God I pray
sometimes
not to have
the light
of the sun
that would
scare us all
even me
but even just
enough light
to help
one person
out there
just please
enough light
in me
you shining
to light
my own way.

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

February 19, 2020

         Six days later, Jesus led them up a high mountain.
         And he was transfigured before them,
         and his face shone like the sun,
         and his clothes became dazzling white.
                  —Matthew 17.1-2

Six days after what? And were there trumpets?
Hallelujahs loud? Bright lights? No, Jesus was
bright enough, it seems. But not some photo op,
dear Peter, sorry, not his great acceptance speech.
Six days after what just happened, happens always?
No, no speech at all but this brilliant silence, light
as of death surrounding him, the dead doing all
the talking: other greats, like him, but not the CEO’s,
the billionaires, the victors, no: just old ones, tired
of seeing the vision greater than greatness,
weary of dragging us toward heaven, six days after
what? Jesus talking about his death, the death of all
of them, all of us, the lost, the martyred, the sold,
the lynched, the shot, the Trayvon, the Sandra,
the witness, the prophet, the truth-teller, the weary,
six days —though it takes longer than that to do justice—
after he said —though words aren’t enough—
you have to die, taking up your cross, resisting evil
with nothing but love, shining with light, Beloved,
blessed and appointed—listen, keep listening—
surrendered, scrubbed and resurrected from the start,
heading already down the mountain, down into the valley,
into the darkness, the trouble, the woe, shining.

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

February 18, 2020

The evening light settles like snow on everything,
giving new shape to the gate beside the road,
and the people standing in the gate,
whose faces are of molten gold,
and whose hands are flocks of birds,
in which the hand and the light turn
at the same time, as if speaking to each other.
We are frescoes, perfected while the light is still wet.
Trees are poured down out of light
into ground that does not resist.
Their twigs bend almost imperceptibly under their yoke.
The air is so thick you like to move your hand through it.
In this light everything is a child,
or an angel, and even the darkness believes.

This does not mean anything,
but it helps me learn the light within,
and remember how to see,
and bear this luminous mantle as if it is not burdensome.

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

February 17, 2020

My Dearest,
every bit of beauty you see today
Is my gift to you.
You are the joy in my heart,
my delight and my hope.
I can’t take my eyes off you.
I desire your beauty,
yet I gladly share you with the world.
No matter where you are
I hold you close.
I will never abandon you,
never test or trick you,
never compromise my love for you.
No evil you could do
can dim my love for you.
I am the joy that sees you into being,
that hears you into who you are.
My heart beats in you.
I love you, and I am grateful for you.
Please be mine.

Love,
God

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

February 14, 2020

         You have heard.. “You shall not murder’”
         But I say to you that if you are angry with a sibling,
         or insult them you will be liable to judgment.
         When you are offering your gift at the altar,
         if you remember that someone has something against you…
         first be reconciled to your sibling,
         and then come and offer your gift.
                  —from Matthew 5.21-24

If you love the people of the world
and know them as your siblings,
if you care, you will clearly see injustice
and you will be furious.

Let your rage burn.
Do not quench its flames.
Let yourself be angry at what should not be.
The Teacher is not lulling us into docile politeness
in the face of demons;
but let your rage be against the demons,
not against the people possessed.

See how the Teacher turns our mind first
from being wronged to having wronged others.
First sweep your house of your own demons.
Seek forgiveness
and be reconciled to those you have wronged
before you make demands of those who wrong others.
Let the furnace of repentance refine your rage
into desire for kindness for all.
Some things need to be burned down, but not people.
Let nothing diminish your love for wrongdoers
even as you go at what diminishes their love.
Oppose the oppression, not the oppressor.

Let your rage be the fire of love,
not the ire of not getting your way;
the refining fire of justice,
not the consuming fire of anger.
Let your rage be refined with sorrow.
Out of the death of grief let passion rise,
burning desire for love among all.
Let that passion fuel your work for restoration,
the fire of love be your courage
to do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly with God.

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

February 13, 2020

          Love your enemies
         and pray for those who persecute you,
                  —Matthew 5.44

In the beginning was the Word.
The Word gives life,
the light of all people.
All people.

We bury the light,
the divine light in our heart,
we disbelieve it, deny it,
revolt against it.
It’s the very light—our fear of it—
that makes us awful.

Love the poor child,
lost and afraid
of their own light.
Pity them, and want for them only
that they come home.

Love that in everyone.
Love it in the struggling neighbor
and in the awful, the tyrant, the evil ones.

As you stand for justice,
confront the oppressor,
resist the bearers of evil,
do it with love in your heart,
for them, and for the world.
Disarm them as you must,
with love for the lost child in them
and for the ones they harm.

Keeping our heart in the light
gives us courage to fight evil
with love.

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

February 12, 2020

Go out into nature
and walk among its mysteries,
its articulate silences spoken
in an unspoken language.
Everything around you is the rest
of the cells within you.
Let the sky remember you,
the earth hold you,
let the deep wave call to you,
the river beckon you in,
the desert open its arms
too far, too wide,
the stars whisper to you
sweet nothings,
nothings at all,
trees, the other side
of your lungs breathing,
that forest within you breathing,
mountains moving toward sand,
rivers toward seas,
(keep breathing)
blossoms becoming complete,
the soil you will become,
until you enter their vanishing.
Go out into nature until
it is not out but in.

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

February 11, 2020

Holy One, Holy Oneness,
you whose heart is closer to me
than my own heart,
whose breath is the breath of my prayer,
whose love is the root of my life,
flow in me this day.
Breathe me into this life,
a song of your mercy,
a breath of life breathed into a gasping world.
Let me be a fruit ripening on your vine,
quiet in courage, steadfast in love,
drawing from your Spirit coursing through me.
Shield me from what destroys;
open me to give of myself;
bless me in what is surrendered.
Sustain me, guide me and accompany me
that I may live in harmony with your grace and delight,
fully present in eternal life each moment.
I am yours, Love. Love in me.
Amen.

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

February 10, 2020

The eye of the lake is closed,
flat as a lie, and as thin.

We could walk across the lake
and talk quietly, a long time.

Soon it will darken, soft spots
will spoil, neither ice nor water.

But for now the shield of cold,
the sharp white edges of air

hold the lake still, a pondering,
a loving embrace.

Maybe it is not time yet
for your birthing, your ripening.

A page of white, a sheet made ready,
what silence looks like.

Beneath the surface, fish,
and a whole green summer ahead.

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

February 7, 2020

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.

           You are the salt of the earth;
          but if salt has lost its taste,
          how can its saltiness be restored?  
                   —Matthew 5.13

Your salt is kindness.
Let all you do be salted with love.

Don’t leave your faith unsalted.
Don’t lose your love for anything else.

Be the salt of every moment,
releasing the flavor of grace.

Let love be what preserves,
what honors, what keeps.

Honor the grit of your salt,
the courage to seek justice.

Let the salt of your mercy
melt the ice of injustice.

Let your prayer be an epsom salt bath
in the kindness of God.

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

February 6, 2020