Our joy doesn’t come from personal achievements or material possessions; our joy comes from the victories achieved after the deserts, in a contrite spirit, in a new life, in a tender heart, in yearning eyes, in a purified body, in an enlightened mind, in transformed behavior because of someone we cannot see.

Our joy is found in strangers; in the transformation of rude faces into angelic ones, on wiping the slate clean from bad words and wrong actions.

Our joy comes from giving not receiving; it’s in the happiness of those who have it all without having anything, it’s in the tears shed on the altar.

Our joy comes from lives that don’t belong to us; changed lives, enlightened lives, it’s finding honor in the mouths of those who proclaim the untranslatable words of a language that doesn’t belong to any human nation.

Our joy comes from witnessing the struggles, the difficulties of those who overflow with unshaken love, those who don’t depend on human consolation, because rivers of living water flow from within them.

That’s the Universal joy!

Bianca Carturani