Cedric Pisegna - You Can Be Happy (01/24/2026)
Welcome to «Live With Passion». I’m Father Cedric Pisegna. So glad that you tuned into the program. This is Psalm 16, the Psalm of David. And he prays, «Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to you, Lord, You are my Lord. My happiness lies in you alone. You show me the path of life; in your presence there is the fullness of joy; at your right hand pleasures forevermore». I went through a conversion when I was 19 years old, and what led me to a conversion was my unhappiness. I was waking up in the morning and I could hear my conscience, my inner voice, and it was saying to me, «Cedric, you’re not happy».
And my unhappiness actually motivated me to make a move toward God, and finally I found God, God found me, and now I have this inner joy and complete happiness. I want you to take a look at your life and are you happy? We all have what’s called the happiness meter inside of us. This would be unhappy. The other side would be happiness, and you have to determine where you are in the scale. Your unhappiness can actually motivate you. For example, if you’re not happy with your golf game, it’ll motivate you to work on your golf game and get better. If you’re not happy with your weight, it’ll motivate you hopefully to go on a diet, do some exercising. If you’re not happy about your job, maybe it’ll motivate you to go to school and seek another job.
If you’re not happy about your prayer life, you’re gonna try different methods to get a better prayer life going on. And if you’re not happy with your marriage, hopefully you’ll go to counseling and make it work out even better. See, what I’m trying to say is that our unhappiness, that uncomfortable feeling can be a motivator toward helping us to get happy. As I said, we all have a happiness meter inside of us. I want you to try to look at that. It’s an indicator about how we’re doing in life. And pay attention to it. Let it guide you. And if you’re not happy, make a change. You see, suffering, that unpleasant feeling, that unhappiness can actually be a catalyst to change, and that’s exactly what I told you about what was happening with me.
I wasn’t happy and I didn’t like that feeling and it motivated me to change. Unhappiness sometimes can work out to good. God has put that within us, that meter so that we could be motivated towards something more. Everybody wants to be happy. In fact, in our country, the United States, we have a right to be happy. The Declaration of Independence. We have the pursuit of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And that’s one of our rights, that pursuit of happiness. And we want people to be happy, don’t we? We wish them happy birthday and happy anniversary and merry Christmas and people say, «I’m happily married,» and if you read some of the stories, the end of it will be, «They lived happily ever after».
You see, I’ve also found out that Disneyland is the happiest place on earth, McDonald’s has a happy meal, and bars have happy hours. See, happiness is all around us. Songs on the radio. The Rolling Stones have a song called «Happy,» and remember that song, it was kind of a reggae tune, «Don’t worry, be happy». And then Pharrell Williams produced a song called «Happy» that was very catchy, believe it went to number one because people wanna be happy. I wanna give you a few disclaimers as I continue here. First of all, we have a right to happiness, that’s clear. And everybody wants to be happy, but that’s not our purpose. Don’t think that that’s the number one goal and the number one purpose in your life. The number one goal and purpose in your life is to find God and to be, to do his will.
Happiness comes as a byproduct of finding God and being right in the center of his will. That’s how I feel in my life right now. There’s an inner joy, I won’t say a complete happiness, but the most happy that you can be because the second thing that I want to tell you is that people think that they ought to be completely happy, and when they’re not, they think, «What’s wrong with me»? I have to tell you, and I hope this doesn’t hurt you, the bottom line is is that we are never gonna be completely happy here on earth. Our hearts were made for heaven, the beatific vision of God, the opulence, the majesty of heaven, the beauty of heaven. There, our hearts will be completely happy. Here, not so much so, but we can have a greater degree of happiness as we find God, search for God, and do his will.
I remember the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talked about the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes, blessed are you, or another word for it is happy are you. And he said, «Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, hunger and thirst for God». So he’s saying that happiness lies in God. He said, «Blessed are you, happy are you». Really important to understand that, that the Bible always points to God as the source of happiness. The prophet Nehemiah chapter 8 tells us that, «The joy of the Lord will be our strength».
Wow, I love that. We need to receive that joy. Remember one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is joy. We can receive joy. It’s the joy of being loved, it’s a joy that God is with us. It’s a joy of knowing that you’re on the way to heaven. Hope brings joy. And I wanna separate happiness from joy, although they’re very similar. They’re close cousins. Happiness depends on the happenings in our life. We can have happy moments. But joy is something that is beyond circumstances. It endures. The joy of the Lord. I want you to know that you’re happy because of good circumstances most of the time. You get a low golf score for example, you’re happy. Your baseball team or football teams win, you’re happy. You make a lot of money, you’re happy. But it’s fleeting, but joy endures. It lasts and it’s available to us.
And I have to tell you that you don’t always feel it, it’s this inner blessing, this inner gift. It’s a calm delight. You know it’s there because God is with you. You know that he loves you. You know that Jesus died for you on the cross. You know that you’re on the way to heaven and nobody can take that joy from you. In fact, Jesus in the Gospel prayed that his joy would be in us. This is chapter 15. He came to bring us this joy of knowing God. There’s an acronym for joy. And the acronym is Jesus, Others, Yourself. And I began the program with that. I wanna break that open for you. First of all, Jesus. As I said, Jesus in the Gospel prayed, this is the last supper and he’s praying for us, his disciples. And he prayed that his joy that he had knowing God would be in us and our joy would be full.
And I’m hoping as you watch this episode right now, that you will sense joy coming from Jesus, the fact that he loves you, he died for you on the cross, and he died so that you could have eternal life. This is much different than having a lower golf score, your football team winning, or even having a lot of money. Those things are fleeting and temporary, but the joy that Jesus brings lasts forever. It’s foundational. That’s exactly what Jesus came to bring, and he’s our friend. He will never forsake us. He will never fail us. And no matter what difficulty you’re going through, and this is one of the ways that joy differs from happiness. Happiness is usually dependent on circumstances, where joy… sometimes difficult circumstances will bring out joy. Totally different from happiness, although they are related.
There’s an inner strength and inner calm. And Paul the Apostle said, «Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice». This is a choice to rejoice. «This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad». That’s one of the reasons why we sing at Mass and sing at prayer, so that we’ll get happy even though we don’t feel it, you get in touch with the joy. Remember the story? I’m talking now, no matter the circumstances, no matter the tribulations, no matter the trials, remember the story of Paul and Silas in the Acts of the Apostles? They’re thrown into jail, Philippian jail, for preaching the gospel. And there they are at the midnight hour. These are terrible circumstances.
When you’re in jail, and some of you are watching me from prison, when you’re in prison, you’re in jail, it’s meant to bring you down, to steal your happiness from you, but I’m telling you if you’re in prison, you’re in jail right now, you’re watching my program, and many of you are, and some of you even donate to me-thank you, you can even have joy there. It’s not dependent on your circumstances. Sometimes joy is teased out through difficult circumstances. Well, here are Paul and Silas and midnight hours, you know, in the sewer hole, the Philippian jail. They’re singing and praising God and everybody was listening and you know the rest of the story. Boom, an earthquake hits, doors fly wide open. Paul and Silas are free to go. The jailer runs up to them and he says, «What do I gotta do to be saved»?
And I love that because you don’t have to beat people over the head with the Bible, just show them a little bit of joy because that’s what the world is hungering for. They’re hungering for happiness, hungering for joy, and if they see it in you, they will come up to you and say, «What do you have that I don’t have»? It’s not dependent on circumstances. When I preside and when I preach, I try to smile because I wanna be a witness, enough glum preachers. That’s what Pope Francis said in his apostolic exhortation. The «Joy of the Gospel». Notice the title of it, he called it the «Joy of the Gospel». By the way the word «gospel» means, you’ve all heard that, good news, but the real definition of the word «gospel» is glad tidings. It ought to make you glad because, again, your love, Jesus died for you, forgave your sins, and you’re on the way to heaven.
If that doesn’t make you glad then nothing will. I gave a presentation to a group of Evangelicals, Full Gospel businessmen. They were a great group of people that love the Lord and trying to proclaim the gospel everywhere. They have a book. The title of the book is «The Happiest People on Earth». And I think that’s so true because, as Christians, we ought to be the happiest people on earth, and what I said, happiness is a relative of joy. It’s fleeting. It’s dependent on circumstances, but it’s connected with joy. If you have the joy of the Lord, you will be, to some degree, happy. And I saw a bumper sticker one time and it says, «If you’re happy, if you’re a Christian, inform your face».
I think that’s funny. And then I like to say, «Practice smiling». People are thinking about getting a facelift. Well, a smile is the natural face lift. Just practice it. I found out that oftentimes I can be too serious, and when I am, my face is kind of glum, and when I start to smile, my whole attitude lifts, I start getting better. And that’s what I’m gonna invite you to do right now. Just simply smile. Don’t you feel better when you do that? I was listening to a song by Wet Willie, rock and roll group. And this song is called «Keep On Smiling». And he sings, «Got the blues, holes in your shoes, alone and confused, keep on smiling». Joy is not dependent on circumstances, unlike happiness. It’s not fleeting, it lasts. First of all, Jesus.
If you want joy, focus on Jesus, your relationship with him. It’s Jesus, in God alone is my happiness. And then Others, it’s the acronym for joy: Jesus, Others, Yourself. Others. When I was 22 years old, I did a mission trip down to Baja California, Mexico. 22 years old, I had never even been out of Massachusetts. That’s where I was born and brought up. Now I went down to Mexico and I never saw poverty like that in my life. We went down there to help them build homes, lay foundations for their, I guess you could call it homes, small little huts. And I went down there with a bunch of other guys to minister to those folks. And although they were dirt poor, they had very little, whenever we would have Mass, I saw such a joy on their face and such celebration. And I thought to myself, «I can learn from these folks because I have so much and oftentimes I’m not showing the joy that I have. I’m not showing that I’m happy inside».
And it showed me once again that joy isn’t dependent on circumstances. When you minister to others, you have this joy within, and that’s exactly what happened to me. When I got back to our retreat center in Los Angeles, I had this exuberance, I don’t wanna call it an ecstasy, this elation because of the accomplishment of spending three weeks down there helping those people. When you help others, as Jesus said, «It’s better to give than to receive». When you help others, it brings a joy. And right now, I write books, I produce for television and radio, I go out and I preach parish missions. And when I come back, and when I finish a book, when I finish a production, there is this bubbling joy that I have, this happiness that reaching out to others brings that nobody can take away and that you can’t get from money, you can’t get it from possessions, you can’t even get it from your own health. It’s a God gift.
If you want joy in your life, then quit focusing just on your own needs. Focus on Jesus. Reach out to others and watch the joy that will come. And the joy of the Lord will be your strength. Wow, joy is really important. Our culture focuses on self and selfishness while the gospel focuses on selflessness. Those of you who watch me, you know, you minister. Many of you are helping in your parish or you’re reaching out to the poor in some way, shape or form, it is better to give than to receive, it really is. And then of course yourself. Joy: Jesus, Others, Yourself. And in order to have joy and to have happiness, you really do have to take care of yourself. We’re always saying, «Hey, take care».
Well yeah, you have to take care of yourself. It’s important to do that. I exercise, try to eat well, eat in moderation. I go to the doctor, to the dentist when necessary, get a physical exam, go to the dentist, take care of my teeth, try not to sabotage my life. If you wanna be happy, then don’t be under all the time. Be assertive, take control of your life. Take care of yourself if you wanna be happy, if you wanna have joy. And then become all that you can be. We’re focusing on self now. I talked about Jesus, talked about others, but you gotta focus on yourself too, last, not first of all, but last.
Most people just spend time focusing on themselves and saying, «Why aren’t I happy»? And there’s keys to this. By the way, just to let you know, I wrote a book called «You Can Be Happy,» and I talk about the happiness lifestyle: Jesus, Others, Yourself. And I put so much more into that book to really lead you into the happiness lifestyle because I want you to have joy and I want you to be happy, and that’s exactly why Jesus died. He didn’t die so that you could live a life of misery. He said, «I’ve come that you may have life and life abundant and that you could have and enjoy your life». That’s John 10:10. And as he prayed, I told you at the last supper in John 15, he said he wanted us to have joy, the fullness of joy, his joy. He wants us to be happy. He died on the cross for us to have not a happiness based on circumstances, but a joy that endures.
I wrote an autobiography recently simply because the religious community that I belong to asked me to write an autobiography. All the priests, they ask, «Write an autobiography». Well, I finally did it, and as I was writing my autobiography, I realized that I am not the same person that I was when I joined the Passionists years ago, about 40 years ago. When I first joined the Passionists, I was fearful, wasn’t all that creative, didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life. But now, through the Holy Spirit, this creativity has come to me. As you know, I’ve written books and I produce for television, go out preach the gospel. One of my own priests in our community said to me one time. He said, «Cedric, I don’t know if you know this, but you’re an artist».
Well, that made me feel so good. I never thought about myself in that way before, and I was never like that before, but as I cultivated what God put within me, as I was ambitious, took the initiative and I started to push myself, things started happening. And I would say the same thing for you. Who you are is God’s gift to you, but who you become is your gift to God. That’s the foundation of my ministry. Who you are, it’s God’s gift to you, but who you become is your gift to God. And life is all about becoming.
Remember the parable of the talents? Jesus talked about this landowner, this rich man who gave talents to his servants. To one he gave five, to another a couple, to another he gave one, and they traded with the talents. The guy with the five talents came and gave five more, and he gave him great responsibilities. The other one gave a couple more, he gave him more responsibility, but the one with one just hid it and didn’t do anything with it, and he said, «Why didn’t you at least give me interest»?
In a way, God is kind of like a business man. He wants at least interest from our life, but he loves it when we take the talents that he’s given us and we mass produce it exponentially. He’ll give us even more. I’m looking forward to the responsibility that God is gonna give me in heaven because I’ve tried my best to multiply the talents that God has given me. You see, when you focus on yourself, you get joy and that’s why you have joy about what’s coming, the hope of heaven because you know something good is coming. That the best is yet to come. Be your own best friend. Don’t sabotage your life, take care of yourself, become your best. Remember that song by the Eagles, «Take it easy, don’t be in such a hurry».
Sometimes you can get all flustered and bent out of shape 'cause you’re in a hurry. I saw a sign one time that said something telling, «Happy people are those that can enjoy the scenery on a detour». I think that’s so good. Don’t get all bent out of shape when there’s traffic and flight delays, water off a duck’s back, this too shall pass. On my Facebook page, I asked them the question, «What’s the secret of happiness»? They all say God and attitude. Like Paul and Silas in prison, attitude. The joy of the Lord is your strength, but you gotta cooperate with that joy and let it flow to your outer person. This has been a series about victory. And I want you to have victory in your prayer life. I want you to have victory when you suffer. I want you to have victory in the challenges. Those were other episodes that I proclaimed to you. But I want you to have victory in terms of happiness because happiness is your right as a believer. Joy is your inheritance as a believer. God told Abraham, «I am your great reward».
And because God is our reward, we ought to be joyful. The joy of the Lord is our strength, and that ought to flow over into the happiness in our life. I’ve given you a key. My prescription is this: Jesus first, Others reaching out, and then Yourself. And as you concentrate on Jesus and others, really what you’re doing is taking care of yourself. And that’s an acronym for joy: Jesus, Others, Yourself, JOY. It’s a choice to rejoice, practice smiling. Do this and get this. Be joyful. Be happy. Practice smiling, get in touch with the joy. And get this, people will come knocking on your doors. You’re not gonna have to go to them. They’ll come to you and they’re gonna say, «What do I gotta do to be saved»? Don’t just live, live with passion.