Written on Christmas Eve, 1513
I salute you. I am your friend, and my love for you goes deep.
I salute you. I am your friend, and my love for you goes deep.
There is nothing I can give you which you have
not. But there is much,
very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can
take. No heaven can
come to us unless our hearts find rest in it
today. Take heaven!
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden
in this present little instant.
Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a
shadow. Behind it, yet within
our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory
in darkness, could we but see.
And to see, we have only to look. I
beseech you to look!
Life is so generous a giver. But we, judging its gifts by their covering,
Life is so generous a giver. But we, judging its gifts by their covering,
cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard.
Remove the covering, and you
will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of
love by wisdom, with power.
Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel's
hand that brings it to you.
Everything we call a trial, a sorrow or a duty,
believe me, that angel's hand is there.
The gift is there and the wonder of an
overshadowing presence. Your joys, too,
be not content with them as joys. They,
too, conceal diviner gifts.
Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering,
Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering,
that you will find earth but cloaks your
heaven. Courage then to claim it; that is all!
But courage you have, and the knowledge that we
are pilgrims together,
wending through unknown country home.
And so, at this time, I greet you, not quite as the world sends greetings,
but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and
forever, the day breaks and shadows flee away.
~ Fra Giovanni ~
And so, at this time, I greet you, not quite as the world sends greetings,
but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and
forever, the day breaks and shadows flee away.
~ Fra Giovanni ~