[nukkad] Letter Written by Fra Giovanni

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Sad is his lot, who, once at least in his life, has not been a poet. 
-Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine, poet, statesman (1790-1869)
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Letter Written by Fra Giovanni
Fra Giovanni, 1513


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 instant. 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, but we, judging its
gifts by the covering, cast them away as ugly,
or heavy or hard. Remove the covering and you
will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of
love, by wisdom, with power.

Welcome it, grasp it, touch the angel's hand that
brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, 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 joys, 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 all pilgrims
together, wending through unknown country, home.

And so, at this time, I greet you. Not quite as the
world sends greetings, but with profound esteem
and with the prayer that for you now and forever,
the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.



 This letter was written by Fra Giovanni Giocondo to
his friend, Countess Allagia Aldobrandeschi on
Christmas Eve, 1513. 

Born in Venice, Giocondo would become a priest, a
scholar, an architect and a teacher. He was indeed a
true 'renaissance man.'

In 1496 Giocondo was invited to France by the King and
made royal architect. If you've ever been to Paris and
walked across the beautiful bridges Pont Notre-Dame or
the Petit Pont -- both of these were designed by
Giocondo.
 



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