Feast of the Holy Family

The Sunday after Christmas is the day we celebrate the Holy Family. We also celebrate our own family and the life we have together. It is a beautiful feast and we should take time to be grateful for all the love we have received from our family - that includes extended family. My parents were wonderful but I also had a grandmother and five aunts to love me on my Dad's side of the family and a very young grandfather on my mother's side plus some holy and devoted great uncles and a great aunt who was like a grandmother. Surrounded by so much love, we grew up knowing that God loved us and so did others. My mother always told me, "Love others and they will love you!" Later, I found St. John of the Cross said, "Put love where there is no love and you will find love."

Here is another poem by Ivan M. Granger from his book, "Real Thirst: Poetry of the Spiritual Journey":


       Bent

Yes, seekers, do
sit up,
stand tall.

But hear
my bent secret:

       All saints slouch,

And lover's lean
into the divine embrace
and there
let the years pass.

       Struggling for straightness,
       your strivings shaken,

       learn what true knowers know:

Effort clears the way,
but the steps
are already taken.