surprises still

just because.
below is sir bobbyguev's last prayer for 2008 as shared in class.

the lecture today on creation and the tree of knowledge and evil and that snake
was very very eye-opening.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Heaven is Here: Down is Up and Up is Down
by HORACIO DELA COSTA, S.J.

Christmas is when we celebrate the unexpected; it is 
the festival of surprise.

This is the night when shepherds wake to the 
songs of angels; when the Earth has a star for a satellite; when wise men go on 
a fool's errand, bringing gifts to a Prince they have not seen, in a country 
they do not know.

This is the night when one small donkey bears on its 
back the weight of the world's desire, and an ox plays host to the Lord of 
heaven.

This is the night when we are told to seek our King, not in a 
palace but in a stable.

Although we have stood here, year after 
year, as our fathers before us, the wonder has not faded, nor will it ever fade; 
the wonder of that moment when we push open the little door, and enter, and 
entering find in the arms of a Mother, who is a Virgin, a Baby Who is a 
God.

Chesterton has said it for all of us: the only way to view Christmas 
properly is to stand on one's head.

Was there ever a house more 
topsy-turvy than the House of Christmas, the cave where Christ was 
born?

For here, suddenly, in the very heart of Earth, is Heaven; down is 
up and up is down, the angels and the stars look down on God who made them 
and God looks up at the things He made.

There is no room in an 
inn for Him who made room, and to spare, for the Milky Way; and where God 
is homeless, all men are at home.

We were promised a Savior, but we never 
dreamed that God himself would come to save us.

We knew that He 
loved us, but we never dared to think that He loved us so much as to become 
like us.

But that is the way God gives. His gifts are never quite what we 
expect, but always something better than we hoped for.

We can only 
dream of things too good to be true; God has a habit of giving things too good 
to be false.

That is why our faith is a faith in the unexpected, a 
religion of surprise.

Now more than ever, living in times so troubled, 
facing a future so uncertain, we need such faith. We need it for ourselves, 
and we need it to give to others.

We must remind the world that if 
Christmas comes in the depth of winter,
it is that there may be an 
Easter in the spring.