December 20 2005

Within Our Reach: Joy — by Fra Giovanni Giocondo (posted on www.gratefulness.org)

Fra Giovanni Giocondo (c.1435–1515) was a Renaissance pioneer, accomplished
as an architect, engineer, antiquary, archaeologist, classical scholar, and
Franciscan friar. Today we remember him most for his reassuring letter to
Countess Allagia Aldobrandeschi on Christmas Eve, 1513.



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, 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, 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.

2005 taken by sji

 

Dec 20 2005

Is 7:10-14 The LORD spoke to Ahaz: Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God; let it be deep as the nether world, or high as the sky! But Ahaz answered, “I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!” Then Isaiah said: Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary men, must you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.
It is a temptation for many times to ask God for some type of a sign. God gives us Jesus as a sign. The son, God with us, the Word, the Lord and this is more than any message it is a living witness.

The virgin shall conceive and bear a son. There are many who have sarcastic comments and views as atheists of a religion that would belive that a virgin could conceive. It is a belief that is of the heart that can not be understood without an open heart. It is a message of hope and renewal and salvation that starts with a simple and pure young woman whose heart is open to the will of God although she does not understand God's message she is willing to follow the request and will of God and honored to be able to serve God. For me this is not foolish or ignorant but humble and wise beyond years that she is able to move beyond what she knows with confidence and peace.

I today pray for that confidence and peace to accept what God has planned for me in my life especially in the near future. I pray that I will accept God with a ready and willing heart today and this Christmas season. And accept others as Jesus in the love of Christ.