Quiet joy

I am not an expert in words but there is something about the word "joy" that fascinates me. I used to interchange it with the words happiness and cheer. But more and more I prefer the word joy. I cannot yet fully explain, but something in my heart says that "joy" expresses something deeper and more lasting.
Other synonyms for joy according to thesaurus are mirth, pleasure, hilarity, bliss, liveliness, revelry, etc. But they seem too superficial for me, too boisterous.
Instead for me joy is something deep. It is not something spectacular or bombastic. Joy is something that is so transparent you cannot see it but you sense it and you feel its absence.
Joy isn't a result of being in a state of perfection or absence of problems and worries.
Joy is the fruit of an ongoing journey of coming to terms with our imperfections and with the imperfections of life. When we accept these imperfections not with a skeptical nor defeatist attitude, but rather on bended knees, knowing deeply that somehow, in a way that surpasses our understanding, we are Loved with a love that endures and which has no end. This is joy. So it is necessarily something humble and quiet, free from grandstanding. Then the other face of joy is necessarily gratitude to the Love that accompanies us and never lets us be crushed.
Yesterday evening Pope Benedict XVI addressed the crowd gathered at St. Peter's Square in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. He said that it is indeed a moment of joy; but ours is a quiet and humble joy as in these 50 years we have come to terms with the weaknesses within the Church. But we have joy in our hearts all the more because we know that the People of God depends at all times in the God of everlasting and gratuitous love. This is the cause of our joy.