The greatest joy, according to the works of St. Francis of Assisi, is that you can endure everything; you can even suffer slander and physical pain, and at the end, you are able  to feel no animosity towards these sufferings, but you feel joy, because you have faith, such joy cannot be destroyed, either by evil people or by your own suffering.

Attributed to Francis or to Francisican Teachings Cited in Calendar of Wisdom

Joy is an elusive emotion and it is often a difficult one to comprehend fully. Joy can be a measure of one’s immediate happiness, and joy can be the result of soulful endurance.

As I understand this Francisican teaching, joy is experienced as the end result of non-attachment to the events and experiences of one’s life.

That joy is the proof of having sufficient faith and one’s ability to work through the twists and trials of spiritual living with a sense of composure that when the test has been completed one can look back on it with a sustaining sense of gratitude and with an effervescent joy.

The Buddhists teach that we are to aspire to being unattached to any and all that happens to us… that the results of our behavior or how others have behaved toward us is of little lasting consequence when compared to being sincere, being compassionate, being at peace.

In my life, this has been a very demanding and challenging ideal.

Early in my life, I had taken everything personally…which is the kind way of saying I took everything egotistically. As I have aged and matured (not the same things!) both the years and the experiences that have refined me and have worked their karmic grinding wheel to smooth those sharp edges of being reactionary to life’s events.

Increasingly, I have come to realize a greater portion of gratitude for the trials and tests that were given to me as necessary for soul deepening and soul growth. That  I had “earned” my wisdom through my foolish or incomplete understanding of what was being asked of me at the time. 

In humility, this earning and refining process does afford some relief from the need to grind down one’s resistances and serves to  loosen any ego derived imprisonment I have felt that held my consciousness captive.

The demanding yet freeing process, has been led by the intensity and intimacy of my faith in new possibilities and higher realities. As I have let go of any obstacles or barriers to my faith has become my source of both gratitude and joy.

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