I SALUTE YOU

I am your friend, and my love for you goes deep. 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 heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today.

Take Heaven!

No peace lies in the future that 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. 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 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 pilgrims together wending 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.


~Fra. Giovanni - A.D. 1513


As we enter into a new year my prayer for you, my family and friends is this... that you have peace of mind, you experience all the beauty there is to share, keep faith in your heart, courage in your soul. Appreciate all the precious divine gifts bestowed to you and may you have many bestowed upon you. Remember above all there is love, the greatest gift. I love you. Happy New Year!