Dom Bettinelli quotes fr. Paul Murphy, OP, on the place of joy and laughter in the Dominican tradition:
Then, addressing the other brothers, [Bl.] Jordan [of Saxony, St. Dominic's successor,] said: "Laugh away to your heart's content.... You have my full leave and it is only right that you should laugh after breaking from the devil's thralldom. Laugh on then and be as merry as you please."
Perhaps we, the Pilgrim Church, need to re-discover that sense of joy and delight in our humanity, to learn to really celebrate life, and to express this in such a way that all people can see that we embrace all of life - the "joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age" (Gaudium et spes, 1) - and present all these to God in action, prayer and song, trusting in his aid, his grace, his mercy and above all, his redeeming love.