Extract from the 2009 Advent and Christmas booklet:
There is a hymn:
 Give me joy in my heart keep me praising
Give me joy in my heart I pray.
Give me joy in my heart keep me praising
Keep me praising till the end of day.   Sing Hosanna……..

But I wonder if this is not too simplistic. Is this not also true?
Give me joy in my heart……… they sing mindlessly….
Empty words, from empty hearts
seeking the joy that only life can bring.
Joy is a gift, given freely, but given in return.
Joy is a reward, earned in the furnace of life,
Tempered, moulded, shaped by the ups and downs of life.
The pleasure of innocence, the romance of youth at 15 or 55
The anguish of disillusionment and despair of misery
The easy and the agonising decisions made very moment of every day
To love, in spite of and beyond the call of duty,
To love unconditionally in good times and in bad
In sickness and in health……
That’s true joy, a gift reserved for true lovers
Discovered only in the truth, with God.

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