Lightheartedness and the Spiritual Life

Levity and Joy are so important to the spiritual life, because they are the antithesis of Discouragement and hopelessness. The reason its so important to fight against discouragement and hopelessness is because these are the times when we are most easily tempted. When we are thankful and full of joy, we are more likely to choose virtue and love. The saints knew this well, below are some examples.
St. Thomas More- thought that Levity was such an important part of the spiritual life that he actually bought a pet Monkey to run around his house, because he always wanted his home to be a place of jokes and laughter. In fact, basically the last thing Thomas More ever said was a joke. He told the person that was about to behead him that, he'd better sharpen the blade, because he was known to be "thick-necked". What Faith, he is about to get his head removed, and he is cracking jokes.
St. Phillip Neri- Was known as the Clown, he valued Joy and Laughter so much. Whenever a person came to confession taking themselves to seriously, he would give them a penance to lighten them up, for example he asked one man to shave 1/2 of his beard for a week. He begged God for the gift of the Holy Spirit, and God gave it to him in abundance. It was discovered at his death that his heart was almost double the normal size, he was so kind to people in confession, that people reported feeling warm whenever they would leave confession with him. He was truly a Lion from the pulpit, but a lamb in the confessional.
John Paul II- It was found out after his death, that he would sneak out of the Vatican to make ski trips in the northern part of Italy. He thought exercise was so important, that he asked the Vatican when he became Pope to build a swimming pool, when they stated it would be too expensive to build one, he replied, can you imagine how expensive it would be to elect a new pope, and they built the pool. When a reporter spotted him skiing one time as Pope, he was amazed how talented he was, and asked, "isn't it a scandal that the Pope is such a good skier," to which JP II responded, "It would only be a scandal if the Pope weren't a great skier,"
St. Francis of Assisi- It was said that whenever a brother would come into the community looking downcast, he would tell them, "return to your cell for prayer, until you discover the Joy of your salvation,"
We are made for Joy, just look at children, its their natural response to life. Prayer and the Sacraments are the road to Joy, especially confession and the Eucharist. As St. Francis said, after spending time before the tabernacle its very hard not to find the Joy of our life. I love the below quote from Tolkien,
"Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament . . . There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth . . . which every man's heart desires