Be assured, that we have no need to stay for happiness till we get to Heaven. God is not lovingly present to the ungodly while His omnipotence supports them, and His mercy continues them in being, but he is lovingly present to everyone who is united to Him as His Father in Christ, and imparts Himself to them, according to his creature capacity of reception. And when religion acts on the mind and heart of man, so that he can truly tell to others - O taste and see the Lord is sweet; then there is an inward sense of Divine love towards himself, which enables him to say, thou art the God of my heart, and my portion for ever. True piety brings in a constant revenue of solid satisfaction to the spirit of the Christian, as he sits by those eternal springs of peace and joy in God which feed and maintain it; while men destitute of religion converse only with the lusts and vanities of this fading life, which buoy them up for a time with unholy joys and a mere shadow of peace, and which passing away, both shadow and substance of happiness are lost eternally to them, the humble, earnest Christian drinks in from the fountain of goodness, and is filled more and more with a peace that passes understanding till filled with all the fullness of God. Let the consideration of this impress on us God's word by Isaias: Oh, that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments, thy peace had been as a river, and thy justice as the waves of the sea.
- text taken from Daily Bread - Bring a Few Morning Meditations for the Use of Catholic Christians by Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp