Share Your Joy

Think about a recent conversation that you had with someone – your spouse, a friend, a work colleague, anyone… After saying hello, did you lead with a positive thought or a negative one? What did you contribute to the conversation? Was it mostly in the realm of complaints and negativity or of joy and gratitude? While I hope it was the latter, I suspect it was the former. This is a pattern I’ve noticed in myself and in so many others with whom I’ve been in conversation. It’s just easier to share something negative. We tend to lead with this, whether it’s a negative comment or a frustration. It’s as if we feel more comfortable or confident that we’ll have something in common with someone else in what we dislike or disagree with, than in the positive. I suppose there is something more personally vulnerable in speaking of what we value. What if the other person doesn’t receive it or enter into our joy? 

            In the last few years, I have felt St. Francis encouraging me over and over again to enjoy my life and my vocation. The question, “Did you enjoy that?” after serving in ministry or at an event really makes me pause. Sometimes I’m just in survival mode. I’m just trying to make it through or get this or that item on my “to do list” done. But when I do stop to pay attention to my experience, it is clear to me, I do enjoy my life. I love it! And in the last few months, I’ve felt St. Francis give me the further encouragement to share my joy! This is certainly what he did. He went around with so much love for God and others in his heart that he would just burst forth into praise and song at the warmth of the sun, or the sight of any part of creation, or the gift of having brothers, or at the many ways God showed His loving care and providence. In recent times, I have begun to do this in little ways. And what I’ve noticed, if I’m honest, is that I sometimes almost apologize to people when I share my joy, as if it might be bothersome to them that I’m happy, and that I’m sharing some way that I’ve experienced God’s love for me. But I feel so blessed to be a Franciscan Sister of the Renewal, and I just can’t contain it – I don’t want to! Like St. Francis, I love my life and my vocation and most of all the God who has blessed me with all of this and more!

            As we celebrate the Feast of St. Francis this year, I invite you to enter into this beautiful aspect of the Franciscan spirit. Share your joy! 

Sr. Kelly Francis, CFR