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t a k e p e a c e
t a k e
p e a c e
h e a l i n g e n v i r o n m e n t s The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy.
fra giovanni dear friends,
As
I searched for a meaningful
gift for my brothers seventy-
fth birthday, I came across
this quote attributed to Fra
Giovanni, which is framed in our San Francisco re-
source center and is a favorite of Tracis. What can we
give our loved ones that truly re ects the depth of our
love and concern for them? We wish to share this with
you so that you may, in turn, share it with your
loved ones.
As we researched the Fra Giovanni of the late
fteenth and early sixteenth centruies, we dicovered
the mystery of the quotations illusive author. We
feel the mystery of its authorship only adds to its
allure. We hope you agree.
Peace and love,
kate/traci Fra
Giovanni Giocondo,
noted architect,
engineer, archeologist,
and theorist. Very little
is known for certain about his life and works. It is more
certain that he constructed the Palazzo di Poggio Reale
(Naples) and forti cations at Padua and Treviso and
that he diverted the course of the Brenta River into
the lagoons of Chioggia, in order to protect the city
of Venice. His fame was such in his own day that in
1514 Leo X appointed him, together with Raphael and
Antonio da Sangallo, to succeed Bramante as architect
of St. Peters. His humanistic activities include the
discovery and publication of the Letters of Pliny the
Younger and the publication of the De prodigiis of
Julius Obsequens, the Breviarium historiae Romanae of
Aurelius Victor and the Commentaries of Julius Ceasar.
The British Museum stated in 1970 that it had proved
impossible
to identify Fra Giovanni, the purported
author of this letter.
excerpt from the new catholic encyclopedia (1967) and
respectfully quoted (1989) A letter to the Most Illustrious the Contessina
Allagia Dela Aldobrandeschi
T
here 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 nd
rest in it 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.
Contessina I beseech you to look.
Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its
gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly
or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you
will nd beneath it a living splendour, woven of love, by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp
it, and you touch the Angels hand that brings it
to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a
duty: believe me, that angels 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 of purpose, so
full of beautybeneath its coveringthat you will
nd that 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,
wending through unknown country, home.
And so, at this Christmas 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 ee away.
fra giovani
christmas eve anno domini 1513