Merry Christmas, friends!

Or, Happy Christmas!
 (as they say in England).

by Pauline Baynes (illustrator of the Narnia books)

My lovely readers and kindred friends,

As this Christmastide dawns, may love prepare a great, gracious space in your hearts as Christ comes to fill it with his radiant light and presence. May you feast heartily. Sing lustily. Love fiercely. Enjoy this celebration of Love come among us to the mighty hilt.

A few words to make your spirit bright indeed on this lovely day (discovered via Tasha Tudor):

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today.
Take heaven!
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instance.
Take peace!
The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy.
Take joy!
Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty . . . that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim it, that is all! . . . And so I greet you, with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away.

"Letter to a Friend" by Fra Giovanni, 1513

And, one of my favorite paintings of the Nativity (I got to see it in person in Florence!):