Recommended........................

     "Happiness never comes to us;  it can only be achieved.   We have to attain it, which is why the tools of the spiritual life - metánoia, self-discipline, solitude, prayerfulness, acts of love and forgiveness - are necessary ingredients to that end.  And by the way, don't doubt for a second the fact that if we're not happy in this world, which is where heaven begins, then hell begins here.  We must come to understand that God has put it into our power to attain happiness, that this is what he wants of and for us, and that it is entirely up to us to obtain it.  No one can or will provide us with happiness.  If we truly desire happiness, then we must struggle to do the best we can at each moment of life.  Our happiness doesn't depend on somebody else's action or on anything else.  It doesn't depend on our success, but rather on the effort we're willing to put into everything we do.  Even if people disappoint us or fail us left and right, even if people turn against us, hurt us, lie about us, don't understand us, even if they think they know everything about us and judge us unfairly, they can't infringe upon our happiness.  True happiness means that we have a deep-seated peace and tranquility that transcends all the difficulties of life, that cannot be disturbed by the chaos and warfare that might touch our lives."