Unfolding Light

Christ is born. The wonder! The joy!
Stars sing brightly—
yes, light years away, they cheerfully sing.
Oceans clap, winds dance,
and even the whales sing their paean
to welcome the holy child.
Earth turns to the sun,
reveling in the light.
All Creation joys in wonder,
all Creation bows in awe,
how God so gently comes among us,
how love so beautifully blossoms here,
how grace and healing
make their home in this world.
We tune our quiet hearts, then,
to hear the throng of heaven
all around us, deep within us,
rejoicing.
Hush, and listen: Alleluia!

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          And the Word became flesh and lived among us.
                       —John 1.14

O Holy One, your love is no mere feeling
but an act of presence.
You are with us,
among, within and all around us.
The babe in the manger
reminds us:
You are here.
All of this is Holy.

Glory to God, and peace on earth.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          To you is born this day
          in the city of David
          a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Holy One.
                       —Luke 2.11


On a cold night, bundled in our fears,
tired from taking care of ourselves,
we come, curious:
maybe there’s something here for us.
Angels promised a savior,
but this is no one who could bail us out:
a mere infant, who could never fight for us,
or overwhelm our enemies,
sneak us out of the trouble we’re in
or take for us the lashes we have coming.
This is no one who could strike a bargain for us.
How could this one save us from the failure
of the lives we were meant to live?
He gazes up at us serenely
with utter trust, and, somehow it seems,
all the love of heaven and earth.
We are struck. Without our willing it,
something in us shifts. Opens.
A deep river long frozen thaws out
and begins to flow, a love beyond our command,
that frees us from all we fear or desire.
By his grace we love, and are saved.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Mary, most plain,
to your home, not of wealth but of welcome,
God comes.
To your dirt floor and bare feet and dark skin,
the Divine draws near.
In your eyes, that know hope and horror,
the Beloved sees.
In your hands that have only done menial work,
your face into which no one has ever looked closely,
your body no one has loved, your soul no one understands,
there Holiness settles.
Mary, most small and unworthy,
you who have not mattered to anyone,
now, not for your virtue, but God’s grace,
the Mighty One chooses you.
The love you shall bear into this world—
not by your own doing—will prevail forever.
Mary, Daughter of Love, Mother of God,
sister of all humankind—more like us than we wish—
blessed are you, and blessed is the fruit of your heart.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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The waiting room’s a weary place,
though we’ve become accustomed.
Something unsettling lurks. A rising sea.
In hospitals long ago, the smell of ether.
Shouting on the other side of the door.

We all feel alone,
as if we haven’t been gathered.
We work our worry beads.
We endure the unbearable wait.

Free of our hope or despair
of what’s in the other room,
you come alongside, belonging,
here, now, in this shabby room.
You make a home with us, wrap us
in a huge but silent presence
that absorbs our longing.
We want to be inside it;
we’re glad to be here.
Regardless of what will come,
you redeem this present time.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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There is such a thing as too much light—
glare, overexposure, whiteout, blinding flash.
LED-emergency-neon-advertising-brights
blast at us continually.
There is no silence of light.

We close our eyes to see better.
We enter into the darkness,
the shades of this world, its secrets;
our own shadows, veiled and blinkered,
the dark inner places where we most need healing;
the unknown that folds itself around us like night.
The dark consumes all our questions,
everything we’re waiting for.
We let it be dark— earth-dark, womb-dark.
Before any big bang, calculation is impossible.
Only what is given occurs.

In this dark, deeper than willing or knowing,
there is only being, and in the dark we find
it is being-with. Steadfast presence.
Something like home, like hands encircling.

We let the mystery enfold us,
the better to see.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man
          and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace,
          planned to divorce her quietly.
                       —Matthew 1.19

I know how you feel, Joseph.
I am disappointed in this world
and its hate and greed, daily violence,
cruelty and stupidity at the highest levels,
climate change, microplastics….
Sometimes I want to quietly disconnect.
To say Nope. Sorry. Never mind.
It’s not a world I want to stick with.

But an angel comes to me in a dream and says
Do not be afraid to commit to this world,
for the Divine is in it. There is in this world,
beyond your understanding, a blessing,
a grace, a Presence that will save it.
Even in the mess, name it Emmanuel,
God with us.

And I love this world after all.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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We are familiar yet ill at home
with what is wrong. Our uncertainty
is our assurance that You are not done
with us yet. Free of self-confidence
for the time being, we wrap ourselves
in a snow of want and not knowing,
and go out into the darkness that sings,
descending moss-furred steps
into the night where the small torch
of a single star will do, accompanied
perhaps by sheep though we can’t see them,
or angels we can’t hear, a night of dreams
that are there but can’t be recalled,
where a lamp beyond our imagining waits
to be lit. We long for more than we can name.
In this darkness, vast, but not barren—nestled,
like a womb almost—it is plain our yearning
is not our own but given. We are summoned.
In the midnight of possibility, cold and still,
where you already are, we wait to see you.
In time, our eyes adjust to the dark.
O Holy One, appear.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           “Joseph, son of David,
           do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.”
                              —Matthew 1.20

Mary was nowhere near ready
to say yes
and she said yes.

Joseph was ready to say no
and he said yes.

The magi had to set a lot aside.
Even the shepherds had to get up and go.

Faith is not in knowing
but in willingness.

O Sparkling Darkness,
you nudge us now and then.
You offer openings,
often disguised as closures.
Give us grace to attend,
and to say yes.

Brother Joseph says:
do not be afraid to marry the mystery.

Breath prayer:
                         Marry … the mystery

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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          She was found to be pregnant
          from the Holy Spirit.
                            —Matthew 1.18

The virgin birth may mean the child
is straight from God.

It may mean that Mary could bear the Divine
without anyone else’s help.

It may mean that God’s grace
is unprecedented, without cause.

It may mean that all we know
is so shallow as, at times, to be wrong.

It may mean that you, too, are susceptible
to the irruption of the Holy.

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