“Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm, all is bright
round yon Virgin Mother and Child,
Holy infant so tender and mild,
sleep in Heavenly peace!
sleep in Heavenly peace!

Silent night! Holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight;
glories stream from Heaven afar,
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia,
Christ, the Saviour, is born!
Christ, the Saviour, is born!
Silent night! Holy night!

Son of God, Love’s pure light
radiant, beams from Thy Holy face,
with the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord at Thy birth,
Jesus, Lord at Thy birth.”

Silent Night Christmas Carol, composed by Franz Gruber, first sung at St Nikolaus Parish Church, Oberndorf, Austria, on this day in 1818

Window at St. Nikolaus Church

“Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later, and somewhere else. Let’s be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.”

Henri Nouwen

“The universe is composed of subjects to be communed with, not objects to be exploited. Everything has its own voice. Thunder and lightning and stars and planets, flowers, birds, animals, trees – all these have voices, and they constitute a community of existence that is profoundly related.”

Thomas Berry

Winter Solstice

“Great Lady and Lord of the turning wheel of the year’s seasons, by whom the light returns, I call to you. Now, at the darkest time, when all of nature is still and cold, the change is made. There is a pause, as though between breaths, all nature waits, and then – the dawn comes early! There is rebirth of light and we begin again. Let hope and joyfulness be reborn, therefore, in all hearts. And let none be lonely. Let all see, as new light grows, how we may live peacefully and in shared happiness. Let war cease. Let us make a world fit for children.”

Winter Solstice Prayer by Rae Beth

International Human Solidarity Day

“All of us have monarchs and sages for kinsmen; nay, angels and archangels for cousins; since in antediluvian days, the sons of God did verily wed with our mothers, the irresistible daughters of Eve. All generations are blended: and heaven and earth of one kin: the hierarchies of seraphs in the uttermost skies; the thrones and principalities in the zodiac; the shades that roam throughout space; the nations and families flocks and folds of the earth; one and all – brothers in essence – oh, be we then brothers indeed! All things form but one whole.”

Herman Melville (1819 – 1891), writer, quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”

From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens published on this day in 1843

International Migrants Day

“People come here penniless but not cultureless. They bring us gifts. We can synthesize the best of our traditions with the best of theirs. We can teach and learn from each other.”

Mary Pipher

“How mistaken are those people who seek happiness outside of themselves, in foreign lands and journeys, in riches and glory, in great possessions and pleasures, in diversions and vain things, which have a bitter end! It is the same thing to construct the tower of happiness outside of ourselves as it is to build a house in a place that is consistently shaken by earthquakes. Happiness is found within ourselves, and blessed is the man who has understood this.”

St. Nektarios of Aegina (1846 – 1920)

Art by Odilon Redon, 1899

“”All things love each other. All nature is oriented toward a thou. All beings that are love are in communion with each other.. All beings love each other or feed each other, and are all united in a gigantic process of birth and growth and reproduction and death… All nature is in close touch and interwoven. All nature is in constant embrace. The wind which caresses me and the sun which kisses me, the air which I inhale, and the fish which swims in the water, the distant star and I who behold it: we are all in close touch with one another.”
Ernesto Cardenal

Life… is a place of no-survival, for we all die and all beings die. The question is: Is it also a place of life-before-death and love-before-death? How much love is truly shared? And how much are we part of that love?”

From Christian Mystics by Matthew Fox

“Everything around us is a drop of God’s love: animate and inanimate, plants and beasts, birds and mountains, sea and sunset, and the sky strewn with stars. They are small loves through which we come to Great Love.”

St. Porphyrios of Kasokalyvia (1906 – 1991)