On Gaudete Sunday, our focus turns to joy. Spiritual joy has a staying quality to it, something deeper and more abiding than pleasure or even emotional satisfaction. This is because joy flows from a different Source. Emotions, such as pride and amusement, and pleasurable sensations find their origins in the false self.  Though all these things are goods unto themselves, they are rooted in that part of us that is transient, that is passing away. Thus, there is an inherent insecurity about these things, because even though we can (and should) enjoy them in the moment, we know they cannot last. By contrast, holy joy is rooted in the soul, what Bishop Robert Barron calls the “point of contact with God” and Thomas Merton calls “the virginal point of pure nothingness which is at the center of all other loves.” This is the place in us that is eternal, God truly dwelling within us. This is at once our own True Self and God’s Self given to us, which makes it eternal and incorruptible. In contemplation, we detach from everything passing, and this “virginal point” becomes our only anchor. Touching upon Love indwelling, we find true joy.