“There is a happiness that comes from weakness, a happiness that is often called joy. When I am weak, St. Paul said, then God is strong in me. So long as I love the world, I have to be strong. I have to win. I cannot show weakness. But when I find the strength to turn my back on the world, I find the strength to accept my weakness. I find the strength to depend on God, the strength to weep with those who weep. Then there is peace. Then there is happiness, a kind of happiness that remains even in sadness. The hymns of the Church sometimes refer to this as the “bright sadness.” (Fr. Michael Gillis)
“Bright sadness may be the most powerful and important experience we can know. It brings to our mind and heart, in the most direct and personal way, the ultimate purpose of our life and the object or end of our most passionate desire.…That conflicted emotion of bright sadness is a blessed gift, bestowed by the God who loves us with a “love without limit.” It comes to us through our ascetic struggle…But it can come to us as well when we observe it in the people around us: people with whom and for whom we pray, people who in many cases pray for us without our being aware of it. We find that bright sadness in communion with them, in hearing their stories, in sharing their hopes, fears and longings. We find it through being attentive to the beauty and truth of their life and their unique presence.” (Father John Breck)
“…we can see brightness and sadness at once, the Cross and the Resurrection…Joy and sadness, light and darkness, exaltation and lamentation, despair and hope, looking down and looking up—all of these can exist in our hearts at the same moment.” (Nicole M. Roccas, Fr. Michael Gillis)
“When it comes to the topic of joy and sadness (or sometimes what we refer to as ‘bright sadness”) and how they relate or coexist, I tend to listen to people (or read their works) who have been through deep sadness and suffering and have found or rediscovered their joy. I find that they have a deeper experience and understanding of God that is worth sharing and learning from.” (Sacramental Living Ministries)
“As we struggle in this life, it is good to remember that we Christians are all together. We find our place of silence, where we encounter God, but even in this place set apart, we are together…In our moments of loneliness and despondency, we are together. We are together in our celebration of life, and even in our death. We are together in our joy and our sadness. Even when we seem so alone, we are together, for in Christ we are One Body.” (Abbot Tryphon)