Friday, March 15, 2019

Catholic Hermit: Here's Some Happy




Been interesting, lately, to examine that sense I've had of being "happy."  Simple, maybe mundane, often misinterpreted word, is happy.  To me, "happy" varies from the word "joyful."  Happy seems more temporally anchored, somehow, or more aligned, yes, with a sense of contentment.

Happy is something we can take on, maybe acquire to a degree, once we put our minds to it.  Joy has a spiritual element; it is a gift of the Holy Spirit, after all.  One can have joy yet be in terrible suffering, medium suffering, or light suffering.  


One can be happy yet not joyful; but more often it seems, one can be joyful without seeming at all happy.  Joy can be far more interior than is being happy.  I suppose, though, that happy can lead into joy much as verbal prayer can lead into mental prayer, and so forth.

These are just my thoughts; I'm not delving deeply into the comparisons and contrasts, although there are many to be made.  Rather, I will mention that since I've experienced the sense of being "happy" such as I've not felt deeply in years, a friend emailed several days after I'd emailed and explained this re-found sense of happiness--wanting to know if I still had that "happiness thing" going.


In honesty (always the best policy, as is said), I replied that I had grumpiness going on while at the same time was pretty sure the "happy" was still intact but being obscured.  That is not a "happy" experience or thought, for I did notice it and wanted the happy contentment to override it.  But I recounted the various grumpy thoughts and accompanying occasions in which "grumpy" gloated over the "happy".


The thing about "happy" is that so much of it being attitude plus seeming more in the temporal, includes feelings.  Maybe a bulk of it is feelings and attitude as much as verbal prayers are oral and aural.  All the same, "happy" is a most important status for us to have and to hold dear.


I am living proof--the more I did a self-examen--that being happy is not mutually exclusive; one can be grumpy at the same time.  In that, it is similar to joy.  Joy can be glorious and yet be painful.  


(I'm simplifying, I realize.  This week has been happy yet grumpy, with my finally recognizing that the grumpiness was portent of increasing pain.  Today not only the other shoe dropped--the body dropped and has remained on its floor bed other than two times up--once for nourishment and the other for restroom break.)



Today, happy is not so relevant.  Today, joy is the reality, spiritually and temporally, with the temporal, I suppose, then, reflecting a level of being happy.  Yet the happy is so overshadowed by joy, as the suffering always will elevate joy beyond what grumpy ever can reflect upon happy.


The suffering aspect of the bodily pain might also be in a spiritual linkage to the physically painless yet very much death process of my dearest spiritual Father.  It is as if a bulk of my energy, my spark of spirit from the Holy Spirit, is set aside, or ebbed, even though I am hundreds of miles away from where he lays dying.  


The joy, however, is strong, even buoyant, for the happiness  and excitement that I feel and also spiritually know awaits him in this his greatest, peak adventure of his life--more so than the adventure of his birth with all the hope and innocence and desire to partake of temporal life, the soul willing and eager for what is next.

So the happy is still here, within, and remaining locational as well as in my body.  The joy has always been, I realize; except I have not for a long time in my lengthening life, realized that joy can be within the mind, heart, and spirit yet also--a flip-side, as could be said--are suffering, heartbreak, uncertainty, despair.  These attributes can be in happy and in joy.  And both the happy and joy can be enhanced and built up all the more through prayer and the graces God gifts through the Holy Spirit.


I noticed this in The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the other day:


2638  As in the prayer of petition, every event and need can become an offering of thanksgiving.  The letters of St. Paul often begin and end with thanksgiving, and the Lord Jesus is always present in it: "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you"; "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving."




I also noticed today in The Catechism, the following:


2642  "[Address] one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart."  Like the inspired writers of the New Testament, the first Christian communities read the Book of Psalms in a new way, singing in it the mystery of Christ.  In the newness of the Spirit, they also composed hymns and canticles in the light of the unheard-of event that God accomplished in his Son: his incarnation, his death which conquered death, his Resurrection, and Ascension to the right hand of the Father.  Doxology, the praise of God, arises from this "marvelous work" of the whole economy of salvation.


This morning, when someone who has been assisting my spiritual father for awhile, running errands and so forth, put the phone to his ear so I could speak to him, briefly, giving gratitude, encouragement for the joy that lies ahead, assuring I will see him again, expressing my love, reminding he is a priest forever in the Order of Melchizedek, and closing with what he will know as from me, even if he might not recognize my voice.  God bless His Real Presence in you!


I have used that benediction ever since the ecstasies began during Mass, and when more was explained to me mystically about the Mass and more of the reality of His Real Presence and Christ's real presence literally in us.  I have not used it nearly enough with others, but now I know just how important it truly is as a form of doxology--the praise of God and that God is in others and me.


We've all probably heard of the research studies regarding the effects of positive on our physical bodies and in our minds and emotions.  (And surely although perhaps not scientifically easy to test conclusively, surely the studies would include that of the effect in our spirits if not also in our souls.)


It is said that a smile--even a forced one--or a laugh, forced or not--can do marvelous good for our bodies, minds, and emotions.  A smile, or humor, also, can affect positively the bodies, minds, and emotions of others.  The effect on ourselves can be impressively registered as strongly positive.

A cousin just this week called and mentioned hearing on the radio about some research demonstrating that even if we think of what we may be grateful--even little things in our daily lives for the good and even miraculous are all about us if we become aware--that our bodies, minds, and emotions are positively impacted.  Even if we make a list in our minds of just a couple of aspects of good in our lives for which we are grateful and appreciative, the effect registers positively in tests of blood pressure and heart rate and in sense of well-being.


The catch phrase, gratitude is the attitude, comes to mind.  But link that gratitude to and give God the glory--what magnitude of goodness, truth, beauty, and love that stirs and creates within us and spreads to others.


I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,

for you have heard the words of my mouth;
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
I will worship at your holy temple
and give thanks to your name.
                         ~Psalm 138:1-2ab

Thus, in closing, I impart to all of you who read my fledgling attempts to fulfill some aspect of my purpose in life (To Glorify God) and fulfill my mission--(Write and share of His Real Presence, it seems as I continue to cast the nets....).


God bless His Real Presence in you--in us!


Postscript:  Here's an example of happy and joy along with pain that could get into grumpy depending on pain rising. A wee knock heard, just now, at the front door of Solus Deus.  Got the pained body up and opened to find a tiny boy standing slightly inside the ajar storm door, looking up at me with the sweetest, doe eyes.  He announced himself as my neighbor, Devon his name.  Walked right in and explored with commentary about what the old neighbor Jim had of interest--after he asked me if I had any toys.  I can see that this will be an evolving twist on my hermit silence of solitude; but hermits are historically and traditionally to be hospitable.  Yet after twenty minutes of delightful chatter and soaking in his darling innocence, I enlisted him to pull to the garage door the two refuse containers, empty, from the curb and appreciated his delight in a quarter--then broke the news that I had to get back down on the floor (yes, he wanted to see my floor bed); my pained back was screaming at me for rest.  I'm sure he'll come again.  I do have some toys packed away, from years past. However, I will need to establish some gentle, non-hermit-revealing time and frequency limits, for visits.  For one thing, my pain levels cannot sustain the energy for such. 

[Note:  I've not forgotten about St. Angela of Foligno's mystical journey to God.  I'm working on her second phase and hope to have it ready to post after this one.]


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