Advent Day Twenty

I listen to books on CD when I work in my studio. Fiction, non-fiction and the occasional inspirational read. A recent book on motivation, will-power and making meaning in your life quoted  Howard Thurman, Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. Howard Thurman was a theologian, a world-renowned educator, a philosopher and a poet, and Dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University from 1953 to 1965. Thurman spent his life working to break barriers of divisiveness that separate people based on race, culture, religion, ethnicity, gender, and sexual identity.

Advent Day Twenty

Thurman also wrote a short piece inspired by the prayer of St. Francis that reminds me of what these days of anticipation and Christmas are about:

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among people,
To make music in the heart.