Christmas thoughts
A Christmas greeting
For me, Christmas is not the triumph of light over darkness, but the consent of light to enter it without exemption. The eternal does not come to explain the world, to correct it from a distance, or to rescue us from its weight, but to inhabit it—to accept hunger, fatigue, vulnerability, and the slow obedience of days that do not resolve themselves. This is why Christmas cannot be celebrated without a measure of discomfort or silence: it confronts us with the question of whether we will remain where we are placed, tend what has been entrusted to us, and endure the cost of love without spectacle, applause, or escape. Incarnation is not an interruption of the world but a binding to it—the infinite choosing limits, the holy submitting to time, and meaning refusing to exist anywhere except in faithfulness: in the keeping of promises, in work that must be done again tomorrow, and in the care of a world that will not be redeemed by sentiment, force, or haste, but only by love willing to stay. Hope, if it is real, is not the promise of escape, but the willingness to remain—to work, to wait, and to love what has been given without guarantee.
Simone de Beauvoir – On responsibility
“Change your life today. Do not gamble on the future, act with the small, deliberate steps that bear fruit only through persistence.”
Alain de Botton – On quiet attention
“One of the most profound forms of generosity is the ability to see the small, ordinary details of other people’s lives, and to care for them quietly.”
Thomas Aquinas – On joy as fidelity
“Joy is the echo of God’s love in the human heart, not as entertainment but as a deep affirmation of existence.”
Simone Weil – On attention and presence
“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity. It is the way in which one truly enters the life of another.”
Wendell Berry – On labor and care
“The earth is what we all have in common, and the work we do upon it is the only work that truly matters.”
Thomas Merton – On contemplation and action
“The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image.”
Rainer Maria Rilke – On endurance and growth
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.”
Wendell Berry (again) – On hope and fidelity
“The future will be what we make of it, grounded in the patient, loving work we choose to do today.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer – On costly love
“Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously doing what is right, fully aware of the cost.”