In your will is my joy, I will never forget your word” (Ps. 118). The secret of true joy is really contained in this verse of the psalm. It is not always easy to live this filial abandonment into God’s hands because very often His will does not coincide with ours. Sometimes our dreams, our aspirations, our deepest desires may be different from the plan that He has for us. Sometimes it may be easy but at other times it may be particularly difficult not to let ourselves be crushed by a melancholic pessimism.
Every spiritual journey has particular characteristics that are different from all others.
It is necessary to undertake this “journey” with conviction and determination, not looking “to get depressed,” allowing ourselves to be overcome by the obstacles that gradually present themselves before us.

I like to think of the spiritual journey of our lives as a mountain path: there are even paths or descents that do not cause too much fatigue and these we gladly take almost without realizing that at some point even these paths begin to ascend. The climb quickly begins to demand a lot from those who undertake it. However, every footpath along the mountain track, long or short, leads us to the summit. After much strain and even physical suffering we arrive at a place of joy, fascination and gratification. Something similar happens in the realm of the spiritual life: the even paths and the descents are the “easy” periods in our lives. These do not demand from us any exaggerated effort.
The path that seems to ascend can be compared to unexpected sufferings, to a period of crisis that takes us up to a point where we are almost overcome by it.
Reaching our destination gives us the opportunity to savour the spiritual joys that we fundamentally derive from our ability to “know how to read God” in every page of our daily lives.
To recall every event, great or small at a deeper level helps us to understand our encounter with the Lord and the plans He has for us.

There are times when the hardships in our lives inexorably estrange us from the desire to “place ourselves in his hands.” They throw us into a meaningless and mediocre existence. It is then that we need not be afraid but begin again.
As a mountaineer takes step after step and traverses path after path to finally reach the summit, so too we, day after day restart our journey and approach the summit of perfect joy. Without this effort to achieve success, life itself makes no sense.

Help us Lord, to do your will in the little events of daily life. May our every thought and act enable us to discover the beauty of life. May we be examples to our children who will daily encounter You when we pray in the Our Father, “your will be done.” May our words be the sincere demonstration of what we believe and may they spring from the depths of our hearts.
Mary, model of total trust in the mysterious plan of God, be always both our guide and model.

POPE BENEDICT ON THE OUR FATHER

(From 'Jesus of Nazareth' p. 147-149)

    Two things are immediately clear from the words of this petition: God has a will

with and for us and it must become the measure of our willing and being; and the

essence of “heaven” is that it is where God’s will is unswervingly done. Or, to put

it in somewhat different terms, where God’s will is done is heaven. The essence of

heaven is oneness with God’s will, the oneness of will and truth. Earth becomes

“heaven” when and insofar as God’s will is done there; and it is merely “earth,” the

opposite of heaven, when and insofar as it is withdrawn from the will of God. This is why we pray that it may be done on earth as it is in heaven – that heart may become “heaven”.
Now when Jesus speaks to us of God's will and of heaven, the place where God's will is fulfilled, the core of what he says is again connected with his mission. The unity of his will with the Father's will is the core of his very being.q