Joy (and where it comes from)

Joy is a slippery thing. It's one of those concepts that's really hard to come up with a definition for, but we know it when we see it. I want to touch on what I think joy is (and more importantly, where it comes from). It's not something that we'll find in the pleasures of our materialistic world, but rather in the places we might least expect. Joy is all around us, we just need to know how to seek it out.

So what is joy? We should probably define this thing. Joy, as defined by catholicculture.org, is the feeling brought about by the expectation or possession of some good. Pretty simple, right? Now, something you'll hear pretty frequently are comparisons between joy and pleasure (aka happiness). What's the difference?