Joy is happiness in God (Fr. James Martin)

   First, laughter and humor are more or less defined the same way whether you’re religious or not… When it comes to joy, however, the secular mind sees it as, more or less, an intense form of happiness or delight.  The religious or spiritual mind sees it as intimately connected to belief in God, grounded in faith even in tough times, and nourished by the relationship with the divine.

   Joy is not simply a fleeting feeling, or an evanescent emotion, it is a permanent result of one’s connection to God.  While the more generic definition of joy may sometimes be about an object, wonderful though it may be (a new joy, a piece of good news), religious joy is always about a relationship.  Joy has an object and that object is God.

Joy is happiness in God.

--Fr. James Martin, 

Between Heaven and Mirth:  

Joy, Humor and Laughter in the Spiritual Life.

Image source:  http://tomstuart.org/2012/04/25/ambushed-by-joy/