Jesus Is a Peacemaker

Jesus, the Blessed Child of the Father, is a peacemaker. His peace doesn't mean only absence of war. It is not simply harmony or equilibrium. His peace is the fullness of well-being, gratuitously given by God. Jesus says, "Peace I leave to you, my own peace I give you, a peace which the world cannot give, this is my gift to you" (John 14:27).
Peace is Shalom - well-being of mind, heart, and body, individually and communally. It can exist in the midst of a war-torn world, even in the midst of unresolved problems and increasing human conflicts. Jesus made that peace by giving his life for his brothers and sisters. This is no easy peace, but it is everlasting and it comes from God. Are we willing to give our lives in the service of peace?

- Henri Nouwen

Jesus Is Pure of Heart

Jesus, the Beloved of God, has a pure heart. Having a pure heart means willing one thing. Jesus wanted only to do the will of his heavenly Father. Whatever Jesus did or said, he did and said it as the obedient Son of God: "What I say is what the Father has taught me; he who sent me is with me, and has not left me to myself, for I always do what pleases him" (John 8:28-29). There are no divisions in Jesus' heart, no double motives or secret intentions. In Jesus there is complete inner unity because of his complete unity with God.
Becoming like Jesus is growing into purity of heart. That purity is what gave Jesus and will give us true spiritual vision.

- Henri Nouwen

Jesus Is Merciful

Jesus, the Blessed Child of God, is merciful. Showing mercy is different from having pity. Pity connotes distance, even looking down upon. When a beggar asks for money and you give him something out of pity, you are not showing mercy. Mercy comes from a compassionate heart; it comes from a desire to be an equal. Jesus didn't want to look down on us. He wanted to become one of us and feel deeply with us.
When Jesus called the only son of the widow of Nain to life, he did so because he felt the deep sorrow of the grieving mother in his own heart (see Luke 7:11-17). Let us look at Jesus when we want to know how to show mercy to our brothers and sisters.

- Henri Nouwen

Spiritual Power

"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be My witnesses..." (Jesus in Acts 1:8)

Can social transformation really ever occur without an accompanying spiritual transformation? Or can the impulse of reform last for very long without the motivation, sustenance and hope that faith can bring? Does social reform without spiritual power just become political correctness?

- Rev. Jim Wallis, editor of "Sojourners"

Jesus Hungers and Thirsts for Uprightness

Jesus, the Blessed Son of God, hungers and thirsts for uprightness. He abhors injustice. He resists those who try to gather wealth and influence by oppression and exploitation. His whole being yearns for people to treat one another as brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the same God.
With fervor he proclaims that the way to the Kingdom is not saying many prayers or offering many sacrifices but in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick and the prisoners (see Matthew 25:31-46). He longs for a just world. He wants us to live with the same hunger and thirst.

- Henri Nouwen

A Noted Clergyman

Some keep the Sabbath going to church;
I keep it staying at home,
With a bobolink for a chorister,
And an orchard for a dome.

Some keep the Sabbath in surplice;
I just wear my wings,
And instead of tolling the bell for church,
Our little sexton sings.

God preaches - a noted clergyman -
And the sermon is never long;
So instead of getting to heaven at last,
I'm going all along!

- "A Service of Song" by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

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

Jesus' Freedom

Jesus was truly free. His freedom was rooted in his spiritual awareness that he was the Beloved Child of God. He knew in the depth of his being that he belonged to God before he was born, that he was sent into the world to proclaim God's love, and that he would return to God after his mission was fulfilled. This knowledge gave him the freedom to speak and act without having to please the world and the power to respond to people's pains with the healing love of God.
That's why the Gospels say: "Everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all" (Luke 6:19)

- Henri Nouwen

Sole Custody Of Your Life

You walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree; there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on a bus, or in a car, or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account, but your soul. People don't talk about the soul very much anymore. It's so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is a cold comfort on a winter night, or when you're sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you've gotten back the test results and they're not so good.

- Anna Quindlen in a commencement address at Villanova

The conquest of Happiness

When some misfortune threatens, consider seriously and deliberately what is the worst that could happen. Having looked this possible misfortune in the face, give yourself sound reasons for thinking that after all it would be no such terrible disaster. Such reasons always exist, since the worst nothing that happens to oneself has any cosmic importance. When you have looked for some time steadily at the worst possibility and have said to yourself with real conviction, Well, after all, that would not matter so very much, you will find that your worry diminishes to a quite extraordinary extent. It may be necessary to repeat the process a few times, but in the end, if you have shirked nothing in facing the worst possible issue, you will find that your worry disappears altogether and is replaced by a kind of exhilaration.

- Bertrand Russell

The Unfinished Business of Forgiveness

What makes us cling to life even when it is time to "move on"? Is it our unfinished business? Sometimes we cling to life because we have not yet been able to say: "I forgive you, and I ask for your forgiveness." When we have forgiven those who have hurt us and asked forgiveness from those we have hurt, a new freedom emerges. It is the freedom to move on.
When Jesus was dying he prayed for those who had nailed him to the cross: "Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). That prayer set him free to say, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit" (Luke 23:46).

- Henri Nouwen

The Breath of God Within Us

When we speak about the Holy Spirit, we speak about the breath of God, breathing in us. The Greek word for "spirit" is pneuma, which means "breath." We are seldom aware of our breathing. It is so essential for life that we only think about it when something is wrong with it.
The Spirit of God is like our breath. God's spirit is more intimate to us than we are to ourselves. We might not often be aware of it, but without it we cannot live a "spiritual life." It is the Holy Spirit of God who prays in us, who offers us the gifts of love, forgiveness, kindness, goodness, gentleness, peace, and joy. It is the Holy Spirit who offers us the life that death cannot destroy. Let us always pray: "Come, Holy Spirit, come."

- Henri Nouwen

On The Journey Toward Reclaiming my Identity

Virginia Satir, the well-known psychotherapist, said, "Love brings up anything unlike itself for the purpose of healing." Through several years of counseling, this one sentence has helped in my recovery from sexual abuse. It is God's infinite love for me that continues calling me to the depths of my inner self, my true identity.
I know healing life's hurts helps me to become my true self. The struggles of life often create barriers to true love and understanding of self. Once we identify our struggles and make a conscious effort to heal, we begin to see clearly our true identity. Our real, God-centred identity is not the sum total of our experiences. Our God-centred identity is the inherent goodness that came with our creation. It begins whole and is powerful beyond measure. As we move through life, the wholeness gets chipped away and we have to consciously work towards healing.
What are the barriers that keep us from knowing our true, God-centred identity? What are the wounds that need healing? Why are we afraid to heal and to know our God-centred identity? Why are we so afraid to be whole? These are questions I ask myself often, and they continue to guide my own healing.
The love that brings up anything unlike itself to be healed is a love beyond our human grasp. It is the love that is given by the One who loves us infinitely more than we can ever fully understand.

by Victoria S. Schmidt

From Silence To Service

Here's a Quaker joke. A Friend takes a non-Quaker to Meeting for Worship. Everyone is sitting quietly with heads down and eyes closed. After five or ten minutes of continued silence the visitor becomes increasingly restless and puzzled. He nudges the Quaker and asks in a loud whisper, "When does the service begin?" The Quaker replies, "The service begins when the worship ends." Not exactly a knee-slapper, but then Quakers have never distinguished themselves as humorists.
The point of the story is that for Quakers there is a direct link between worship and service to others. The search for truth, which begins in contemplation, finds expression in action.

- Robert Lawrence Smith in A Quaker Book of Wisdom

A Home For Your Heart

When it comes to resting your soul, there is no place like the Great House of God. "I'm asking Yahweh for one thing," [David] wrote, "only one thing: to live with Him in His house my whole life long. I'll contemplate His beauty, I'll study at His feet. That's the only quiet secure place in a noisy world" (Ps. 27:4-5 MSG).
If you could ask God for one thing, what would you request? David tells us what he would ask. He longs to LIVE in the house of God. I emphasize the word live, because it deserves to be emphasized. David doesn't want to chat. He doesn't desire a cup of coffee on the back porch. He doesn't ask for a meal or to spend an evening in God's house. He wants to move in with Him...forever. He's asking for his own room... permanently. He doesn't want to be stationed in God's house, he longs to retire there. He doesn't seek a temporary assignment, but rather lifelong residence.

- Max Lucado in "Grace for the Moment"

You can be a fool...

Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit - Elbert Hubbard

Love Will Remain

Hope and faith will both come to an end when we die. But love will remain. Love is eternal. Love comes from God and returns to God. When we die, we will lose everything that life gave us except love. The love with which we lived our lives is the life of God within us. It is the divine, indestructible core of our being. This love not only will remain but will also bear fruit from generation to generation.
When we approach our deaths let us say to those we leave behind, "Don't let your heart be troubled. The love of God that dwells in my heart will come to you and offer you consolation and comfort."

- Henri Nouwen