A bit more 'warm and fuzzy' for the year end - beautifully expressed

I received the following from one of my colleagues at work. It really touched me - and so I would like to share it with my friends:

"I salute you. I am your friend and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you, which you have not got. But there is much, very much, that while I cannot give it, you can take. No Heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take Heaven. No peace lies in the future, which is not hidden in this present little instance. Take peace. The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. 

There is radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see. And to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look. Life is so generous a giver that we judging its gifts by their covering cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering and you will find beneath a living splendor, woven of love by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it.. and you touch the angel's hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial or a sorrow or a duty, believe me that angel's hand is there. The gift is there and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Our joy is too. Be not content with them as joys... they too conceal diviner gifts. Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering that you will find Earth but cloaks your heaven.

Courage then to claim it... that is all. But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together, winding through unknown country... home. And so at this Christmas time, I greet you. Not quite as the world sends greetings, but with a profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away.

Fra Giovanni Giocondo - 1513 A.D."

Just to clarify, I am not trying to 'push religion' here. I found the poetry and spirituality absolutely beautiful. It was written in 1513 by Fra Giocondo. Fra stands for "Friar". In case you wondered about the difference between friars and monks: Whereas monks live in a self-sufficient community, friars work among laypeople and are supported by donations or other charitable support. A monk or nun makes their vows and commits to a particular community in a particular place. Friars commit to a community spread across a wider geographical area known as a province, and so they will typically move around, spending time in different houses of the community within his province.