Merry Christmas! We continue our seasonal retreat by reflecting on Christmas. Please share your retreat experience with others here in the comments.
Christmas Time, First Week: Jesus Is Light in the Darkness.
Petition: Ask for the grace to receive Jesus, the Savior, as the light of our path.A first-century philosopher observed: “When I light a candle at midnight, I say to the darkness: ‘I beg to differ.’” As we light our Christmas candles, we, too, say to the darkness in our world and in our own hearts, “You have no final power over us, for the first and final word is eternal light.”
—Excerpted from 2012: A Book of Grace-Filled Days by Margaret Silf
![Thanksgiving dinner, 1942, Marjory Collins [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Thanksgiving-dinner-1068x760-1-218x150.jpg "The Relationships That Make Holidays So Difficult")
