Preparing for the New Year...

Following is my revised list of "New Year's Resolutions - 1999 Edition"
RESOLUTION #1
1993: I will read at least 20 good books a year.
1994: I will read at least 10 books a year.
1995: I will read 5 books a year.
1996: I will finish The Pelican Brief
1997: I will read some articles in the newspaper this year.
1998: I will read at least one article this year.
1999: I will try and finish the comics section this year.

RESOLUTION #2
1993: I will get my weight down below 180.
1994: I will watch my calories until I get below 190.
1995: I will follow my new diet religiously until I get below 200.
1996: I will try to develop a realistic attitude about my weight.
1997: I will work out 5 days a week.
1998: I will work out 3 days a week.
1999: I will try to drive past a gym at least once a week.

RESOLUTION #5
1993: I will not spend my money frivolously.
1994: I will pay off my bank loan promptly.
1995: I will pay off my bank loans promptly.
1996: I will begin making a strong effort to be out of debt by 1999.
1997: I will be totally out of debt by 2000.
1998: I will try to pay off the debt interest by 2000.
1999: I will try to be out of the country by 2000

source unknown...

Learning From History

A father noticed that his son was spending way too much time playing computer games.
In an effort to motivate the boy into focusing more attention on his schoolwork, the father said to his son, "When Abe Lincoln was your age, he was studying books by the light of the fireplace."
The son replied, "When Lincoln was your age, he was the president of the United States."

Ho, Ho, Ho

I was taking a shower when my 2-year-old son came into the bathroom and wrapped himself in toilet paper.
Although he made a mess, he looked adorable, so I ran for my camera and took a few shots. They came out so well that I had copies made and included one with each of our Christmas cards.
Days later, a relative called about the picture, laughing hysterically, and suggesting I take a closer look. Puzzled, I stared at the photo and was shocked to discover that in addition to my son, I had captured my reflection in the mirror - wearing nothing but a camera!

source unknown (perhaps for a reason!)

Dad’s Revenge

A teenage boy had passed his driving test and inquired of his father as to when they could discuss his use of the car.
His father said he’d make a deal with his son: ’You bring your grades up from a ‘C’ to a ‘B average’, study your Bible a little, and get your hair cut. Then we’ll talk about the car.’
The boy thought about that for a moment, decided he’d settle for the offer, and they agreed on it.
After about six weeks his father said, ‘Son, you’ve brought your grades up and I’ve observed that you have been studying your Bible, but I’m disappointed you haven’t had your hair cut.
The boy said, ‘You know , Dad, I’ve been thinking about that, and I’ve noticed in my studies of the Bible that Samson had long hair and John the Baptist had long hair, Moses had long hair.......and there’s even strong evidence that Jesus had long hair.
You’re going to love the dad’s reply:
To this his father replied, ‘Did you also notice they all walked everywhere they went?’

Peaceful Tradition

Country music star Travis Tritt spent many years playing out-of-the-way joints before he made it big in the music industry. He reports that many of the bars were dangerous places, with drunk fans starting fights over the smallest matters. But Tritt found a unique way to keep the peace in such situations. He says:
"'Silent Night' proved to be my all-time lifesaver. Just when [bar fights] started getting out of hand, when bikers were reaching for their pool cues and rednecks were heading for the gun rack, I'd start playing 'Silent Night.' It could be the middle of July—I didn't care. Sometimes they'd even start crying, standing there watching me sweat and play Christmas carols."

Twang! The Ultimate Book of Country Music Quotations, compiled by Raymond Obstfeld and Sheila Burgener

The Christmas Truce

It was referred to as the war to end all wars. Yet, two decades after World War I the world found itself once again entrenched in a global battle. Why was the First World War referred to as the war to end all wars? It earned this name because it was believed that with all the modern weapons of war, no nation would dare attack another for the sure bloodshed that would follow. The destruction of the First World War was horrific with over 10 million giving their lives in the name of their country.
In the midst of this brutality, death and destruction one of the most peculiar sights in human history evolved on a Christmas night in 1914. It was a sight rarer than watching a Texas baseball team in the World Series. On this incredible night almost a century ago soldiers on the western front did the unthinkable. Only days and perhaps hours before these men had found themselves frozen to the bone in the cold rain and mud. The sound of mortars still rang in their ears. The sight of their brothers in arms falling to the ground from a volley of bullets was still fresh in their minds. Yet something remarkable was about to take place on this Christmas Eve.
It was a truce in the fighting initiated by the low ranking men selected to do the fighting and dying. By all accounts this Christmas truce was not started by the British. It was, in fact, a result of the actions of the Germans. Yes, the country that it had become easy to vilify during this time period because of their horrific leaders and government policies was in fact a nation of people with hearts like you and I. These German soldiers lobbed a chocolate cake into the trenches of the British. Imagine that; you are used to seeing grenades land in your trench and instead the enemy has lobbed a chocolate cake with a request for an hour truce. The truce was for a birthday party for their captain. The truce was granted.
As a soldier in this war, it was comforting to know that your enemy was in the same miserable conditions that you were - the cold, the mud and the stench of death. Remarkably, it was in these conditions that a truce was born and soon Christmas carols burst forth from the trenches of the Germans, once again, an olive branch. The British were at first reluctant and rightfully so, this was war and any trick is fair game in war. Although, it was recognized for what it was. Men with hearts, mums, dads, children, hobbies, girlfriends, wives and compassion overcome with that compassion on the anniversary of the greatest sacrifice in the history of mankind. It was Christmas and the anniversary of the birth of a man who laid down his life for others, and the Germans were overcome with this spirit.
That Christmas Eve soldiers who had been engaged in the war referred to as 'the war to end all wars' because of its brutality, tossed their weapons of destruction aside and embraced, sang Christmas songs and even wandered the battle field playing soccer with each other and sharing cigarettes. It has been said that hundreds and as many as thousands participated in this most magical holiday truce.
There is something about this time of year that you can't pinpoint. It is something that you can't put your finger on. It is a spirit that is in the air. It is a spirit that begs you to forget differences, embrace those you love and even those you don't. It challenges you to give until you can't give anymore. Sometimes the cloud of challenges in life can spur a person to brush aside the undeniable feelings that are in the air at Christmas time. Too often the pressures of life can convince you the spirit of joy and giving are gone and that what you are sensing is nothing more than a coincidence of the time of year. In 1914, a handful of low ranking German soldiers knew that what they felt in their hearts about Christmas was true.
These men did not brush aside the impromptu feelings of peace and love for their fellow man. Instead, they lobbed a chocolate cake and a note of truce. I encourage you to allow yourself to be overcome this Christmas with the same spirit that took these soldiers captive almost a century ago. You may feel you are entrenched in some kind of your own personal battle. If so, allow yourself to be overwhelmed with the spirit of giving and joy and toss a chocolate cake out there. You just might be surprised at the outcome…

by Ron White

A Christmas Prayer for Lonely Folks

Lord God of the solitary,
Look upon me in my loneliness.
Since I may not keep this Christmas in the home,
Send it into my heart.

Let not my sins cloud me in,
But shine through them with forgiveness in the face of the child Jesus.
Put me in loving remembrance of the lowly lodging in the stable of Bethlehem,
The sorrows of the blessed Mary, the poverty and exile of the Prince of Peace.
For His sake, give me a cheerful courage to endure my lot,
And an inward comfort to sweeten it.

Purge my heart from hard and bitter thoughts.
Let no shadow of forgetting come between me and friends far away:
Bless them in their Christmas mirth:
Hedge me in with faithfulness,
That I may not grow unworthy to meet them again.

Give me good work to do,
That I may forget myself and find peace in doing it for Thee.
Though I am poor, send me to carry some gift to those who are poorer,
Some cheer to those who are more lonely.
Grant me the joy to do a kindness to one of Thy little ones:
Light my Christmas candle at the gladness of an innocent and grateful heart.

Strange is the path where Thou leadest me:
Let me not doubt Thy wisdom, nor lose Thy hand.
Make me sure that Eternal Love is revealed in Jesus, Thy dear Son,
To save us from sin and solitude and death.
Teach me that I am not alone,
But that many hearts, all round the world,
Join with me through the silence, while I pray in His name:

Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.

Henry Van Dyke

Our Greatest Need

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator;
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist;
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist;
If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer;
But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Saviour.

Source unknown

Jesus the Teacher

He never taught in the classroom.
He had no tools to work with, no blackboards, maps or charts.
He used no subject outlines, kept no records, gave no grades,
And his only text was ancient and well-worn.
His students were the poor, the lame, the deaf, the blind, the outcast
And his method was the same with all who came to hear and learn
He opened eyes with faith
He opened his ears with simple truth
And opened hearts with love, a love born of forgiveness
A gentle man, a humble man,
He asked and won no honours,
No gold awards of tribute to his expertise or wisdom.
And yet this quiet teacher from the hills of Galilee has fed the needs
Fulfilled the hopes
And changed the lives of many millions
For what he taught, brought heaven to earth
And God’s heart to all people.

(Source Unknown)

Our Spiritual Leaders

The Church as the body of Christ has many faces. The Church prays and worships. It speaks words of instruction and healing, cleanses us from our sins, invites us to the table of the Lord, binds us together in a covenant of love, sends us out to minister, anoints us when we are sick or dying, and accompanies us in our search for meaning and our daily need for support. All these faces might not come to us from those we look up to as our leaders. But when we live our lives with a simple trust that Jesus comes to us in our Church, we will see the Church's ministry in places and in faces where we least expect it.
If we truly love Jesus, Jesus will send us the people to give us what we most need. And they are our spiritual leaders.

- Henri Nouwen

The Faithful Saints

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 1:1 NRSV)
A five-year-old named Justin heard the story of the monk Simon the Stylite, who attained sainthood by sitting on a lofty pillar for forty years. The boy was intrigued with literally climbing closer to God, so he decided to imitate Simon. Placing the kitchen stool on top of the table, he climbed his precarious perch and began his journey to sainthood. His mother saw him and cried, "Justin get off that stool before you break something!" Justin jumped off his perch and marched out of the room saying, "You can't become a saint in your own home."
Paul called the Ephesians saints. It's easy to view some people as true saints - Mother Teresa or Billy Graham, for example. However, it's more difficult to comprehend that all believers (including you and me!) are saints in God's eyes. You don't have to stay perched on a lofty pillar to attain sainthood. A saint is simply a person who belongs to God and is set apart for Him. If Paul wrote a letter to you, a believer, he would call you a saint.

- Lenya Heitzig and Penny Pierce Rose "Pathway to God's Treasure: Ephesians"

Only One Student a Follower

S. I. McMillen, in his book None of These Diseases, tells a story of a young woman who wanted to go to college, but her heart sank when she read the question on the application blank that asked, "Are you a leader?"
Being both honest and conscientious, she wrote, "No," and returned the application, expecting the worst. To her surprise, she received this letter from the college: "Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new leaders. We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have at least one follower."

I Fled Him

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

Francis Thompson (1859-1907), from "The Hound of Heaven"

A Winning Attitude

It gives me great peace to know that no matter how good or how bad I do, the Lord loves me. That's all that really matters to me. Baseball isn't what everything is about. It's about the way I'm being a Christian husband, a Christian father, or the way I'm living my life and trying to be a Christian testimony to people.

- Andy Pettitte, Houston Astros pitcher, in "Sports Spectrum" magazine

Forgiving the Church

When we have been wounded by the Church, our temptation is to reject it. But when we reject the Church it becomes very hard for us to keep in touch with the living Christ. When we say, "I love Jesus, but I hate the Church," we end up losing not only the Church but Jesus too. The challenge is to forgive the Church. This challenge is especially great because the Church seldom asks us for forgiveness, at least not officially. But the Church as an often fallible human organisation needs our forgiveness, while the Church as the living Christ among us continues to offer us forgiveness.
It is important to think about the Church not as "over there" but as a community of struggling, weak people of whom we are part and in whom we meet our Lord and Redeemer.

- Henri Nouwen

Full Speed Astern

Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement. He is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realising that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor - that is the only way out of a hole. This process of surrender - this movement full speed astern - is repentance.

- C. S. Lewis

The Authority of Compassion

The Church often wounds us deeply. People with religious authority often wound us by their words, attitudes, and demands. Precisely because our religion brings us in touch with the questions of life and death, our religious sensibilities can get hurt most easily. Ministers and priests seldom fully realise how a critical remark, a gesture of rejection, or an act of impatience can be remembered for life by those to whom it is directed.
There is such an enormous hunger for meaning in life, for comfort and consolation, for forgiveness and reconciliation, for restoration and healing, that anyone who has any authority in the Church should constantly be reminded that the best word to characterize religious authority is compassion. Let's keep looking at Jesus whose authority was expressed in compassion.

- Henri Nouwen

The Faith Of Rosa Parks

Most people know the story of the seamstress who helped ignite the civil-rights movement, but many people don't know that Rosa Parks [was] a devout Christian, and that it was her faith that gave her the strength to do what she did that day in 1955.
In her book, entitled "Quiet Strength", Parks says her belief in God developed early in life. "Every day before supper and before we went to services on Sundays," Parks says, "my grandmother would read the Bible to me, and my grandfather would pray. We even had devotions before going to pick cotton in the fields. Prayer and the Bible," she recalls, "became a part of my everyday thoughts and beliefs. I learned to put my trust in God and to seek Him as my strength."...
When your friends and children read about... Rosa Parks..., make sure they know about the unimpeachable Source of her quiet strength. Her brave, dignified example just might encourage them to seek out that same Source for themselves.

- Chuck Colson

On The Journey Towards Caring for Others

After being diagnosed with a brain tumor, my mother's health deteriorated gradually and for about seven long years my father was her primary care giver. The tasks grew tiring and tedious. She begged to be relegated to her bed and would use every conniving trick to lie down even though everyone knew she need more physical activity. And, the ordeal to get her to eat to nourish her body became a daily struggle. My father would anguish over trying to do all the doctors recommended and often felt a failure. However, he would get up each day with renewed effort and a firm resolve to try to prolong her life. I parallel that to how God must feel watching us destroy creation and one another in a world of war and poverty. Our gifts are so abundant and as intimate as our very breath. Any loved one always wants the best for the beloved and we are graced time and time again with all that we need to grow spiritually with one hand outstretched and the other behind our back. Each person in our world deserves a dedicated caregiver as faithful as God himself. Perhaps we are the reluctant hands that hold the power.

- Barbara Fuhrwerk

Are You Real?

The isolated individual is not a real person. A real person is one who lives in and for others. And the more personal relationships we form with others, the more we truly realise ourselves as persons. It has even been said that there can be no true person unless there are two, entering into communication with one another.
This idea of openness to others could be summed up under the word love. By love, I don’t mean merely an emotional feeling, but a fundamental attitude. In its deepest sense, love is the life, the energy, of God in us. We are not truly personal as long as we are turned in on ourselves, isolated from others. We only become personal if we face other persons, and relate to them.

- Kallistos Ware

Meeting Christ in the Church

Loving the Church does not require romantic emotions. It requires the will to see the living Christ among his people and to love them as we want to love Christ himself. This is true not only for the "little" people - the poor, the oppressed, the forgotten - but also for the "big" people who exercise authority in the Church.
To love the Church means to be willing to meet Jesus wherever we go in the Church. This love doesn't mean agreeing with or approving of everyone's ideas or behavior. On the contrary, it can call us to confront those who hide Christ from us. But whether we confront or affirm, criticise or praise, we can only become fruitful when our words and actions come from hearts that love the Church.

- Henri Nouwen

Or Let Me Die!

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So it is now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

- William Wordsworth, "Intimations of Immortality"

Coming Home

Think not your work of no account
Although it may be small;
The Lord marks well your faithfulness --
He knows you gave your all.

An elderly missionary couple who had served God for 50 years in a remote African village returned to the United States for a well-earned retirement. When they arrived, however, no one was there to greet them because of some confusion at the mission office. They had no one to help them with their suitcases and trunks, and no one to move them into their home.
The old gentleman complained to his wife, "We've come home after all these years and there's no one who cares."
The man's bitterness grew as they settled into their new home. His wife, a bit fed up with his complaining, suggested that he take up the matter with God. So the man went to his bedroom and spent time in prayer. When he came out he had a new look on his face, which prompted his wife to ask what had happened. "Well," he replied, "I told God that I've come home and no one cares." "And what did God say?" she asked. He said, "You're not home yet."
You too may serve for years in a place where no one notices you or cares what you've done. But God sees and cares. One day, when we reach our eternal home, "each one's praise will come from God" (1 Corinthians 4:5). In the meantime, let's be faithful.

- David Roper

Loving the Church

Loving the Church often seems close to impossible. Still, we must keep reminding ourselves that all people in the Church - whether powerful or powerless, conservative or progressive, tolerant or fanatic - belong to that long line of witnesses moving through this valley of tears, singing songs of praise and thanksgiving, listening to the voice of their Lord, and eating together from the bread that keeps multiplying as it is shared. When we remember that, we may be able to say, "I love the Church, and I am glad to belong to it."
Loving the Church is our sacred duty. Without a true love for the Church, we cannot live in it in joy and peace. And without a true love for the Church, we cannot call people to it.

- Henri Nouwen

As the Sun at Noon

He brought light out of darkness, not out of a lesser light, and he can bring thee summer out of winter, though thou hast no spring. Though in the ways of fortune, understanding, or conscience thou hast been benighted till now, wintered and frozen, clouded and eclipsed, damped and benumbed, smothered and stupefied, now God comes to thee, not as the dawning of the day, not as the bud of the spring, but as the sun at noon.

- John Donne

Being in the Church, Not of It

Often we hear the remark that we have live in the world without being of the world. But it may be more difficult to be in the Church without being of the Church. Being of the Church means being so preoccupied by and involved in the many ecclesial affairs and clerical "ins and outs" that we are no longer focused on Jesus. The Church then blinds us from what we came to see and deafens us to what we came to hear. Still, it is in the Church that Christ dwells, invites us to his table, and speaks to us words of eternal love.
Being in the Church without being of it is a great spiritual challenge.

- Henri Nouwen

The Garden of the Saints

The Church is a very human organisation but also the garden of God's grace. It is a place where great sanctity keeps blooming. It is a place where great sanctity keeps blooming. Saints are people who make the living Christ visible to us in a special way. Some saints have given their lives in the service of Christ and his Church; others have spoken and written words that keep nurturing us; some have lived heroically in difficult situations; others have remained hidden in quiet lives of prayer and meditation; some were prophetic voices calling for renewal; others were spiritual strategists setting up large organisations or networks of people; some were healthy and strong; others were quite sick, and often anxious and insecure.
But all of them in their own ways lived in the Church as in a garden where they heard the voice calling them the Beloved and where they found the courage to make Jesus the center of their lives.

- Henri Nouwen

Wisdom from the Desert

The thought that the affairs of the world, like those of the stars, are in God's hands - and therefore in good hands - apart from being actually true, is something that should give great satisfaction to anyone who looks to the future with hope. It should be the source of faith, joyful hope, and, above all, of deep peace. What have I to fear if everything is guided and sustained by God? Why get so worried, as if the world were in the hands of me and my fellow men? And yet it is so difficult to hold onto faith...

- Carlo Carretto

The Church, God's People

As Jesus was one human person among many, the Church is one organisation among many. And just as there may have been people with more attractive appearances than Jesus, there may be many organisations that are a lot better run than the Church. But Jesus is the Christ appearing among us to reveal God's love, and the Church is his people called together to make his presence visible in today's world.
Would we have recognised Jesus as the Christ if we had met him many years ago? Are we able to recognise him today in his body, the Church? We are asked to make a leap of faith. If we dare to do it our eyes will be opened and we will see the glory of God.

- Henri Nouwen

Superabundant Grace

Over the centuries the Church has done enough to make any critical person want to leave it. Its history of violent crusades, pogroms, power struggles, oppression, excommunications, executions, manipulation of people and ideas, and constantly recurring divisions is there for everyone to see and be appalled by.
Can we believe that this is the same Church that carries in its centre the Word of God and the sacraments of God's healing love? Can we trust that in the midst of all its human brokenness the Church presents the broken body of Christ to the world as food for eternal life? Can we acknowledge that where sin is abundant grace is superabundant, and that where promises are broken over and again God's promise stands unshaken? To believe is to answer yes to these questions.

- Henri Nouwen

Asking The Right Questions

Let me suggest that the bad things that happen to us in our lives do not have a meaning when they happen to us. They do not happen for any good reason which would cause us to accept them willingly. But we can give them a meaning. We can redeem these tragedies from senselessness by imposing meaning on them. The question we should be asking is not, 'Why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this?' That is really an unanswerable, pointless question... We... need to get over the questions that focus on the past and on the pain. A better question would be, 'Now that this has happened to me, what am I going to do about it?'...
The facts of life and death are neutral. We, by our responses, give suffering either a positive or a negative meaning. Illness, accidents, human tragedies kill people. But they do not necessarily kill life or faith. If the death and suffering of someone we love makes us bitter, jealous, against all religion, and incapable of happiness, we turn the person who died into one of the 'devil's martyrs'. If suffering and death in someone close to us brings us to explore the limits of our capacity for strength and love and cheerfulness, if it leads us to discover sources of consolation we never knew before, then we make the person into a witness for the affirmation of life rather than its rejection.
This means... that there is one thing we can still do for those we loved and lost. We could not keep them alive. Perhaps we could not even significantly lessen their pain. But the one crucial thing we can do for them after their death is to let them be witnesses for God and for life, rather than, by our despair and loss of faith, making them 'the devil's martyrs'.

- Harold Kushner in "When Bad Things Happen to Good People"

Some thoughts on Prayer

To clasp one’s hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world. - Karl Barth

The effect of prayer is union with God, and if someone is with God, he is separated from the enemy. Through prayer we guard our chastity, control our temper, and rid ourselves of vanity. It makes us forget injuries, overcomes envy, defeats injustice, and makes amends for sin. Through prayer we obtain physical well-being, a happy home, and a strong, well-ordered society. Prayer shields the wayfarer, protects the sleeper, and gives courage to those who keep vigil. It will refresh you when you are weary and comfort you when you are sorrowful. Prayer is the delight of the joyful as well as the solace of the afflicted. Prayer is intimacy with God and contemplation of the invisible. It is joy in things of the present, and the substance of things to come. - Gregory of Nyssa

Prayer at an early hour decides over the day. Wasted time of which we are later ashamed; temptations we yield to; weaknesses; lethargy in our work; disorder and lack of discipline in our thoughts and in our interaction with others—all these frequently have their root in neglecting prayer in the morning. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Young man, be not forgetful of prayer. Remember, every day and whenever you can, to repeat to yourself, “Lord, have mercy on all who appear before Thee today.” For every hour and every moment thousands of men leave life on this earth, and their souls appear before God. And how many of them depart in solitude; unknown, sad, dejected because no one mourns for them or even knows whether they have lived or not? Behold, from the other end of the earth, perhaps, your prayer for their rest will rise up to God, though you knew them not nor they you. How must it feel to a soul standing in dread before the Lord to sense at such an instant that for him too there is one to pray, that there is a fellow creature left on earth to love him too? God will look on you both more graciously, for if you have had pity on him, how much more will He have pity, who is infinitely more loving and merciful than you? And He will forgive him for your sake. - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Pray, even if you feel nothing, see nothing. For when you are dry, empty, sick, or weak, at such a time is your prayer most pleasing to God, even though you may find little joy in it. This is true of all believing prayer. - Dame Julian of Norwich

The Two Sides of One Faith

Our faith in God who sent his Son to become God-with-us and who, with his Son, sent his Spirit to become God-within-us cannot be real without our faith in the Church. The Church is that unlikely body of people through whom God chooses to reveal God's love for us. Just as it seems unlikely to us that God chose to become human in a young girl living in a small, not very respected town in the Middle East nearly two thousand years ago, it seems unlikely that God chose to continue his work of salvation in a community of people constantly torn apart by arguments, prejudices, authority conflicts, and power games.
Still, believing in Jesus and believing in the Church are two sides of one faith. It is unlikely but divine!

- Henri Nouwen

On The Journey To Caring for Others

On a CitiHope International relief mission in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after Hurricane Katrina, I was approached with a request: On our way home, could our Angel Flight East jet fly to Houston to pick up a displaced minor and take him to a family member in Rhode Island? We did some calculations: Houston would require another hour's flight time at a cost of $2,000 for fuel, maintenance, and the two pilots. We decided to do it.
At a private airport in Houston, we met our thirteen-year-old passenger, Jerry (not his real name). When he saw the jet, Jerry asked, "You mean I get to fly in this?" The pilots told him "You bet!" After signing the necessary paperwork, I heard myself say to Jerry: "Listen, we flew all the way here to pick you up for one reason: Because you are special!"
During the three-hour flight, Jerry's story came out in bits and pieces. He has a fifteen-year-old brother who had decided not to join him. He also has two younger sisters, who live with "Auntie." "My father and grandmother raised us," Jerry said. "I never knew my mother." Their grandmother died a couple years ago. "We made it through the hurricane okay," he explained, "but when the levees broke, our apartment was flooded. My cousin and I crossed the street in water up to our necks. I stepped in a hole, and he had to pull me up. I don't know how to swim."
They waded across the street to gather food at the closest grocery store. Unable to return to their lower-level apartment, they climbed to the roof of the complex, where they joined about thirty-five neighbours. The third day after the storm, a helicopter found them and flew them out of the city. Jerry's brother and his cousin were with him, but the transfer buses went on to different shelters, and the boys were separated. Jerry ended up alone at the Houston Astrodome, where he stayed for nearly two weeks. His father had disappeared and his mother, we were told, had drowned.
Soon we reached our destination. We took pictures and said goodbye. I arrived back home at 12:30 a.m., exhausted from my eighteen-hour day. Yet it was a sweet exhaustion of mission accomplished: a million dollars' worth of medicine delivered and a missing boy transported to his new guardian.
Was it worth the $2,000 to pick him up in a private jet rather than purchase a coach-class ticket on Continental? Through the generosity of the owners of the Saber 65 and the mission of Angel Flight, I had the means to give Jerry this trip, and the privilege to tell him: "Listen, we flew all the way here to pick you up for one reason: Because you are special!"
I can still see Jerry's winning smile and wide eyes when he got on the plane. This poor kid from New Orleans flying in a corporate jet was worth every dollar spent. Sometimes it takes extravagant efforts to show people they are special and loved.

- Michael J. Christensen

Our Greatest Wealth

To bless in the biblical sense means to ask for God's blessing, we're not asking for more of what we could get ourselves. We're crying out for the wonderful, unlimited goodness that only God has power to know about or give us. This kind of richness is what the writer was referring to in Proverbs: "The Lord's blessing is our greatest wealth; all our work adds nothing to it." (Proverbs 10:22 TLB)

- Bruce Wilkinson in "The Prayer of Jabez"

Unless You Become a Child...

One thing children certainly accomplish, and that is that they love and wonder at the people and the universe around them. They live in the midst of squalour and confusion and see it now. They see people at the moment and love them and admire them. They forgive and they go on loving. They may look at the most vicious person, and if he is at that moment good and kind and doing something that they can be interested in or admire, there they are, pouring out their hearts to him. Oh, I can write with authority. I have my own little grandchildren with me right now, and they see only the beauty and the joy of other people. There is no criticism in their minds and hearts of those around them.

- Dorothy Day

God's Unconditional Love

Why is it so hard for us to believe that God's love really is unconditional and that we should imitate God's love not only for others, but also for ourselves?
Perhaps we have regarded self-centred behaviour too harshly. We are unwilling or unable to give ourselves the same gentle grace that God offers us and that we believe should be offered to others. Leap from doubt to belief and remember that God loves you, delights in you, and yearns for your response.

- Rueben P. Job & Norman Shawchuck in "A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God"

Believing in the Church

The Church is an object of faith. In the Apostles' Creed we pray: "I believe in God, the Father, ... in Jesus Christ, his only Son and in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting." We must believe in the Church! The Apostles' Creed does not say that the Church is an organisation that helps us to believe in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. No, we are called to believe in the Church with the same faith we believe in God.
Often it seems harder to believe in the Church than to believe in God. But whenever we separate our belief in God from our belief in the Church, we become unbelievers. God has given us the Church as the place where God becomes God-with-us.

- Henri Nouwen

If This Grace Were Ours

It is the rare person who, looking back over his life and seeing what he has done to it, hasn't sighed for a chance to redeem what he has cheaply used or carelessly ruined. If only somehow, somewhere, there was a way to live again the days we have darkened with our blind haste - the innumerable occasions when our indifference trod on all the pearls of God’s graciousness; the times when our pride, or our fear, or our meanness poured the acid of contempt over the fair countenance of another’s soul! If this grace were ours, how we would leap to the chance!

- Samuel Howard Miller

The Difficulty of Resisting Temptation

No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means.
This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting it, not by giving in. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.
That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it.

- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Light In The Darkness

One day, a young minister who had not been at his new church very long decided it was the darkest, most cheerless church he had ever seen. Even on a sunny day it was more of shadows than of sunshine. And when it was cloudy or night had fallen it was downright dismal. Therefore, at the next officers' meeting he requested that they vote to buy a large chandelier to be hung high and proper in the sanctuary. He was left speechless by their reply. "Can't do it. First of all, we can't afford it. Second, no one can spell it. Third, we wouldn't know where to put it. And fourth, what we really need in the sanctuary is some more light."

The Church, Spotless and Tainted

The Church is holy and sinful, spotless and tainted. The Church is the bride of Christ, who washed her in cleansing water and took her to himself "with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless" (Ephesians 5:26-27). The Church too is a group of sinful, confused, anguished people constantly tempted by the powers of lust and greed and always entangled in rivalry and competition.
When we say that the Church is a body, we refer not only to the holy and faultless body made Christ-like through baptism and Eucharist but also to the broken bodies of all the people who are its members. Only when we keep both these ways of thinking and speaking together can we live in the Church as true followers of Jesus.

- Henri Nouwen

Too Big to Put Behind

Disappointment and loss are a part of every life. Many times we can put them behind us and get on with the rest of our lives. But not everything is amenable to this approach. Some things are too big or too deep to do this, and we will have to leave important parts of ourselves behind if we treat them in this way. These are the places where wisdom begins to grow in us. It begins with suffering that we do not avoid or rationalize or put behind us. It starts with the realization that our loss, whatever it is, has become a part of us and has altered our lives so profoundly that we cannot go back to the way it was before.
The thing about the many strategies we use to shelter ourselves from feeling loss is that none of them leads to healing. Although denial, rationalization, substitution, avoidance, and the like may numb the pain of loss, every one of them hurts us in some far more fundamental ways. None is respectful toward life or toward process. None acknowledges our capacity for finding meaning or wisdom.

- Rachel Naomi Remen

Called out of Slavery

The Church is the people of God. The Latin word for "church," ecclesia, comes from the Greek ek, which means "out," and kaleo, which means "to call." The Church is the people of God called out of slavery to freedom, sin to salvation, despair to hope, darkness to light, an existence centered on death to an existence focused on life.
When we think of Church we have to think of a body of people, travelling together. We have to envision women, men, and children of all ages, races, and societies supporting one another on their long and often tiresome journeys to their final home.

- Henri Nouwen

The Pillars of the Church

The two main sacraments, baptism and the Eucharist, are the spiritual pillars of the Church. They are not simply instruments by which the Church exercises its ministry. They are not just means by which we become and remain members of the Church but belong to the essence of the Church. Without these sacraments there is no Church. The Church is the body of Christ fashioned by baptism and the Eucharist. When people are baptised in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and when they gather around the table of Christ and receive his Body and Blood, they become the people of God, called the Church.

- Henri Nouwen

Really Present

Where is Jesus today? Jesus is where those who believe in him and express that belief in baptism and the Eucharist become one body. As long as we think about the body of believers as a group of people who share a common faith in Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus remains an inspirational historical figure. But when we realise that the body Jesus fashions in the Eucharist is his body, we can start to see what real presence is. Jesus, who is present in the gifts of his Body and Blood, becomes present in the body of believers that is formed by these gifts. We who receive the Body of Christ become the living Christ.

- Henri Nouwen

Whatever Happens to You

My child, flee from all evil and from everything resembling it. Do not get angry, for anger leads to murder. My child, do not grumble, for this leads to blasphemy; be gentle-minded, for those of a gentle mind shall possess the earth. Be patient and have a loving heart.
Do not be one who stretches out his hands to receive but closes them when it comes to giving. If you have earned something by the work of your hands, pass it on as a ransom for your sins. Do not turn away from those who are in need, but share all things in common with your brother.
Your heart shall not cling to the high and mighty, but turn to the good and humble folk. Accept as good whatever happens to you or affects you, knowing that nothing happens without God.

- The Didache

The Rain

One rainy afternoon I was driving along one of the main streets of town, taking those extra precautions necessary when the roads are wet and slick.
Suddenly, my daughter, Aspen, spoke up from her relaxed position in her seat. "Dad, I'm thinking of something."
This announcement usually meant she had been pondering some fact for a while, and was now ready to expound all that her six-year-old mind had discovered. I was eager to hear.
"What are you thinking?" I asked.
"The rain! ;" she began, "is like sin, and the windshield wipers are like God wiping our sins away."
After the chill bumps raced up my arms I was able to respond.
"That's really good, Aspen."
Then my curiosity broke in. How far would this little girl take this revelation? So I asked... "Do you notice how the rain keeps on coming? What does that tell you?"
Aspen didn't hesitate one moment with her answer:
"We keep on sinning, and God just keeps on forgiving us."
I will always remember this whenever I turn my wipers on.

- source unknown

Becoming the Mystical Body of Christ

As we gather around the Eucharistic table and make the death and resurrection of Jesus our own by sharing in the "bread of life" and the "cup of salvation," we become together the living body of Christ.
The Eucharist is the sacrament by which we become one body. Becoming one body is not becoming a team or a group or even a fellowship. Becoming one body is becoming the body of Christ. It is becoming the living Lord, visibly present in the world. It is - as often has been said - becoming the mystical Body of Christ. But mystical and real are the same in the realm of the Spirit.

- Henri Nouwen

All Things in Common

Simplicity - poverty for the sake of Christ - was like an article of faith with us. How could we, who wanted to share the suffering of the masses, keep anything for ourselves? That is why we shared everything in common, giving away all we had to those who wanted to serve the same spirit of love with us.

- Emmy Arnold

Deepening the Passage of Baptism

In and through the celebration of the Eucharist, Jesus' death and resurrection become a reality for us here and now. As we eat and drink from the Body and Blood of Christ, our mortal bodies become united with the risen Christ. Thus our deaths, like Jesus' death, means not destruction but passage to new life.
In this way the Eucharist deepens and strengthens in us the passage that we first made through baptism. The Eucharist is the sacrament that allows us to appropriate fully our baptismal grace.

- Henri Nouwen

On The Journey Toward Celebrating Life

One evening when our family went with parishioners to serve dinner at a shelter for persons who are homeless, our youngest son, Nicholas, who was five at the time, wandered around the large room of people at tables and seemed to soak in the experience.
The next morning Nicholas came to me and asked, "Mum, does God choose people's eye colour and skin colour?" I easily responded, "Yes." Nicholas continued, "Does God choose the clothes that people wear?" I did not reply right away, trying to think of a good approach for a response. Nicholas then asked, "Does God make people poor or do we make people poor?"
I was taken aback by this profound question and gathered my thoughts to sit down and talk with Nicholas. We talked about God's love for all people and our responsibility to see that all people are able to celebrate life fully, with all their basic needs met. No, God does not make people poor, human decisions and human structures do. Our decisions to act in loving response to others is a channel of God's love for all. Together we can celebrate life more fully!

- Andrea Shappel

Something Larger

The ideal life is in our blood and never will be still. Sad will be the day for any man when he becomes contented with the thoughts he is thinking and the deeds he is doing, - where there is not forever beating at the doors of his soul some great desire to do something larger, which he knows that he was meant and made to do.

- Phillips Brooks

Divine Initiative

The archetype of one who takes initiative is God Himself. He created the heavens and the earth, spinning into motion the tiny sphere that is our planet. He filled its waters and skies with fish and fowl and scattered all manner of living creatures across its mountains, valleys and plains. Then He lovingly spoke humankind into being, calling man and woman to name the animals, to tend to the garden sprawled at their feet and to live in loving community with one another.
But then He watched as man and woman disobeyed Him, dishonoured themselves and destroyed each other with hatred and lies and murder. He watched His creation spiral deeper and deeper into sin; He felt the searing pain as those made in His very image pulled away from Him, breaking the bonds of live that had bound creature to Creator. How easy it would have been for Him to yield to despair and to close His eyes to the ugly ruin His creation had become.
But what did He do? He responded with love and with a plan. He provided an option. He took the initiative in breaching the gap between Himself and His wayward creation. "For God so loved the world" -- and longed to have it reconciled to Himself -- "that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16).
God could have sat idly by and watched the world go to hell. But love demanded that He take the initiative to redeem it instead. Se He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, as a sin sacrifice for your foul-ups and mine, thereby making forgiveness available as a free gift. We need only to humble ourselves enough to receive it.

- Bill Hybels in "Making Life Work: Putting God's Wisdom into Action"

Knowing One Another in Christ

Often we think that we first have to know and understand one another before we gather around the Eucharistic table. Although it is good if those who share in the Body and Blood of Christ know one another personally, coming together regularly for the Eucharist can create a spiritual unity that goes far beyond the various levels of "knowing one another" in human ways. As we enter together into the sacred mysteries of the death and resurrection of Jesus by participating in the Eucharist, we gradually become one body. We truly come to know one another in Christ.

- Henri Nouwen

As We Love Ourselves

Jesus took the command to love our neighbour as we love ourselves, and pushed the definition of who is our neighbor, out, out, and still further out, until it reached to the ends of the earth and included all of humanity - all of God’s children.
Because Jesus' teachings are so challenging and radical, it is much more comfortable to focus on a quiet, private, personal relationship with him than it is to follow his teachings that call for a public prophetic witness.

- Alvin Alexsi Currier

Breaking Through the Boundaries

The sacrament of the Eucharist, as the sacrament of the presence of Christ among and within us, has the unique power to unite us into one body, irrespective of age, colour, race or gender, emotional condition, economic status, or social background. The Eucharist breaks through all these boundaries and creates the one body of Christ, living in the world as a vibrant sign of unity and community.
Jesus prays fervently to his Father: "May they all be one, just as, Father, you are in me and I am in you, so that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me" (John 17:21). The Eucharist is the sacrament of this divine unity lived out among all people.

- Henri Nouwen

Christ's Body, Our Body

When we gather for the Eucharist we gather in the Name of Jesus, who is calling us together to remember his death and resurrection in the breaking of the bread. There he is truly among us. "Where two or three meet in my name," he says, "I am there among them" (Matthew 18:20).
The presence of Jesus among us and in the gifts of bread and wine are the same presence. As we recognise Jesus in the breaking of the bread, we recognise him also in our brothers and sisters. As we give one another the bread, saying: "This is the Body of Christ," we give ourselves to each other saying: "We are the Body of Christ." It is one and the same giving, it is one and the same body, it is one and the same Christ.

- Henri Nouwen

Sacrament of Unity

The Eucharist is the sacrament of unity. It makes us into one body. The apostle Paul writes: "As there is one loaf, so we, although there are many of us, are one single body, for we all share in the one loaf" (1 Corinthians 10:17).
The Eucharist is much more than a place where we celebrate our unity in Christ. The Eucharist creates this unity. By eating from the same bread and drinking from the same cup, we become the body of Christ present in the world. Just as Christ becomes really present to us in the breaking of the bread, we become really present to one another as brothers and sisters of Christ, members of the same body. Thus the Eucharist not only signifies unity but also creates it.

- Henri Nouwen

Send Help!

While we cannot count on miracles to save us, we can be miraculous. We ourselves can do the things that change the world and reshape our own souls. Faith teaches us not that life will be easy, but that life's difficulties can yield beauty.
There is a story of a man who looked up at the heavens and said, "Dear God, there is so much pain and anguish in your world; why don't you send help?" And God answered, "I am sending help - I'm sending you."

Jesus Living Among Us

The Eucharist is the place where Jesus becomes most present to us because he becomes not only the Christ living within us but also the Christ living among us. Just as the disciples at Emmaus who had recognised Jesus in the breaking of the bread discovered a new intimacy between themselves and found the courage to return to their friends, we who have received the Body and Blood of Jesus will find a new unity among ourselves. As we realise that Christ lives within us, we also come to realise that Christ lives among us and makes us into a body of people witnessing together to the presence of Christ in the world.

- Henri Nouwen

A False Assumption

If you are truly humble, you will always be ready to seek (and accept!) help from others. The present genteel, self-loving brand of piety assumes, “I don’t need anybody; I can set things right with God myself.” But as long as you quietly try to work out your own salvation, you won’t get anywhere. Only when you recognize your need for others and reach out and open up to them will things move forward.

- J. C. Blumhardt

Jesus Living Within Us

When we gather around the Eucharistic table and eat from the same bread and drink from the same cup, saying, "This is the Body and Blood of Christ," we become the living Christ, here and now.
Our faith in Jesus is not our belief that Jesus, the Son of God, lived long ago, performed great miracles, presented wise teachings, died for us on the cross, and rose from the grave. It first of all means that we fully accept the truth that Jesus lives within us and fulfills his divine ministry in and through us. This spiritual knowledge of the Christ living in us is what allows us to affirm fully the mystery of the incarnation, death, and resurrection as historic events. It is the Christ in us who reveals to us the Christ in history.

- Henri Nouwen

Companion of the Souls

When the two disciples recognised Jesus as he broke the bread for them in their house in Emmaus, he "vanished from their sight" (Luke 24:31). The recognition and the disappearance of Jesus are one and the same event. Why? Because the disciples recognised that their Lord Jesus, the Christ, now lives in them ... that they have become Christ-bearers. Therefore, Jesus no longer sits across the table from them as the stranger, the guest, the friend with whom they can speak and from whom they can receive good counsel. He has become one with them. He has given them his own Spirit of Love. Their companion on the journey has become the companion of their souls. They are alive, yet it is no longer them, but Christ living in them (see Galatians 2:20).

- Henri Nouwen

On The Journey Toward Celebrating Life

Deciding to participate in a summer service project at a refugee relief agency after my freshman year of college seemed rather insignificant at the time. Although I expected that this would be an opportunity to learn more about the challenges facing refugees and asylum-seekers living in the United States, I could never have known that this experience would serve as a continual source of hope and inspiration well beyond the four short months that I spent as a volunteer.
I began that summer fully absorbed with my own worries about school, family and relationships. Within days, however, I found myself enveloped by a world of vastly different concerns - a world in which refugee women were forced to revisit daily the immense pain of their war-torn pasts. Having never encountered such hardships in my own life, I could not fathom how these refugees could remain positive despite their suffering. I soon came to admire the optimism and courage of these remarkable women.
One woman in particular exemplified the hopefulness that inspires me even today. Asha was a widowed Somali refugee, a mother who had lost all but one of her children in war. Every day, she came to the office with a smile on her face, eager to improve her English skills so that she could find a decent job in America. Although she could never fully escape her past, she worked toward providing a better future for her son. Faced with the choice of giving up hope or embarking on a new and unknown life, Asha chose to celebrate life. She remains a powerful inspiration for me in difficult times.

- Melanie C. Vrable

Good Catastrophe

Deep in the stream of Western literature runs a current J.R.R. Tolkien called "eucatastrophe" - literally, "good catastrophe." Tolkien served as a lieutenant in World War I and saw action in the offensive of the Somme before succumbing to trench fever. In a famous essay written many years after the armistice, he described how our favourite stories often bring us to the "sudden joyous 'turn'" that in the face of horrific events "denies ... universal final defeat," giving "a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief."
Far from functioning as illegitimate escapes from reality, Tolkien argued, these tales of joy snatched from the jaws of tragedy point towards the central True Story of Christ's passion and resurrection - "the greatest and most complete conceivable eucatastrophe." All stories that hold out hope in the cataclysmic struggle between Good and Evil - from the first fairy tale to the Lord of the Rings to Star Wars and beyond - echo this greatest eucatastrophe.
For Tolkien, no evil event, however horrible, is outside the story of salvation-history. God bends them all to His purposes. In the creation account found in the Silmarillion, Tolkien has the spirits sing Middle-earth into existence. The melody of Illuvatar (God) was "deep and wide and beautiful, but slow and blended with an immeasurable sorrow, from which its beauty chiefly came." Melkor (Satan) interfered with a loud, brash tune, trying to "drown the other music by the violence of its voice." But the "most triumphant notes" of Melkor's discordant song were "taken up by the other and woven into its own solemn pattern." Those things the Devil intended for evil, God turned to good - from the very beginning.

- Chris Armstrong in Christian History

All Will Be Well

Difficulties should not depress or divert us. The Cause that has gripped us is so great that the small weaknesses of individuals cannot destroy it. Therefore I ask you only one thing: do not be so worried about yourself. Free yourself from all your plans and aims. They occupy you far too much. Surrender yourself to the sun, the rain, and the wind, as do the flowers and the birds. Surrender yourself to God. Wish for nothing but one thing: that his will be done, that his kingdom come, and that his nature be revealed. Then all will be well.

- Eberhard Arnold

Christ In Me

If I spend enough time with Christ, then maybe I'll take on His mannerisms and His thoughts and His reactions. If I have enough of Christ in me, I'll have the thought process that He wants me to have.

- Chan Gailey, head football coach at Georgia Tech

Jesus, Our Food and Drink

Jesus is the Word of God, who came down from heaven, was born of the Virgin Mary through the power of the Holy Spirit, and became a human person. This happened in a specific place at a specific time. But each day when we celebrate the Eucharist, Jesus comes down from heaven, takes bread and wine, and by the power of the Holy Spirit becomes our food and drink. Indeed, through the Eucharist, God's incarnation continues to happen at any time and at any place.
Sometimes we might think: "I wish I had been there with Jesus and his apostles long ago!" But Jesus is closer to us now than he was to his own friends. Today he is our daily bread!

- Henri Nouwen

Once They Deny Themselves

People who seek peace in things, places, people, and activities - or in world-flight, poverty, and humiliation, whatever the avenue or degree - look in vain, for there is no peace this way. But once they deny themselves, then whatever they keep, be it wealth, honour, or anything else, they will still be free from it all.

- Meister Eckhart

Instruments For Good

The Lord ate from a common bowl, and asked the disciples to sit on the grass. He washed their feet, with a towel wrapped around His waist - He, who is the Lord of the universe! He drank water from a jug of earthenware, with the Samaritan woman. Christ made use His aim, not extravagance... We are not to throw away those things which can benefit our neighbour. Goods are called good because they can be used for good: they are instruments for good, in the hands of those who use them properly.

- St. Clement of Alexandria

The More You Give

To attack poverty by preaching voluntary poverty seems like madness. But again, it is direct action....To be profligate in our love and generosity, spontaneous, to cut all the red tape of bureaucracy! The more you give away, the more the Lord will give you to give. It is a growth in faith. It is the attitude of the man whose life of common sense and faith is integrated. To live with generosity in times of crisis is only common sense. In the time of earthquake, flood, fire, people give recklessly; even governments do this.

- Dorothy Day

A Place of Vulnerability and Trust

When we gather around the table and eat from the same loaf and drink from the same cup, we are most vulnerable to one another. We cannot have a meal together in peace with guns hanging over our shoulders and pistols attached to our belts. When we break bread together we leave our arms - whether they are physical or mental - at the door and enter into a place of mutual vulnerability and trust.
The beauty of the Eucharist is precisely that it is the place where a vulnerable God invites vulnerable people to come together in a peaceful meal. When we break bread and give it to each other, fear vanishes and God becomes very close.

- Henri Nouwen

The Most Human and Most Divine Gesture

The two disciples whom Jesus joined on the road to Emmaus recognised him in the breaking of the bread. What is a more common, ordinary gesture than breaking bread? It may be the most human of all human gestures: a gesture of hospitality, friendship, care, and the desire to be together. Taking a loaf of bread, blessing it, breaking it, and giving it to those seated around the table signifies unity, community, and peace. When Jesus does this he does the most ordinary as well as the most extraordinary. It is the most human as well as the most divine gesture.
The great mystery is that this daily and most human gesture is the way we recognise the presence of Christ among us. God becomes most present when we are most human.

- Henri Nouwen

Listening Provides an Opportunity for Evangelism

The book Irresistible Evangelism includes the story of Jan, a staffer with Athletes in Action. After attending a conference where the importance of listening to unsaved people was stressed, Jan and others were relaxing in the hotel whirlpool. Two adolescent girls joined them in the tub. One of the teens, named Brittany, began passionately telling her friend about an upcoming Wiccan gathering she was planning to attend.
Jan says:
Normally we would have tried to counter the girl's ideas, but we decided to listen instead. I said something simple like, "Wow, you really sound excited about this!" This was all the encouragement she needed to launch into a five-minute explanation of why she was so attracted to neo-pagan rituals. The bottom line was that she'd had a really traumatic time in high school and the Wiccas accepted her. She said, "I've gone through so much crap just trying to make it through high school that I'll probably be in therapy for the rest of my life!"
I tried to mirror back what she said with, "It's hard for you to even imagine a future where you'd be free from all of the pain you've gone through."
What came next completely floored me. With a film of tears starting to form in her eyes and with complete sincerity in her voice, she said, "Sometimes I wish I could be born all over again. I'd really like to start over from scratch." After a long pause, my friend asked if she would really like to be born again. "Yes, I really would," she said.

Steve Sjogren, Dave Ping, Doug Pollock, Irresistible Evangelism (Group Publishing), p. 109

Indecision Leads to Disaster

In an interview in Business 2.0, Peter Drucker recalls this story of responsibility:
The Depression in this country was totally unnecessary. The country was recovering from a mild recession when Europe crashed, and that started a run on American banks. Eugene Meyer (President Hoover's chairman of the Federal Reserve Board) happened to be a friend of my father's. And during World War II, when I was in Washington and quite lonely, he had me to dinner often. He told me this story.
He knew perfectly well how to stop a run on the banks. You just pay out, just print money. One night they put it under their mattresses, then the next day they have to deposit it again. Meyer knew he should just pay out. He went to Hoover after the 1932 election, and Hoover said, "I'm just a lame-duck president. Immediate action has to be sanctioned by the president-elect." So Meyer went to Roosevelt. But Roosevelt said, "This is Hoover's watch."
I asked Meyer, "Why didn't you just pay out?"
He said, "My boy, you couldn't possibly do that in 1932 without the president's approval."
If he had paid off the banks and stopped the run, there would have been no bank holiday and no Depression, except perhaps in the farm sector.
Hoover and Roosevelt never met in those four months. They hated each other. Meyer said, in hindsight, he should've gone ahead without the president's approval.

Untapped Spiritual Resources

Dr. Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ tells this story of a famous oil field called Yates Pool:
During the depression this field was a sheep ranch owned by a man named Yates. Mr. Yates wasn't able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others) had to live on government subsidy.
Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract.
At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day.
And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he'd been living on relief. A multimillionaire living in poverty. The problem? He didn't know the oil was there even though he owned it.
Many Christians live in spiritual poverty. They are entitled to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and his energizing power, but they are not aware of their birthright.

The Hardest Heart Can't Resist

My heart is transformed by the smile of trust given by some people who are terribly fragile and weak. They call forth new energies from me. They seem to break down barriers and bring me a new freedom.
It is the same with the smile of a child: even the hardest heart can't resist. Contact with people who are weak and who are crying out...is one of the most important nourishments in our lives. When we let ourselves be really touched by the gift of their presence, they leave something precious in our hearts.
As long as we remain at the level of "doing" things for people, we tend to stay behind our barriers of superiority. We ought to welcome the gift of the poor with open hands. Jesus says, "What you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me."

- Jean Vanier

The Sad Passing of Common Sense

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.
He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, life isn't always fair, and maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place.
Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they failed to do in disciplining their unruly children
It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer Panadol, sun lotion or a sticky plaster to a student; but, could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.
Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar can sue you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realise that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by three stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, Someone Else is to Blame, and I'm A Victim.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realised he was gone.
If you still remember him share this with others, if not join the majority and do nothing.

source unknown

Jesus Gives Himself to Us

When we invite friends for a meal, we do much more than offer them food for their bodies. We offer friendship, fellowship, good conversation, intimacy, and closeness. When we say: "Help yourself ... take some more ... don't be shy ... have another glass," we offer our guests not only our food and our drink but also ourselves. A spiritual bond grows, and we become food and drink for one another other.
In the most complete and perfect way, this happens when Jesus gives himself to us in the Eucharist as food and drink. By offering us his Body and Blood, Jesus offers us the most intimate communion possible. It is a divine communion.

- Henri Nouwen

Faith In Action

In today's world, wracked by terrorism, poverty, lawlessness, disease, and violence, the message of the gospel and the need for Christians who put their faith into action has never been more acute. We, the followers of Jesus Christ, are an integral part of God's plan for the world - the same world that God loved so much - "that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). In this famous verse we see the depth of God's love for our world. It was not a passive and sentimental love but rather a dynamic, active, and sacrificial love. For God so loved the world that He acted!

- Richard Stearns

Eucharist, the Sacrament of Communion

Baptism opens the door to the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the sacrament through which Jesus enters into an intimate, permanent communion with us. It is the sacrament of the table. It is the sacrament of food and drink. It is the sacrament of daily nurture. While baptism is a once-in-a-lifetime event, the Eucharist can be a monthly, weekly, or even daily occurrence. Jesus gave us the Eucharist as a constant memory of his life and death. Not a memory that simply makes us think of him but a memory that makes us members of his body. That is why Jesus on the evening before he died took bread saying, "This is my Body," and took the cup saying, "This is my Blood." By partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, we become one with him.

- Henri Nouwen

When We Share Woundedness

How strange that we should ordinarily feel compelled to hide our wounds when we are all wounded! Community requires the ability to expose our wounds and weaknesses to our fellow creatures. It also requires the ability to be affected by the wounds of others...But even more important is the love that arises among us when we share, both ways, our woundedness.

- M. Scott Peck, "A Different Drum"

The Key To Marriage

A marriage can be likened to a large house with many rooms to which a couple fall heir on their wedding day. Their hope is to use and enjoy these rooms, as we do the rooms in a comfortable home, so that they will serve the many activities that make up their shared life. But in many marriages, doors are found to be locked - they represent areas in the relationship which the couple are unable to explore together. Attempts to open these doors lead to failure and frustration.
The right key cannot be found. So the couple resign themselves to living together in only a few rooms that can be opened easily, leaving the rest of the house, with all its promising possibilities, unexplored and unused.
There is, however, a master key that will open every door. It is not easy to find. Or, more correctly, it has to be forged by the couple together, and this can be very difficult. It is the great art of effective marital communication.

- David and Vera Mace, "We Can Have Better Marriages If We Really Want Them"

Baptism, a Call to Commitment

Baptism as a way to the freedom of the children of God and as a way to a life in community calls for a personal commitment. There is nothing magical or automatic about this sacrament. Having water poured over us while someone says, "I baptise you in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit," has lasting significance when we are willing to claim and reclaim in all possible ways the spiritual truth of who we are as baptised people.
In this sense baptism is a call to parents of baptised children and to the baptised themselves to choose constantly for the light in the midst of a dark world and for life in the midst of a death-harbouring society.

- Henri Nouwen

Each Choice

As the eagle soars in the endless blue, Its shadow races after it, far below. Yet space does not divide: bird and shadow are linked. So too each act — each choice and consequence.

- Jigme Lingpa, Tibet, 18th Century

Baptism, the Way to Community

Baptism is more than a way to spiritual freedom. It also is the way to community. Baptising a person, whether child or adult, is receiving that person into the community of faith. Those who are reborn from above through baptism, and are called to live the life of sons and daughters of God, belong together as members of one spiritual family, the living body of Christ. When we baptise people, we welcome them into this family of God and offer them guidance, support, and formation, as they grow to the full maturity of the Christ-like life.

- Henri Nouwen

Experience

Experience is the matrix in which change is forged. Usually the realization that we have a need to change begins with an experience. The experiences we are especially interested in here are those that are symptoms of deeper needs; things that reveal wrong attitudes, fears, destructive behaviours, and so on.
The appropriate response to an insight gained through experience is to turn to the Scriptures ... God’s Word illuminates. It penetrates our clouds of self-deception and shows things as they really are. It takes courage to step into the light in this way. To be confronted with the truth about ourselves can be like getting caught with no clothes on. But we must see things as they are before we can do what needs to be done.
[To say yes to what the Scriptures say about us] takes a certain attitude on our part. It is humility ... Prayer and worship are the language of humility.

- Jim Peterson in "Lifestyle Discipleship"

On The Journey Toward Celebrating Life

What kind of person takes absolute glee in cutting, tearing, ripping, and slicing beautiful fabric into small pieces? It is not the vengeance of a maniac but the soul of a quilter. Like lives blown to bits by tragedy, fabric of every color mound in unruly stacks waiting to be sorted, patterned, sewn and sandwiched into a warm, comforting blanket. And the ugly, drab pieces? Like distasteful, irritating companions on our journey, they, too, must be integrated into the intricate scheme. Only upon completion can the whole beauty of the combination resonate. To dismiss the indigent, to avoid contact with an HIV patient, to turn away in disgust from the smell of the unwashed, and to shield ourselves from the eyes of the hungry will diminish the quilt of our lives. Only the contrast of pairing the resplendent with the blemished, can the subtle beauty emerge. Utilizing only the bright, dazzling well-designed pieces and committing the lackluster to the waste bin is comparable to living one-dimensional lives. We can't afford to lose the sacred (the Christ figures), the mendicants, who create the subtle beauty from which a whole life is viewed. Celebration can then begin.

- Barbara Furhwerk

Pickled Martyrs?

Here is proof that the clergy are cannibals. As in the farmhouses at the slaughtering season provision for the winter is salted away, so the "minister" keeps in brine tubs the martyrs who suffered for the truth. In vain the deceased witness cries out, "Follow me, follow me!" "That's a good joke," replies the preacher, "No, keep your mouth shut and stay where you are. What nonsense to require that I, or anyone else, should follow you. I keep you alive precisely by eating you, and not I alone, but my wife and my children! To suppose that I should follow you, perhaps myself become a sacrifice - instead of making a living off you, or eating you, is ridiculous."

- Søren Kierkegaard

In Jesus' Name

"Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."
(Colossians 3:17)

What does it mean to do something "in the name of Jesus"? Generally speaking, in the Bible a person's name has to do with his or her character. So doing something in Jesus' name means to do it in His character. It means doing it as Jesus Himself would do it if He were in your place.

- John Ortberg in "The Life You've Always Wanted"

Baptism, the Way to Freedom

When parents have their children baptised they indicate their desire to have their children grow up and live as children of God and brothers or sisters of Jesus, and be guided by the Holy Spirit.
Through birth a child is given to parents; through baptism a child is given to God. At baptism the parents acknowledge that their parenthood is a participation in God's parenthood, that all fatherhood and motherhood comes from God. Thus baptism frees the parents from a sense of owning their children. Children belong to God and are given to the parents to love and care for in God's name. It is the parents' vocation to welcome their children as honored guests in their home and bring them to the physical, emotional, and spiritual freedom that enables them to leave the home and become parents themselves. Baptism reminds parents of this vocation and sets children on the path of freedom.

- Henri Nouwen

God's Palette

God does not work by only one method, paint in only one colour, play in only one key, nor does He make only one star shine onto the earth. God's mystery is the rich spectrum of colour that is gathered together in the purity of the sun's white light. The symphonic harmony of all the stars is built up on precisely their manifold variety. But all this is gathered together and will be gathered together at the end of time in the unity of the Kingdom of God.

- Eberhard Arnold

Do It Again

A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough... It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again," to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again," to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

- G. K. Chesterton in "Orthodoxy" [1909]

Baptism, a Rite of Passage

Baptism is a rite of passage. The Jewish people passed through the Red Sea to the Promised Land in the great exodus. Jesus himself wanted to make this exodus by passing through suffering and death into the house of his heavenly Father. This was his baptism. He asked his disciples and now asks us us: "Can you ... be baptised with the baptism with which I shall be baptised?" (Mark 10:38). When the apostle Paul, therefore, speaks about our baptism, he calls it a baptism into Jesus' death (Romans 6:4).
To be baptised means to make the passage with the people of Israel and with Jesus from slavery to freedom and from death to new life. It is a commitment to a life in and through Jesus.

- Henri Nouwen

Killing Him Softly

Nothing is more dangerous to the advancement of God's kingdom than religion. But this is what Christianity has become. Do you not know that it is possible to kill Christ with such Christianity? After all, what is more important - Christianity or Christ? And I'll say even more: we can kill Christ with the Bible! Which is greater: the Bible or Christ? Yes, we can even kill Christ with our prayers. When we approach God with our prayers full of self-love and self-satisfaction, when the aim of our prayers is to make our world great, our prayers are in vain.

- C. F. Blumhardt

Isn't it Strange?

Isn't it strange how 20 dollars seems like such a large amount when you donate it to church, but such a small amount when you go shopping?
Isn't it strange how 2 hours seem so long when you're at church, and how short they seem when you're watching a good movie?
Isn't it strange that you can't find a word to say when you're praying, but you have no trouble thinking what to talk about with a friend?
Isn't it strange how difficult and boring it is to read one chapter of the Bible, but how easy it is to read 100 pages of a popular novel?
Isn't it strange how everyone wants front-row-tickets to concerts or games, but they do whatever is possible to sit at the last row in Church?
Isn't it strange how we need to know about an event for Church 2-3 weeks before the day so we can include it in our agenda, but we can adjust it for other events in the last minute?
Isn't it strange how difficult it is to learn a fact about God to share it with others, but how easy it is to learn, understand, extend and repeat gossip?
Isn't it strange how we believe everything that magazines and newspapers say, but we question the words in the Bible?
Isn't it strange how everyone wants a place in heaven, but they don't want to believe, do, or say anything to get there?
IT'S STRANGE ISN'T IT?

Source unknown

Humble Love

My heart is transformed by the smile of trust given by some people who are terribly fragile and weak. They call forth new energies from me. They seem to break down barriers and bring me a new freedom.
It is the same with the smile of a child: even the hardest heart can’t resist. Contact with people who are weak and who are crying out...is one of the most important nourishments in our lives. When we let ourselves be really touched by the gift of their presence, they leave something precious in our hearts.
As long as we remain at the level of “doing” things for people, we tend to stay behind our barriers of superiority. We ought to welcome the gift of the poor with open hands. Jesus says, “What you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me.”

- Jean Vanier

Baptism: Becoming Children of the Light

When Jesus appears for the last time to his disciples, he sends them out into the world saying: "Go, ... make disciples of all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19).
Jesus offers us baptism as the way to enter into communion with God, Father, Son, and Spirit, and to live our lives as God's beloved children. Through baptism we say no to the world. We declare that we no longer want to remain children of the darkness but want to become children of the light, God's children. We do not want to escape the world, but we want to live in it without belonging to it. That is what baptism enables us to do.

- Henri Nouwen

Baptism and Eucharist

Sacraments are very specific events in which God touches us through creation and transforms us into living Christs. The two main sacraments are baptism and the Eucharist. In baptism water is the way to transformation. In the Eucharist it is bread and wine. The most ordinary things in life - water, bread, and wine - become the sacred way by which God comes to us.
These sacraments are actual events. Water, bread, and wine are not simple reminders of God's love; they bring God to us. In baptism we are set free from the slavery of sin and dressed with Christ. In the Eucharist, Christ himself becomes our food and drink.

- Henri Nouwen

The Sacredness of God's Handiwork

How do we live in creation? Do we relate to it as a place full of "things" we can use for whatever need we want to fulfill and whatever goal we wish to accomplish? Or do we see creation first of all as a sacramental reality, a sacred space where God reveals to us the immense beauty of the Divine?
As long as we only use creation, we cannot recognise its sacredness because we are approaching it as if we are its owners. But when we relate to all that surrounds us as created by the same God who created us and as the place where God appears to us and calls us to worship and adoration, then we are able to recognise the sacred quality of all God's handiwork.

- Henri Nouwen

When Crisis Comes

We presume that we would be ready for battle if confronted with a great crisis, but it is not the crisis that builds something within us - it simply reveals what we are made of already. Do you find yourself saying, "If God calls me to battle, of course I will rise to the occasion"? Yet you won't rise to the occasion unless you have done so on God's training ground [of worship, Bible study, and prayer]. If you are not doing the task that is closest to you now, which God has engineered into your life, when the crisis comes, instead of being fit for battle, you will be revealed as being unfit. Crises always reveal a person's true character.

- Oswald Chambers in "My Utmost for His Highest"

The Created Order as Sacrament

When God took on flesh in Jesus Christ, the uncreated and the created, the eternal and the temporal, the divine and the human became united. This unity meant that all that is mortal now points to the immortal, all that is finite now points to the infinite. In and through Jesus all creation has become like a splendid veil, through which the face of God is revealed to us.
This is called the sacramental quality of the created order. All that is is sacred because all that is speaks of God's redeeming love. Seas and winds, mountains and trees, sun, moon, and stars, and all the animals and people have become sacred windows offering us glimpses of God.

- Henri Nouwen

Meditation

When Jesus says: "Sky and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away" (Luke 21:33), he shows us a direct way to eternal life. The words of Jesus have the power to transform our hearts and minds and lead us into the Kingdom of God. "The words I have spoken to you," Jesus says, "are spirit and they are life" (John 6:63).
Through meditation we can let the words of Jesus descend from our minds into our hearts and create there a dwelling place for the Spirit. Whatever we do and wherever we go, let us stay close to the words of Jesus. They are words of eternal life.

- Henri Nouwen