Did Pope Francis read our book “Joy Starts Here. The Transformation Zone?”
Since his appointment in 2013, Pope Francis has exploded on the international media. He has made headlines for his approach to a range of vulnerable subjects in today’s society. Now in his new book “The Joy of The Gospel” he is touching on some of the same topics that are addressed in our book “Joy Starts Here. The transformation Zone”, which provides a practical way for building joy at home, at school and in your community (learn about some of these ways on our next book tour stop in Midland, March 7-8).We’d like to take this opportunity to take a look at what Pope Francis believes about joy.
What does Pope Francis believe about joy?
If you read his book, The Joy of the Gospel, it seems that he agrees with us, that joy is the key to leading others to know Jesus.
“The Christian ideal will always be a summons to overcome suspicion, habitual mistrust, fear of losing our privacy, all the defensive attitudes which today’s world imposes on us…”
“Meanwhile, the Gospel tells us constantly to run the risk of a face-to-face encounter with others, with their physical presence which challenges us, with their pain and their pleas, with their joy which infects us in our close and continuous interaction.”
“True faith in the incarnate Son of God is inseparable from self-giving, from membership in the community, from service, from reconciliation with others. The Son of God, by becoming flesh, summoned us to the revolution of tenderness.”
“…Evangelization in our time will only take place as a result of contagious joy.”
We cannot agree more with Pope Francis that contagious joy requires meaningful, face-to-face relationships that are countercultural today.
Learning how to interact joyfully will require learning.
With our field of expertise being neurotheology, we see brain science and the bible come together in a way that sometimes blows our mind. Brain science is showing us that the experience of joy literally makes the most important parts of our brains work together in a way that makes us more focussed on relationships than on problems f.i. or more able to handle difficult times in life, difficult feelings, disruptions in relationships, or even traumatic events.
That is why we are every invested in helping people experience more joy in their relationship with God and other people. We now know that it is possible to train our brain to experience this Joy of The Gospel. And we’d like to help you do this.
Want to experience more of the Joy of The Gospel in your life?
Join us for Joy Starts Here! in Midland March 7-8 as we will learn the brain science and the skills required to live with contagious joy.
