If you’d like to see joy in action, check out this wonderful home video:

On the 25th of each month, Our Lady appears to the Medjugorje visionary Marija to give us her message to the world. Below is the latest official English translation as provided by the Information Center in Medjugorje.

“Dear children! Also today I am with you and I am looking at you and blessing you, and I am not losing hope that this world will change for the good and that peace will reign in the hearts of men. Joy will begin to reign in the world because you have opened yourselves to my call and to God’s love. The Holy Spirit is changing a multitude of those who have said ‘yes’. Therefore I desire to say to you: thank you for having responded to my call.”

Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. It is a gift to those who strive towards holiness. Scripture speaks of this true joy, rooted in heaven, not on earth, which the world cannot take away. When Jesus spoke to his disciples in the Gospel of John, Chapter 15, verses 10 and 11, he said, “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.”

And then he said these words to reassure his disciples, because he was headed for his crucifixion, “I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”