The most terrifying quality about the life of the broken person — both the one I meet and the one I am — is the absence of joy. In the Jewish tradition, joy was understood as the most natural response to our having been created, while sadness was deemed a rejection of the gift of life.

Dorothee Soelle, Dorothee Soelle: Essential Writings by Dorothee Soelle, Dianne L. Oliver, editor