CHRISTMAS EVE

Photo painting by S. Auberle

I have made it a tradition to post this beautiful letter by Fra Giovanni every year, for I can think of no better way to wish you all a gentle and peaceful holiday, whatever your beliefs are...

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 got. 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 today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instance. Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. Take joy! Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty...that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim it, that is all! And so I greet you, with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away.

                                    ~ Fra Giovanni, Christmas Eve, 1513