The true meaning of Christmas is expressed in the sharing of one’s graces in a world in which it is so easy to become callous, insensitive, and hard. Once this spirit becomes part of a [person]’s life, every day is Christmas and every night is freighted with the dawning of fresh, and perhaps holy, adventure. — The Work of Christmas: The Twelve Days of Christmas With Howard Thurman, p. 62
So when we think of Christmas, let us think of it as a time when we remembered the graces of life. It is important to seize upon the atmosphere created in this period, to let it tutor our own spirits in kindness and imaginative sympathy. — The Work of Christmas: The Twelve Days of Christmas With Howard Thurman, p. 56
The first step toward love is a common sharing of a sense of mutual worth and value. This cannot be discovered in a vacuum or in a series of artificial or hypothetical relationships. It has to be in a real situation, natural, free. — Jesus and the Disinherited, p. 88
If you dare to believe that you are beloved before you are born, you may suddenly realize that your life is very, very special. You become conscious that you were sent here just for a short time, for twenty, forty, or eighty years, to discover and believe that you are a beloved child of God. The length of time doesn’t matter. You are sent into this world to believe in yourself as God’s chosen one and then to help your brothers and sisters know that they are also Beloved Sons and Daughters of God who belong together. You’re sent into this world to be a people of reconciliation. You are sent to heal, to break down the walls between you and your neighbors, locally, nationally, and globally. Before all distinctions, the separations, and the walls built on foundations of fear, there was a unity in the mind and heart of God. Out of that unity, you are sent into this world for a little while to claim that you and every other human being belongs to the same God of Love who lives from eternity to eternity.
The quality of Christmas—what is it? It is the fullness with which fruit ripens, blossoms unfold into flowers, and live coals glow in the darkness. It is the richness of vibrant colors—the calm purple of grapes, the exciting redness of tomatoes, the shimmering light on the noiseless stirring of a lake or a sunset. It is the sense of plateau with a large rock behind which one may take temporary respite from the winds that chill. — The Work of Christmas: The Twelve Days of Christmas with Howard Thurman, p. 35
“If you pour a handful of salt into a cup of water, the water becomes undrinkable. But if you pour the salt into a river, people can continue to draw the water to cook, wash, and drink. The river is immense, and it has the capacity to receive, embrace, and transform. When our hearts are small, our understanding and compassion are limited, and we suffer. We can’t accept or tolerate others and their shortcomings, and we demand that they change. But when our hearts expand, these same things don’t make us suffer anymore. We have a lot of understanding and compassion and can embrace others. We accept others as they are, and then they have a chance to transform.”—Thich Nhat Hanh, How to Love
We become what we love
and who we love shapes
what we become.
We are to become vessels
of God’s compassionate
love for others.
—Saint Clare of Assisi
These words from Howard Thurman are an invitation to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. A blessed Christmas to each one of you, dear readers.
This Is Christmas
The evergreen singing aloud its poem of constant renewal,
The festive mood spreading lilting magic everywhere,
The gifts of recollection calling to heart the graces of life,
The star in the sky calling to mind the wisdom of hope,
The warmth of candlelight glowing against the darkness,
The birth of a child linking past to future,
The symbol of love absorbing all violence.
THIS IS CHRISTMAS
Gifts on My Altar
I place these gifts on my altar this Christmas;
Gifts that are mine as the years are mine.
The quiet hopes that flood the earnest cargo of my dreams;
The best of all good things for those I love.
A fresh new trust for all whose faith is dim.
The love of life, God’s precious gift in reach of all:
Seeing in each day the seeds of the morrow,
Finding in each struggle the strength of renewal,
Seeking in each person the face of my brother.
I place these gifts on my altar this Christmas;
Gifts that are mine, as the years are mine.
The Work of Christmas
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among others,
To make music in the heart.
Readings are from The Mood of Christmas & Other Celebrations (pp. 25, 26, 28)
On this particular Christmas Eve where there is so much warfare, hatred, fear, and greed these words of Thomas Merton speak volumes to me.
Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ has come uninvited. But because he cannot be at home in it — because he is out of place in it, and yet must be in it — his place is with those others who do not belong, who are rejected because they are regarded as weak; and with those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, and are tortured, exterminated. With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in this world. He is mysteriously present in those for whom there seems to be nothing but the world at its worst. — Raids On the Unspeakable and A Thomas Merton Reader, p. 365
The great spiritual task facing me is to so fully trust that I belong to God that I can be free in the world—free to speak even when my words are not received; free to act when my actions are criticized, ridiculed, or considered useless; free also to receive love from people and to be grateful for all the signs of God’s presence in the world. I am convinced that I will truly be able to love the world when I fully believe that I am loved far beyond its boundaries.
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