I.
When you withdraw into the desert, Christ,
you refrain from food and drink,
you distance yourself from the many good things
of this creation, given by the hand of God.
What is the purpose of this renunciation,
this stepping-back and withdrawal?
It is the opening up of space
for a deeper reception of the gift,
an expansion of the heart, inward and outward,
to overflow in greater love…
I know that your heart yearns, little one, to create something beautiful, a testament of love, a reflection, in the dimness of this world, of the radiant beauty of my own eternal light. I know the longing within to give birth without, the desire to create, sharing in eternal creativity. I want you to know, beloved, and to feel that the greatest masterpiece which I desire for you is the unspeakable beauty which is you yourself. You, the one whom I infinitely love, are the icon, transparent to my shining glory, enfolded in my grace, a blaze of fiery light bursting through the eyes, a figure whose countenance, whose heart, whose life is a reflection of the life, the heart, the face which is my own.