In the Face of Suffering

If I did not believe, if I did not make what is called an act of faith (and each act of faith increases our faith, and our capacity for faith), if I did not have faith that the works of mercy do lighten the sum total of suffering in the world, so that those who are suffering on both sides of this ghastly struggle somehow mysteriously find their pain lifted and some balm of consolation poured on their wounds, if I did not believe these things, the problem of evil would indeed be overwhelming.

- Dorothy Day

All Things New

And he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” - Revelation 21:5

A darkness has come over Christianity in regard to this matter of renewal. We are so easily contented, so quickly satisfied with a religiosity that makes us appear a little more decent. Yet this cannot be all there is to our faith: Everything—everything—must become new. Not just a little taste of something new, but all things new.

- C. F. Blumhardt

Jesus Mourns

Jesus, the Blessed One, mourns. Jesus mourns when his friend Lazarus dies (see John 11:33-36); he mourns when he overlooks the city of Jerusalem, soon to be destroyed (see Luke 19:41-44). Jesus mourns over all losses and devastations that fill the human heart with pain. He grieves with those who grieve and sheds tears with those who cry.
The violence, greed, lust, and so many other evils that have distorted the face of the earth and its people causes the Beloved Son of God to mourn. We too have to mourn if we hope to experience God's consolation.

- Henri Nouwen

Jesus is Gentle

Jesus, the Blessed One, is gentle. Even though he speaks with great fervour and biting criticism against all forms of hypocrisy and is not afraid to attack deception, vanity, manipulation and oppression, his heart is a gentle heart. He won't break the crushed reed or snuff the faltering wick (see Matthew 12:20). He responds to people's suffering, heals their wounds, and offers courage to the fainthearted.
Jesus came to bring good news to the poor, sight to the blind, and freedom to prisoners (see Luke 4:18-19) in all he says, and thus he reveals God's immense compassion. As his followers, we are called to that same gentleness.

- Henri Nouwen

On The Journey Toward Reclaiming my Identity

There is a crisis in North America and Europe. People are stealing each other's identities. It begins with stealing or changing personal and professional data: vital statistics, credit card and Social Security numbers, health and life insurance policies, and anything else that in 2005 will distinguish one individual from another. Identity theft virtually wipes away the existence of a person, at least as it is defined on the Internet.
But the big question remains. Aren't we more than our ID numbers? Don't our identities reflect our uniqueness, the vital nature (not the vital signs) that distinguishes us from others? I don't want anyone identifying me from a list of variables that may include height, weight, health, or food preferences. Perhaps I am saintly, or evil. I suspect that is a more apt identity. I think of individuals' essential identities - not what they do, what God they worship, or what colour they are - as defining who they are as human beings.
I doubt that God has the largest database of all, though if there is one that really matters, it is God's. But God doesn't care about statistics. God accepts us unconditionally. Each of us is unique and wonderful to God.
If you are searching for your identity, don't look for it in a database or in anyone else's definition of you. Rather, look for it in your relationships with God, yourself, and those who love you.

by Shirley Kane Lewis

A Common Faith

Must we then have strange music... unlike the world's music, and a special language with an imagery that illuminates the minds only of the religious? Or dare we do what our Lord did, and see the Name hallowed in all life that is real and honest and good? Indeed, it was a scandal to the religious men of Jesus' day when they saw what He did with sacred things. With Jesus all life was sacred and nothing was profane until sin entered in. And so it was that the word "common," which used to mean profane and unclean, became the New Testament word for the Communion of Saints and for the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

- Howard Hewlett Clark

Freedom To Choose

"Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve,... But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15)
We have been given the freedom to choose what we see, what we pay attention to, what we rest our awareness on. There are zillions of things that can attract us, call us to themselves. Our task is to choose which ones we want to pay attention to, which ones we want to invest our energy in, for we cannot endure full consciousness of everything. We must focus on something more limited.

- Jane Marie Thibault in "A Deepening Love Affair"

The Final Step

It is amazing, the lengths God will go to get our attention. God will touch. He will tug. He will whisper and shout. He will take away our burdens. He'll even take away our blessings. If there are a thousand steps between us and Him, He will take all but one. But He will leave the final one for us. The choice is ours.

- Max Lucado in "A Gentle Thunder"

Solidarity

I don't believe in charity. I believe in solidarity. Charity is so vertical. It goes from the top to the bottom. Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other person and learns from the other. Most of us have a lot to learn from other people.

- Eduardo Galeano

Hope-Saturated Grief

"But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope" (1 Thess 4:13 NRSV).
When I was a young minister, a person informed me that Christians do not grieve. He said grief showed a lack of faith. He used this verse as his proof text, which he quoted this way: "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve." It's amazing how we can make the Bible say what we want by stopping where we like. Paul acknowledged that Christians grieve the death of loved ones. However, Christian grief is hope-saturated. It is not the hopeless grief borne by those outside of Christ.

- Craig Loscalzo

Jesus' Self-Portrait

Jesus says: "Blessed are the poor, the gentle, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst for uprightness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted in the cause of uprightness" (Matthew 5:3-10). These words offer us a self-portrait of Jesus. Jesus is the Blessed One. And the face of the Blessed One shows poverty, gentleness, grief, hunger, and thirst for uprightness, mercy, purity of heart, a desire to make peace, and the signs of persecution.
The whole message of the Gospel is this: Become like Jesus. We have his self-portrait. When we keep that in front of our eyes, we will soon learn what it means to follow Jesus and become like him.

by Henri Nouwen

What God Expects of Us

It is amusing to see souls who, while they are at prayer, fancy they are willing to be despised and publicly insulted for the love of God, yet afterwards do all they can to hide their small defects. If anyone unjustly accuses them of a fault, God deliver us from their outcries! Prayer does not consist of such fancies. No, our Lord expects works from us. Beg our Lord to grant you perfect love for your neighbour. If someone else is well spoken of, be more pleased than if it were yourself; this is easy enough, for if you were really humble, it would vex you to be praised... Comply in all things with others’ wishes, though you lose your own rights. Forget your self-interests for theirs, however much nature may rebel.

- Teresa of Ávila

Responding To God

Those who have received God's great salvation and are now in the family of God must live their lives with an awesome [reverence for] God. After all God has done on our behalf, we must respond with complete submission to His will. We will, and must, always see as God sees. For God's salvation came at a high price; it cost Him the precious blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. Through the death and resurrection of Christ we now have faith and hope in God. Since we have received such love, we must now fervently love all people for whom Christ died. For a Christian consciously to refuse to love the children of God for whom Christ died is to dishonor His death and ridicule His love. But when we walk in a loving relationship with God's people, the testimony to the world is profound. John 13:35 says, "By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

- Henry Blackaby and Melvin D. Blackaby in "Experiencing God Together: God's Plan to Touch Your World"

Jesus, the Blessed One

Jesus is the Blessed One. The word benediction, which is the Latin form for the word blessing, means "to say (dicere) good things (bene)." Jesus is the Blessed One because God has spoken good things of him. Most clearly we hear God's blessing after Jesus has been baptised in the river Jordan, when "suddenly there was a voice from heaven, 'This is my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on him'" (Matthew 3:16-17).
With this blessing Jesus starts his public ministry. And all of that ministry is to make known to us that this blessing is not only for Jesus but also for all who follow him.

- Henri Nouwen