Weekly Inspiration (1/18/24)

“Life now, for so many, is a tragic mess, and on so many fronts near and far. You inevitably know this well. Pray your sorrow, or grief, or rage, or regret. Pray the mess.”

Br. Curtis Almquist
Society of Saint John the Evangelist

Poem of the Week

WHY THE MAGI WILL BE LATE FOR EPIPHANY
by Gail Onion

The Magi will be late for Epiphany this year,
Stopped at the border with the desperate
seeking asylum,
Stopped in city streets at homeless encampments,
Stopped throughout Gaza as bombs fall,
picking their way among horrors,
bodies bent, withered, twisted, life blown out,
Stopped at agony palaces where nature
is in ruins, flattened, crushed, extinctions,
in full operation by greed and the powerful,
even democracy scorned by a savage farce
of a bully clown, weaponized debauchery,
Stopped by their tears streaming,
Stopped by kneeling by a child
any child is the holy child,
kneeling at dawn, at sunset, by a river, in a grove of trees,
Asking, Is this the birth place God?
Stopping to assist the disabled, the elderly, the ones
who suffer from lack of health care, shelter, food, education.
there are so many birth places for God.
Oh they have a long way to go
and dark is the way,
it may take another two thousand years
but they are coming,
with every act of peace
they are coming,
with every voice of justice
they are coming,
with every awareness by humanity to remember
we are a global community
they are coming,
the star they search for
is in each of us, in all beings of this earth,
the true Epiphany is seeing that light
in all life as sacred not to be owned,
but to be cherished.
We shall meet them
as they come
stopping as they stop
to help other beings
on their way.