the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is joyous, and we can also rejoice in God.

4. What are three facets of joy that we can experience through our relationship with God?

In the study guide we mention rejoicing in God’s goodness to us; rejoicing in our relationship with God and His Church; and being optimistic and courageous during bad times. Be sure to remind your group that we will be talking in greater detail about these things as we go through this study on joy.

5. How can you summarize in one sentence the relationship between God, people, and joy?

Read St. Paul’s benediction from Romans 15:13. You can break this down for your group: God fills us with joy and peace because we believe in Him, we can therefore abound in hope, and we can do so through the power of the Holy Spirit. Emphasize how much this promise should fill each of us with true joy.