Christmas Gifts …

There is nothing I can give you
Which you have not;
But there is much that,
While I cannot give, 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 instant.
Take peace.

The gloom of the world is but a shadow;
Behind it, yet within reach, is joy.
Take joy.

And so, at this Christmastime,
I greet you with the prayer that for you,
Now and forever,
The day breaks and the shadows flee away.

— Fra Giovanni Giocondo letter to Countess Allagia Aldobrandeschi, Christmas Eve 1513
From Christ Is Coming: Celebrating Advent, Christmas and Epiphany