Weekly Inspiration (1/18/23)

It was in the midst of great darkness that the life and light of God became enfleshed in the child called Jesus. In Jesus, God sent out a beacon of light, that all who are lost in this great night might see it and turn towards it, in order to find their way home. 

-Br. Jim Woodrum 

Society of Saint John the Evangelist 

Poem of the Week

I am about to do a new thing;
           do you not per—Isaiah 43.19

Ancient baptismal fonts were octagonal,
suggesting the eighth day of Creation:
in baptism we are created anew.
On this eighth day of Christmas,
beginning a new year,
we allow ourselves to be re-made,
this day and every day,
not by our own effort or wisdom,
but by God, with love and grace.
We let go of who we have been,
the self we have tried to create.
There is death in this; there is grief,
and we wisely mourn.
And we rejoice, 
for what we are given is greater.
What has been is gathered into God's grace:
all has been received, forgiven, healed and honored.
On this New Year’s Day, as on every day, 
we are given the grace to begin anew.
We turn from what was
and allow ourselves to become
who we shall be,
by God's amazing, loving grace.
Alleluia.

-Steve Garnass-Holmes