[Oe List ...] Christmas Greeting

[Del Morril]

A beautiful wish friends. Thanks for sharing it with us. Have a wonderful
2011.

Del

 

 

  _____  

From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf
Of Marianna Bailey
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2010 8:58 AM
To: Order Ecumenical Community
Subject: [Oe List ...] Christmas Greeting

 

 

Dear Colleagues,

 

The following Christmas Greeting is one that I have saved from our early
days in the order. I do not remember how it was used but through the years
it has continued to be a part of my meditative council. We send it to you
this year as our Christmas card and best wishes for a Happy New Year.

 

Marianna and Bill Bailey

 

 

A Christmas Greeting

 

There is nothing I can give you

                    which you have not;

But there is much, very much that

                    while I can not 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 instant. Take peace!

 

The gloom of the world is but a shadow

                    Behind it, yet within reach, is joy.

There is a 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

                    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,

                    Our joys too, be not content with them as joys.

                    They too, conceal livening gifts.

 

And so 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.

 

                                                            A Christmas card
by

 
Fra Giovanni, 1513 A. D.

 

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