In the course of my preparation, I've come across the following C S Lewis quotes:
Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.I thought he'd also said some good stuff about joy and the pursuit of happiness and it's elusive nature? How, if we focus on our joy, rather than on God as the object of joy, joy vanishes? Asking "am I happy?" can be a great way to make yourself miserable?
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
I sometimes wander whether all pleasures are not substitutes for joy.
If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.
If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
There is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes.
Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. (The Weight of Glory)
Also at the back of my mind there's some C S Lewis tagged idea about praise and gratitude (and the expression there of) heightening joy? When we enjoy something, we naturally want to share it with others and celebrate it etc.
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