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 instant
Take peace!

The gloom of the world
Is but a shadow.
Behind it, yet within our reach
Is joy.

There is radience 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 angels 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,
Winding 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.

Author
Fra Giovanni
Giocondo

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