Merry Christmas to all!

I wish you all a very happy, holy, and merry Christmas today. I am thinking that happy means more to me than merry - maybe because happiness is deeper and lasts longer than merriment. Anyway, I am going to share some of a meditation called "Remembered in My Heart" from a book that I love by Macrina Wiederkehr; it is not a new book but one I return to and is called Seasons of Your Heart. She begins by saying: Every day I take my friends to my prayer. They are remembered in my heart....then
Today, my friends,
I am leaving my head for a while
I am on a journey to my heart.
I am taking each of you with me
to the oven of my heart
to the very center
where God lives.
I am taking you separately
one at a time.
I take you there to remember you well
like yeast remembers dough.
Remembering is a kind of loving
a kind of baking
and sometimes breaking.

With love, my God talks to me there
in the oven of my heart
And shows me why it's part of heaven's plan
that you became a part of my heart.

I remember you walking into my days
(or did I walk into yours?)
I reflect on all the ways
you've been grace to my heart.
I remember the times
you've been sacrament to me
a real presence for my journey, a communion
feeding my weariness new strength.

I am grateful for your presence in my life
because of you I own a warmer heart
a heart more breakable
more pliable, soft and rearrangeable.

When people touch me deeply
it is my heart that remembers.
And so, I remember you,
lovingly, dearly.
I cherish you, and then...
I leave you there, somewhere
in the oven of my heart.
I go back to pick up someone else
and bring them too
until we're all together
remembered in my heart.

I find joy as well as comfort in the love of my friends and want you to know this Christmas that I hold you all in my heart.