God Wants You Happy by Father Jonathan Morris

Author:Father Jonathan Morris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-08-18T16:00:00+00:00

I like to talk about “finding meaning” in life, because throughout my life I have struggled with this. And I think that all of us do. I remember in high school feeling the “darkness” and looking for “meaning” outside of the fun and games that were very much a part of my life back then. I realize now that some of this darkness was just my hormones wreaking havoc on my psyche during my menstrual periods! But back then we didn’t really talk about things like that, and I didn’t know anything about how crabby and anxious women can feel at those times. I thought it was just me, unholy Sharon. But nonetheless, even the darkness and the yearning for meaning led me to pursue the “something more” that eventually led me to giving my life to Christ.

I went to Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island. It’s in the town where Jackie and President Kennedy had their summer home. Large mansions, cliffs overlooking the inlet to the ocean—it was quite nice. (My dad won the Irish Sweepstakes, third place, and the money paid for our college education.) At exam time I would study on those cliffs. I did my senior thesis on the officer candidates at the Officer Candidate School (three hundred new good-looking men arriving in town every three months!). It was the “good life.” But right in the midst of all this “good life,” depression found my doorstep again. I was discovering that although I was a Catholic and went to Mass on Sundays and even weekdays, my life didn’t look very different from some of the atheists that I was dating.

What difference did Christ make in my life? What meaning did my life have? I felt like I was being a hypocrite. With difficulty, I made a decision to stop going to church and started searching for answers.

Nearing the end of my junior year of college, as I was still searching and my life was taking paths I really didn’t want to go down, I received a letter from my brother Ralph—and just in the nick of time! Mind you, this is the first letter that he ever wrote me. In grammar school I used to deliver notes to him from a girl who was crazy about him. But in this historic note he told me how he had been struggling in his faith and looking for answers and that he had found what he was looking for. He had found Jesus. He wanted me to know Jesus too, and he asked if I would like to spend the summer in Michigan working with the Mexican migrants and living close by.

What a great summer job! Not only was it wonderful working with people who could use my help, but I could try out my Spanish. During that summer I worked alongside a group of young people who were so very happy. I hadn’t seen happiness like this in fancy Newport. I wanted what they had. A

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