🌟 The Joy That Finds Me

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Joy, for me, has never been loud.   It doesn’t always arrive dancing in bright colors. Sometimes joy comes quietly — soft as a breath, gentle as a hand on my back, especially in the moments when I feel empty or frozen inside.

I think of Mary visiting Elizabeth — two women carrying impossible stories, meeting in hidden places far from crowds or noise. The moment Mary crossed the threshold, something holy stirred. Elizabeth’s child leapt for joy, and Elizabeth herself was filled not with strength she created, but with the Spirit who came upon her like light.

That is the kind of joy Jesus keeps giving me. Not a forced happiness, not a smile I must perform, but a presence that meets me in the rooms of my heart where I feel paralyzed. In the days when I feel emptied by fear, or silence, or uncertainty, His joy doesn’t demand that I rise. It simply rises within me.

Mary didn’t bring joy because she was perfect — she brought joy because she carried Christ. And every time I turn toward Him, even with shaking hands, I carry Him too. His joy becomes something that moves quietly inside me, steadying my breath, softening my heart, lifting what feels too heavy for me to lift.

This is the joy Advent teaches me: a joy that visits, a joy that fills, a joy that recognizes me the way Elizabeth recognized Mary — with blessing, with warmth, with a knowing smile.

A joy that comes from Jesus Himself.

Author: Joanna Jezierczak, Verso l'alto, Polish CLC in Chicago