The focus of the Summer 2025 issue of LCWR's journal, Occasional Papers, is That Your Joy May Be Full. (John 16:24) As we live further into a time of much uncertainty and rapid change for the world, our nation, and our religious institutes, the capacity to feel and be a source of deep joy is needed more than ever. That deep joy may come now from new sources, recognizing that as life evolves, what may have brought us joy in the past simply is no longer available in the same ways. How do we learn to discover joy in new forms, perhaps unanticipated forms? How do we embrace joy and own our joy so that no force in the world, no disappointment, no difficult change can take away the joy that dwells in our deepest being?
Writers in this issue explore joy from an array of perspectives. Also included in this issue are interviews with Mark S. Burrows, co-author of You Are the Future: Living the Questions with Rainer Maria Rilke, and Steven Petrow, author of The Joy You Make.
Included in this issue are articles and interviews:
- Making Joy Our Life’s Companion In an interview, journalist Steven Petrow shares how he has learned to make joy even amid life’s challenges
- Mindfulness: A Way to Awaken Joy, psychologist Kathy Galleher offers practices for accessing the joy that is always available
- Making Space for Emerging Mission, Maureen Geary, OP reflects on the existence of joy as LCWR member institutes undergo transformation
- The Joy of Becoming Who We Are, Author Mark S. Burrows speaks of how we can apply the insights of the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke to life in these times
- Discovering Joy in An Unlikely Source, Maria Pascuzzi, CSJ explores the call of the Old Testament prophets to nurture a dependence on God’s faithfulness
- Staying Steady in the Turbulence of Uncertainty, Mary Ellen Tennity, IHM shares how she stays grounded as a religious life leader ministering in a time of great change
- Called to Be ‘Joy to the World,’ Anna Phiri, OSF writes of how she stays joy-filled as a leader while accepting that which she cannot change
- Joy Found Me!, Yesenia Fernandez, MGSpS reflects on the opportunities that can arise when we embrace our present realities
- Seeing Everything as Infused by God’s Presence, Andrea Westkamp, OSB shares a story that taught her to see reality in new ways
- A Do-It-Yourself, Joyful-Not-Diminished Kit, Nancy Linenkugel, OSF offers an exercise for seeing the present through a lens of joy and possibility
- For Your Reflection … Suggested questions for applying the insights of this issue to one’s own life
Orders must be received by May 5. Copies will be mailed in June.
Subscriptions are also available and make great gifts for only $15/year.
Questions about orders or subscriptions may be directed to Faye Homed at fhomed@lcwr.org or call 301-588-4955.
