In our northern woods we hunger for the sun.
Our neighbors in Australia suffer intense heat.
This is the solstice: what is winter for me
is summer for you; that both are joined.

God pulls the mighty down from their thrones
and raises and empowers the lowly.
This is justice: that we are in this together,
that life is never mine alone.

In all our differences this we have in common,
that we are given to each other; and
that we are hungry, incomplete, that we are waiting,
that who we are has not yet been revealed.

In the fullness of time, the dance of both night and day,
the holy One comes to us, extreme of us and God,
solstice of both human and divine, and blesses us
with each other, completes us with each other.

Emmanuel, come.

____________________
Weather Report

Extreme,
with mixed banality and wonder,
as a warm mass of heaven meets solid earth
and human and divine occur simultaneously.
Expect periods of bright darkness
and revelation that remains mystery.

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

December 20, 2019

We sang Christmas carols in the gym at the prison.
The visitors sang out on all the goldies—
all those old British tunes and their smooth rhymes,
all the gloooo—ho-ho-ho-ho-horias.
The inmates mumbled along.
Everybody sang to the backs of the chairs in front of them.
Then we got to Feliz Navidad.We didn’t know that one so well—
but the guys belted it out with gusto.
They sang it to each other.
This was their song.

Shepherds on the hillside,
suddenly given good news
in their own language.

This is the mystery of Christmas:
God has come to sing our song,
in our language,
not the refined arias of angelic choruses
but the gritty, plain language of life lived,
failed, loved anyway—and saved. Feliz Navidad.

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

December 19, 2019

          Joseph, son of David,
         do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,
         for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
                  —Matthew 1.20

The question is not whether you love her.
The question is whether you will marry her.

You have been given only glorious ambiguity,
darkness marbled with starlight,
possibility breathed in silence.
You seek assurance; none is given.

Your life will not be as you wish it.
Those you love will let you down.
This world is full of flaws and disappointment.
It is also full of the Mysterious One.

Give yourself without knowing.
Betrothed, beloved, to uncertainty,
pledge your loyalty to this one you cannot know.
Do not pray to understand:
pray to be present, to be faithful, to be loving
when you cannot know what will come of it.

Do not be afraid to take this life
and marry it.

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

December 18, 2019

Lights out,
dark house.
Night sky.
Stars murmuring
their secrets.
Little candle,
light reaching
into blackness,
sparkling black.
Angels maybe
warming up,
maybe not.
Mystery descends,
personal darkness.
The more
than visible
moves closer.
Silence is
an open
door. Wait.

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

December 17, 2019

Earth and sky have coupled in the night,
the clouds have laid their body
down on the ground,
rounding, mounding everything,
disguised in white. Changed.
Every twig and branch is a word
in an unknown tongue, underlined in black,
bearing the weight of glory’s flesh.
Little saplings, snow-bent, bow in patient modesty.
The sun is absent,not moving.
Everything is still, silenced,
still contemplating what has happened.

Then a cloud moves.
Sun spills its golden confidence
into the blue woods,
a temple of surprises.

It is not too late to become a new person.

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

December 16, 2019

         Strengthen the weak hands,
                  and make firm the feeble knees.
         Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
                  “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God,
                  who will come and save you.”
                                    —Isaiah 35.3-4

You who sit by the bedside,
who stay late to finish the report,
who wrestle your tireless demons,
         do not fear.
You who gaze at the x-ray,
who face another meeting at the school,
who care for the aging parent,
         have courage.
You who lament our cruelty and greed,
who write letters about the climate,
who stand in silence outside the prison,
         stay firm.
God is not far, nor careless, nor scornful.
God is here, here to accompany,
here to love, here to save.
         Keep faith.
When you are weary God will strengthen you;
when you are afraid God will sustain you;
when you cannot go on, rest your head:
         God will carry on.
In your weak hands, in your feeble knees
the Beloved is present, full of grace:
not the outcome but the presence, always.
         Take courage.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
December 13, 2019

         You have brought down the powerful from their thrones,
                  and lifted up the lowly;
         you have filled the hungry with good things,
                  and sent the rich away empty.
                                    —Luke 1.52-53

Mary, peasant prophet, who changed history
without a man’s permission or patronage,
who married heaven and earth in your flesh,
Mary, Virgin Mother, Queen of Heaven,
whose submission is your throne:

you have seen the Righteous One’s opposites:
to make the human divine, to make earth into heaven,
to welcome the sovereign in a hovel, to make flesh holy.
You have seen the the salt of this sweet season:
to wrench our injustice:
not only to lift up the lowly but to pull the mighty down,
not just to feed the hungry but to empty the hands of the rich.
You have seen the paradox of God:
to reverse our own undoing,
to negate our negations, to disarm our powers.
You have seen the salvation of God:
to condemn our condemning.

Mary, open our eyes again
to the consuming fire hidden in the lily,
the beloved birth that is the ruin of our plans;
open our hearts to what it is the gift has come to destroy
and the danger in our consent.

May we conceive and bear such love.
Turn us, that it may be with us according to God’s word.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
December 12, 2019

Dearly Beloved,
Greetings, favored one. The Holy One is with you.
Do not be afraid: you have found favor with God.
And now, you will contain within yourself the body
of God, the flesh of love, the glory of heaven.
There stirs in you the mystery and power
of God’s great plan, God’s hope for humanity:
the salvation of the world in your hands, in your words.
The cosmic and the personal are one
in your womb, in your love, in your labor.
In you lies the seed of the whole garden.
Of the dominion of your love there will be no end.
The little things you do will burn with the energy
of heaven, the grace that turns galaxies and parts the sea;
that brings down the powerful and raises up the lowly,
feeds the hungry and sends the rich to find a new way.
And now, your kinswoman Mary in her courage
has also conceived this love, and has consented.
She in her compassion and wisdom has shown you
that nothing is impossible with God.

. . .
Breath prayer:

                  With me … your word.

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

December 11, 2019

         My soul magnifies the Holy One,
         for God, you have looked with favor
         on the lowliness of your servant.
                  —Luke 1.46

What if there was nothing special about Mary at all?
What if she was not particularly pious or virtuous,
but simply willing to hear the Word:
“You have found favor with God.”
What if all that’s needed to ignite a miracle
is the willingness to accept God’s favor?
What if to bring salvation to the world all God needs of us
is to receive God’s delight in us?
To imagine God’s saving grace growing within us.
To trust God’s tender regard for us
despite our lowliness, despite our undeserving;
despite all the hardships and struggles,
even the sin and despair, to trust God’s joy?
Not that we are better, only that we are beloved.
What if all God asks of us is
to say Yes to God’s Yes?
To hear God’s hope for us
and to reply with all our hearts,
“Let it be with me according to your word.”

• • •
Breath prayer:
                   Your Yes … for me

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

December 10, 2019

         Be patient, beloved,
         until the coming of the Lord.
         The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth,
         being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.
         You also must be patient.
         Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.
                  —James 5.7-8

Hope is not wishing: no, not that tentative.
Hope is not wanting: no, not that self-centered.
Hope is trust in grace unseen,
already there, already unfolding,
the seed beneath, the child within.
Hope is surrender to a greater movement,
acceptance that I am the thread
and the tapestry is vast.
Hope is confidence in spring as winter approaches.
Hope is belief in the fullness of time.
Hope is knowing in death and suffering
there is a healing presence.
Hope is patience, letting grace take its time.
Hope is planting ourselves in a future
that exists only in our acting:
raising children, loving enemies, planting trees.
Hope is awaiting the One Who is Here.

___________
Breath prayer:

         Hope … here.

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

December 9, 2019