Month: January 2026

O Broken-Hearted One,
       we cry out to you.
Our anguish overspills all speech,
       our outrage escapes our words.
Yet you hear, for it is your own cry;
      the pain and the sorrow are yours.

The powerful worship idols
       of violence and lies.
They defy you in their golden palaces
       and murder you in the streets before us.
We long for the justice you promise,
       we yearn for the peace you offer us.

Enfold us in your righteousness,
       so we are not swallowed up in their evil.
Do not let our outrage become mere rage,
       do not let our resolve become resentment.
Still our hearts with your steady peace,
       steel our nerve with your serene wisdom.

As we breathe the fumes of cruelty,
       may our hearts be clear and merciful.
As shadows engulf us,
       may we still be your light.
In a time of despair,
       may we be alive with hope.
May we resist what is hurtful
       and disrupt it with gentleness.

O Slain and Risen One,
       fill us with your blessing,
send us with your love,
       and accompany us with your courage.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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             Jesus came be baptized.
             John said, “I need to be baptized by you,
             and do you come to me?”
             But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now,
             for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”
                        —Matthew 3.13-15

John’s was a baptism of repentance.
People ask, Wasn’t Jesus perfect? Did he need to repent?
No, Jesus was not perfect. He was human.
He embodied God’s love
in a real, regular, imperfect, human life.
Even if he were perfect he would need to repent,
which means to turn to God—
because we always need to turn to God.
Righteousness doesn’t mean perfection.
It means being in tune with God.
To repent is to listen and tune up.
To look again as if for the first time.
To keep balancing the bicycle.
To take a new breath.
To wake up to this moment,
and this one…
Repentance is not correcting the past,
but becoming present.
Sometimes it feels like waking up;
sometimes like dying and starting over.
Often like falling in love again.

Breath prayer:
                           Return . . . to love

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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              Where is the child who has been born a king?
                               —Matthew 2.2

Of course they didn’t find him in the usual places,
in the splendid, among the powerful, the successful.

Imagine the wonders they had to ignore
to finally find the wonder they had overlooked.

The holy one is among the unexpected—
I mean the unworthy, the undeserving.

Perhaps in their own tenacity the Magi found him;
perhaps in their defiance of Herod.

For those who are seeking the holy
the light of divine love shines in each of us.

Who knows by what act of your love
someone may set their compass?

We offer our gifts, we defy oppression,
and so lead the world to a revealing,

each of us, if we choose,
a star luminous with love.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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         They left for their own country by another road.
                  —Matthew 2.12

Life is one different road
      after another.

Even now, on the twelfth day of Christmas,
       it’s not too late to be changed.

God is seldom on the road we planned
      but one we were forced into.

Jesus’ miracles and parables are other roads;
      grace is always a detour.

Holy One, give me faith to let go, to turn,
      to see grace where there was none.

Give me faith to be nudged, and to trust.
      Give me the courage of new roads.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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              Magi came asking,
             “Where is the child who has been born a king?”
             When King Herod heard this, he was frightened.—Matthew 2.1-3

To one who rules by domination and retribution
love not only threatens, it disorients.
How does one fight such a sovereign,
whose rule is justice, whose law is mercy,
whose power is grace, whose authority is absolute?

Herod of my heart, surrender.
Beware your urge for power.
In the struggle for justice in the world,
and in the simplest conversation,
abdicate your throne.
Trust mercy.

Everyone is ruled.
Be ruled by love.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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             It was no messenger or angel
             but God’s presence that saved them.
                        —Isaiah 63.9


An old year has died:
a death we welcome.
Yet in all calamity, O God,
you have been with us.
At the grave of the old year
we give our sorrows to you.

At the birth of the new year
our hope is in you:
not that someone will come along,
or that something will happen;
but that you are with us.

Into the uncertainty of what is to come
we walk with the certainty of your grace,
the mystery of your presence.
Trusting, we look to a new year
with hope and joy.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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