Vitamin J: Joy

It’s Sunday evening. We’ve just finished putting together our longest (I think) Catholic Vitamins podcast. I’ve been so happy — we’ve been so happy to listen to friends who shared on the joys of this life. I’m not a fan of ‘feel-good’ vendors of religion or life; I believe we are called to embrace the cross and all that that means to Christians.

But — it is my belief that God gifts us with child-birth joys, child-rearing joys — the first smile of an infant, the first voicing of “momma” or ‘”dada”. God gifts us with majestic scenery depending upon where we live and how we see the world around us. God gifts us with weekend mornings when we are at peace with one another and there is an internal joy in which we recognize ‘this is the way it is meant to be’.

Now let me not minimize the joy of the moments after receiving Holy Communion or coming out of the Confessional. Dee & I support those Catholic Faith Joys. I think it was the Sweeney family who talked about the joy of Baptism and Marriage — seeing those people enter into or create a new family of God’s people.

We get it — we really get it if we allow that we can find and recognize joy in our journey to the important joy that God has planned for us. Let no one see a conflict between the vision of both forms of joy.

About Mike Strickland — a long-term talent in music circles — a special note of joyful thanks for being our podcast guest. Dear friends — Mike has about a dozen CDs and you will certainly find music to your taste. He also has seasonal music — and I hope you will go to his website. You can read all about Mike at www.mikestrickland.com And dear friends — if you’d like to see the animation and listen to Mike sing his song SPREAD JOY — go to the following address: http://www.youtube.com/user/spreadjoymusic

If you’ve listened to this Joy-filled podcast, you probably heard us mention the Glenn Mohr Chorale… they have a gorgeous new Christmas CD out — and they have an equally gorgeous, joyful website. Please give them a look at: http://glennmohrchorale.com/ And thanks to the Chorale folks for donating the CD which we gave to the winner of our Catholic Vitamin give-away.

And next week — our Catholic Vitamin is K — begins with K and ends with S. It has 8 letters. Please email (catholicvitamins@gmail.com) or phone our voice feedback line at 206-350-3789. Take a guess and you may win one of our special prizes and a famous, unique Catholic Sweet Treat… recalling that our Catholic Faith is a sweet gift from God.

We have two Margo B. Smith giveaway CDs (thank you Margo) and one Mike Strickland giveaway CD. Please send a note or call and leave your name for a chance to win one of these.

Blessings.

Deacon Tom and Dee

This entry was posted in Blog. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.