Laetitia?

 

Some things just get by me. The word "laetitia" pronounced luh-tish-uh (or tee-shuh)  is one of them.  I stumbled over this word while reading one of those blurbs you see promoting a new book. Laetitia was a minor Roman goddess of gaiety, the name comes from the latin "laeta" meaning happy. It is considered a gift, the gift of earthly gladness. What surprised me was this particular blurb came from a well known priest, Fr. George Rutler of EWTN. His two sentence review of this book read: "All saints suffer one way or another but there are no sad saints. AS this book makes abundantly clear, some more than others had the gift of 'laetitia' or earthly gladness which, by not being lived as an end in itself, points the way to 'beatitude' or heavenly joy."  
I would be hard pressed to think of a more beautiful compliment, let alone in two sentences. Think about it - someone you don't even know tells you that your book can show everybody the way to perfect joy! By the way the book is a guide to the seven deadly sins and the virtues associated with them. I hope Fr. Rutler and I haven't ruined this fine author by inducing a bad bout of the most deadly sin - PRIDE over his work. More on "laetitia" and this particular book later. Stay tuned.  JMJ.  Mick, SFO