As Christians we have failed to make a crucial distinction between the pursuit of happiness and the pursuit of joy...happiness is a happening, and because it is a happening, it's bound to change or disappear or simply die. Happiness disappoints us because it depends on other people, other places, other things...when you get hung up on its pursuit, your attitude shifts from a reliance on God and your spiritual life to a reliance on whatever external factors give you pleasure. You fight and claw to control the uncontrollable, to win that which cannot be won, and the great casualty of this obsession with your happiness is holiness. The attitude that says "all I want in life is to be happy" has diverted millions of souls from achieving knowledge of God, the true source of everlasting happiness. And that is why, as Christians, we must distinguish between the pursuit of happiness and the pursuit of joy. Joy in our hearts is the awakening of God in our souls - of God, whose Kingdom we can know and experience here on earth. Joy is the knowledge that God's will is being accomplished in our lives. It is the knowledge that gives us the strength to dance for joy when we are persecuted, to endure insult and injury with the peace of Jesus, to take whatever comes - the good, the bad, and all the rest - as the will of God. Joy is what comes from the divine indwelling of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in our souls.
Mother Angelica, Answers Not Promises
