Joy

They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest
✙ Isaiah 9:3
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Anselm, an Italian man who served as Archbishop of Canterbury around the year 1100, wrote that he had "found a joy that is full and more than full. For when heart and mind and soul and the whole being are full of that joy, yet shall the joy abound yet more beyond measure. Therefore that joy shall not wholly enter into them that rejoice therein; but they that rejoice shall wholly enter into that joy."
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That's a wonderful way to look at joy. Though our human souls can never hope—at least in this life—to contain the fulness of God's joy, we can hope—even expect—to enter into God's joy. This is a joy that covers the earth and never subsides. We will not perpetually be a part of it. But when we are ready, it is already there, ready and willing to include us in the happiness of the saints of God.
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Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
✙ John 16:24
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Prayer after thinking about today's devotion:
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O merciful God, fill our hearts with the graces of your Holy Spirit, with love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Teach us to love those who hate us, and pray for those who spitefully use us, that we may be the children of you, our Father. You make your sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and send rain on the just and on the unjust. In adversity grant us grace to be patient. In prosperity keep us humble. Help us guard the door of our lips, to give little regard for the pleasures of this world, and to thirst after heavenly things.
✙ Anselm of Canterbury (d. 1109)
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After your own thanksgivings & petitions, close with the Lord's Prayer.
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