There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that our culture needs to rethink and rediscover joy. There’s a tendency to think that sorrow and despair are more authentic and real than celebration and joy. There’s a notion that if we’re joyful, we’re pretending that things are better than they are.
Joy is both a gift and a practice. Joy is more than a feeling. It’s a posture—an attitude or outlook—that can be developed over time, and that pays attention to the goodness that exists in our world. It’s for that reason that Christians have gathered on Sundays. Weekly gatherings for worship are celebrations of joy not because we insist that the glass is half full, but because of the resurrection of Jesus. Death, injustice, heartbreak, and suffering are real, but they cannot erase beauty, and they give way to redemption.
With the goal of knowing more fully Jesus—the joy of God—you are encouraged to use this liturgy to be “tutored emotionally”—to stop, savour, and smile.