Prayer of Fra Giovanni

There is nothing I can give you which you do not have, but there is much that while I cannot give it, you can take.

No Heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take Heaven.

No Peace lies in our 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, 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 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, the angel’s hand is there, the gift is there and the wonder of an over-shadowing presence.

Our joys too be not content with them as joys. They too conceal diviner gifts.

And so at this time I greet you, not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks, the shadows flee away.

by Fra Giovanni - 1513