NOTHING WORLDLY OR EXTERNAL CAN LESSEN OR ADD TO HAPPINESS 

If so, one can be happy while grieving or in pain. While in pain, on e can display the sweetness of a good conscience and, therefore, it serves as a proof that pain does not lessen the pleasure of virtue.

As with pain, so also the pleasures of the body and the enjoyment it experiences add nothing to virtue. Thus, Paul counted all things " . . .as dung. . ."

Thus, Moses felt he was not rich while a prince of Egypt; neither did he feel poor as a castaway among the Jews.

Virtue dictates that it is better to be rich for others than for oneself. Thus, Elijah fed himself upon one meal but enriched the widow so that her meal and oil failed not for three years and six months.

Riches, indeed, gives no assistance to happiness. But poverty, pain and hunger, which are considered evil, not only are not hindrances but are actually many helps toward happiness.

St. Ambrose:  Duties of the Clergy, Bk. II, Chap. 4

(01-15-04)