Weekly Inspiration (12/29/23)

“The next couple weeks are the darkest weeks of the year. Jesus promises us that what is said in the dark will be heard in the light. So grab hold of God in the darkness and tell him everything. Don’t hold back. Let it all out.”

Br. Jack Crowley
Society of Saint John the Evangelist

Poem of the Week

Emmanual
by Steven Garnaas-Holmes

So often it seems we are so in the mood for Christmas,

but then something awful happens

and it changes everything.

But this is backwards.

Difficulties are constant: awful things happen—

and then Christmas comes along and changes everything.

This is the reason for the season.

“Because these days are dark,” the Beloved says,

“I come to be with you.

I see the pain, the loneliness, the despair.

I feel already the splinters of the manger, the nails.

And—therefore— I have come to be with you.”

Don't be afraid of the dark days, the broken days,

the hard days, the blank days.

This is where Christmas happens.