Thoughts for the Day

"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 haven can come to us unless our hearts
find rest in today. Take haven!

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden
in this present moment. Take peace!

The gloom of the world is but a shadow.
Behind it, yet within 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 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 diviner gifts.

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."

-fra Giovanni 1513 A.D.