FROM KARL RAHNER

And now God says to us what God has already said to the earth as a whole through his grace-filled birth: "I

am there. I am with you. I am your life. I am your time. I am the gloom of your daily routine. Why will

you not hear it?

I weep your tears. Pour out yours to me, my child.

I am your joy. Do not be afraid to be happy; ever since I wept, joy is the standard of living that is really

more suitable than the anxiety and grief of those who think they have no hope.

I am the blind alley of all your paths for when you no longer know how to go any farther, then you have

reached me, foolish child, though you are not aware of it. I am in your anxiety, for I have shared it by

suffering it. And in so doing I wasn't even heroic according to the wisdom of the world.

I am in the prison of your finiteness, for my love has made me your prisoner.

do not yet understand.

I am present in your needs. I have suffered them and they are now transformed but not obliterated from my

heart. This reality--incomprehensible wonder of my almighty love--I have sheltered safely and completely

in the cold stable of your world. I am there. Even if you do not see me now, I am there.

It is Christmas. Light the candles. They have more right to exist than all the darkness.

Thou shalt know Him when He comes

Not by din of drums--

Nor the vantage of airs;

Nor by anything He wears.

Neither by His crown, nor His gown

For His Presence known shall be

By the holy harmony

That his coming makes in thee.---15th Century Anonymous