A Christmas Eve letter from 1513
*Letter Written by Fra Giovanni, 1513
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 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 the 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 the 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, 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.
Our 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 - 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 all 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 the shadows flee away.
*This letter was written by Fra Giovanni Giocondo to
his friend on
Christmas Eve, 1513.*
Merry Christmas everyone!