Merry Christmas!

i thought this was apropos for the holidays~

Magnificat

All that I am
sings of the God
who brings his life
to birth in me.
My spirit soars
on the wings of my Lord.
He has smiled on me
and the blaze of his smile
no woman or man
shall ever forget.

My God is a gentle strength
who has caught me up
and carried me to greatness.
His love
space cannot hold
nor time age
and all quicken to his touch.

My God is a torrent of justice.
He takes the straight paths
in the minds of the proud
and twists them to labyrinth.
The boot of the oppressor
he pushes aside
and raises the lowly,
whom he loves,
from the ground.
With his own hands
he sets a table for the hungry
but the unfeeling rich
suffer the cold eye
of his judgment.

Our mothers and our fathers
he has held in his arms
and the future grows
like this child within me
for the God of whom I sing
bears us his son.

~John Shea

Source: Unknown

If ours is a piety that does not know how to laugh, a fierce humility that excludes the uninitiated, or even a consuming fire that burns but does not purify, then we have lost our way. We cannot have room for God if we do not have room for our neighbor.... Find space for spontaneity and a generous response. Find a place to welcome the stranger and to throw back your head and laugh with God.

Source: Thomas Hoffman, A Child in Winter

the raindrops fall softly on her eyelids
drops that landed as she wearily awaited the serpentine train
they trickle down her creased, dirt-stained visage
slowing making their way down
erasing and caressing away years of hard labor, ups and downs, life

"I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don't paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes"

~by Kaylin Haught

Source: Poetry 180 (selected by Billy Collins)