Is it wrong to feel good about things

[dfp42]

I noticed since coming back to the faith people will tend to think of me different. I keep finding myself up one day and down the next with regards to feeling good about my faith/life. I tell myself, if I feel good about things then someone might notice this and tell me I’m being careless. If I feel worried about things then someone will tell me to cut it out and come back to the real world. Anyone ever feel this way?

It’s like going to mass during the weekdays. I’m worried what others might think since they have better things to do with themselves then go to mass.

It’s like the moment I’m happy, someone is trying to make me sad.

 

[Et_Cetera]

It’s good to be happy. Don’t let people tell you otherwise.

 

[Mustang1971]

I don’t see anything wrong with feeling good about things as long as your are not running engaging in immoral things. I really think God wants us to be happy. Look around and see the beauty of our world, all the wonders that surround us everyday!

Most of the problems of the world result when we turn away from God and try to pursue our own agenda. We think we are looking for happiness, but it usually just ends badly.

Don’t worry about what others are thinking. If you are happy, just run with it! Enjoy those moments of happiness! Also, if you want to go to Mass during the week, go, going to Mass is a very good use of your time!

 

[rapunzel77]

I wouldn’t worry about what people think. You are concentrating on increasing your Faith and that is wonderful. All of us have our ups and downs so it is find to feel good about things. If we didn’t I think this life would be very boring and sad.

 

[crazzeto]

I noticed since coming back to the faith people will tend to think of me different. I keep finding myself up one day and down the next with regards to feeling good about my faith/life. I tell myself, if I feel good about things then someone might notice this and tell me I’m being careless. If I feel worried about things then someone will tell me to cut it out and come back to the real world. Anyone ever feel this way?

It’s like going to mass during the weekdays. I’m worried what others might think since they have better things to do with themselves then go to mass.

It’s like the moment I’m happy, someone is trying to make me sad.

God wants you to be happy, which is only natural given how much he loves you. Don’t let anyone tell you there’s anything wrong with being happy.

 

[Edward_H]

My understanding of this changed when it was pointed out to me that God really is our Father. The best Father that we can imagine.

Our Father doesn’t want us just to be happy, he wants us to be joyful.

This doesn’t mean that we don’t ever have to struggle…and that there will never be sorrow (sorrow, yes, but never should we be truly sad). What father would treat his child like that (no struggle, no growth, no opportunity for heroic love)?

He wants us to be “Resurrection-like Joyful”.

There will be crosses and struggles in our way. We shouldn’t be surprised that when we’re closest to Jesus, we will find crosses. Catholics understand the Cross. But with God’s help, grace, we can convert those crosses into great gifts of love. We are given a great joy when we give ourselves away by cheerfully carrying the cross with Christ (we carry the lightest portion, for sure)…when we abandon our little wants to serve Him and others. Chatter away with Him, while we’re shouldering the cross in a manly or womanly way.

It’s also my understanding that our “happiness” and our cheerfulness shouldn’t depend on our circumstances…it should be based on our knowledge that we are loved infinitely by God, our Father. Such a supernatural motive should lead us through the day, filled with crosses…chances to convert the ordinary into the extraordinary with God’s grace.

This is just my understanding…but a priest helped me come to look at such matters, particularly emotions very differently than I was doing for years.

 

[OraLabora]

Well, I am, at the moment, drinking a particularly flavorful strong beer brewed in a Belgian abbey.

I can imagine that if this is what the monks (actually Premonstratensian Canons to be precise) drink every day, they must be a joyful lot indeed, because it certainly makes me feel pretty good

God doesn’t want us to all behave like miserable blue-haired Protestant spinsters (with apologies to blue-haired Protestant spinsters who aren’t miserable).

Just take a look at the Roman calendar and the Roman martyrology: how many memorials, feasts and solemnities are there?

When you’re Catholic, there’s something, or someone, to celebrate every single day of the liturgical year. And right now I’m celebrating a bunch of Belgian Premonstratensian Canons who brew a particularly fine beer

In short, we’re not dour Calvinists.

 

[Edward_H]

Invite them to join you.

 

[LilyM]

‘Better things to do than go to daily Mass’? What on earth could possibly be better than taking a half-hour or so out of your day to worship your God and Saviour?

Whatever else people have to do, it may be more urgent but by no means is any of it ‘better’.

Sadly, of late I’ve too often found myself being caught up in these seemingly (but not in reality) ‘better’ things to make the time for daily Mass that I used to. Trying to remedy it though.