"Take Joy" by Fra Giovanni Giocondo

This evening we’ll travel back to 16^th century Italy. In 1513, Franciscan friar, architect, archaeologist and scholar, Fra Giovanni Giocondo, wrote this Christmas prayer “Take Joy” as part of a letter for the Countess Allagia Aldobrandeschi.

I salute you! There is nothing I can give you
which you have not;
but there is much, that while I cannot give,
you can take.
No heaven can come to us
unless our hearts find rest in it today.
Take Heaven.

No peace lies in the future
which is not hidden in this present instant.
Take Peace.

The gloom of the world
is but a shadow,
behind it, yet, within our reach,
is joy.
Take Joy.

And so, at this Christmas time,
I greet you,
with the prayer that for you,
now and forever, the day breaks
and the shadows flee away.

-Fra Giovanni Giocondo