“Sing in joy, read the Truth and psalms in sorrow, pray in gladness and affliction. Always pray because prayer is the oxygen of the spirit.”
“I thank you, Yahweh, with all my heart, for you have listened to the cry I uttered. In the presence of angels I sing to you, I bow down before your holy Temple. I praise your name for your faithful love and your constancy; your promises surpass even your fame. You heard me on the day when I called, and you gave new strength to my heart..” (Ps137:1-3)
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Phil 4:4
Meditation
There is a joy in following the Lord! If we are with Christ then nothing can overcome us and we know that He will turn all things to our favour (cfr. Rom 8:28). Therefore, if we are experiencing joys or sorrows we can still rejoice. The Virgin of Revelation tells us the real secret of Christian joy – a relationship with Christ in prayer. When we breathe freely the air of an intimate friendship with Christ, we are able to share our difficulties and challenges with Him and so nothing can be surmountable and therefore this must be a cause for our joy! The real secret of Christian joy is the Lord’s intimate presence in our lives which is why His mother encourages us always to pray!
Teaching of the Church
“Prayer is the life of the new heart. It ought to animate us at every moment. But we tend to forget him who is our life and our all. This is why the Fathers of the spiritual life in the Deuteronomic and prophetic traditions insist that prayer is a remembrance of God often awakened by the memory of the heart “We must remember God more often than we draw breath.” CCC 2697