Never should we so abandon ourselves to God as when He seems to have abandoned us. Let us enjoy light and consolation when it is His pleasure to give it to us, but let us not attach ourselves to His gifts, but to Himself; and when He plunges us into the night of pure faith, let us still press on through the agonizing darkness.
December 22nd, Streams in the Desert.

I’m spinning. It’s the time of the year I am sure. My thoughts and feelings are jumbled up in my head; happiness and sadness, anticipation and disappointment, crowds and loneliness. This is the time of family traditions. It is also the time that we brood on traditions gone awry. We think about how our Christmas seasons, in fact all of our holidays, have changed since our heroes left us. We see light-hearted moods, joy and happiness, but we feel a sliver of our own happiness is gone and cannot be retrieved. For some suffering a recent loss, the holiday season becomes positively dismal. What is there to celebrate, after all? (more…)