Starting Here, Starting Now

"No heaven can come to us unless our hearts can find rest in today. 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. 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 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. 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! And so, at this Christmastime, we 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."

Fra Giovanni, 1513