The Dynamics of the Spiritual Life

Our emotional lives and our spiritual lives have different dynamics. The ups and downs of our emotional life depend a great deal on our past or present surroundings. We are happy, sad, angry, bored, excited, depressed, loving, caring, hateful, or vengeful because of what happened long ago or what is happening now.
The ups and downs of our spiritual lives depend on our obedience - that is, our attentive listening - to the movements of the Spirit of God within us. Without this listening our spiritual life eventually becomes subject to the windswept waves of our emotions.

- Henri Nouwen

Family Stories

When my wife joined my family, it took awhile for her to belong. Acceptance always takes time. In the beginning, Peggy was just a good listener - a silent observer at the Campolo family gatherings. She listened in as the stories of those who belonged to the family were told, took them for the exaggerations they were, and enjoyed them. But there came that time when the relatives gathered to tell our stories and stories about Peggy came to be included as well. When she became part of the family legend, I knew that she had become one of us. In the minds and the hearts of the Campolo clan, her story had become part of our story.
Stories about a family give that family spiritual substance. They give a group of relatives a mystique. They set the family apart from the rest of the world and establish a tradition that gives the family pride and glory. But if we are going to have family stories, then we have to have regular times when families get together for the stories to be told. That's why dinnertime is so important. When a family eats together and makes the dinner hour a time of sharing stories, the solidarity of the family is given reinforcement and vitality.

- Tony Campolo in "Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God"

Never Too Late

It is never too late to give up our fears and prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof. What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true today may turn out to be falsehood tomorrow, mere smoke of opinion, which some had trusted for a cloud that would sprinkle rain on their fields. What other people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.

- Henry David Thoreau

Digging Into Our Spiritual Resources

When someone hurts us, offends us, ignores us, or rejects us, a deep inner protest emerges. It can be rage or depression, desire to take revenge or an impulse to harm ourselves. We can feel a deep urge to wound those who have wounded us or to withdraw in a suicidal mood of self-rejection. Although these extreme reactions might seem exceptional, they are never far away from our hearts. During the long nights we often find ourselves brooding about words and actions we might have used in response to what others have said or done to us.
It is precisely here that we have to dig deep into our spiritual resources and find the centre within us, the centre that lies beyond our need to hurt others or ourselves, where we are free to forgive and love.

- Henri Nouwen

Overcoming Our Mood Swings

Are we condemned to be passive victims of our moods? Must we simply say: "I feel great today" or "I feel awful today," and require others to live with our moods?
Although it is very hard to control our moods, we can gradually overcome them by living a well-disciplined spiritual life. This can prevent us from acting out of our moods. We might not "feel" like getting up in the morning because we "feel" that life is not worth living, that nobody loves us, and that our work is boring. But if we get up anyhow, to spend some time reading the Gospels, praying the Psalms, and thanking God for a new day, our moods may lose their power over us.

- Henri Nouwen

What We Feel Is Not Who We Are

Our emotional lives move up and down constantly. Sometimes we experience great mood: swings from excitement to depression, from joy to sorrow, from inner harmony to inner chaos. A little event, a word from someone, a disappointment in work, many things can trigger such mood swings. Mostly we have little control over these changes. It seems that they happen to us rather than being created by us.
Thus it is important to know that our emotional life is not the same as our spiritual life. Our spiritual life is the life of the Spirit of God within us. As we feel our emotions shift we must connect our spirits with the Spirit of God and remind ourselves that what we feel is not who we are. We are and remain, whatever our moods, God's beloved children.

- Henri Nouwen

Attractive Floor Covering

Wealth, which leads men the wrong way so often, [should be] seen less for its own qualities than for the human misery it stands for. The large rooms of which you are so proud are in fact your shame. They are big enough to hold crowds - and also big enough to shut out the voice of the poor!... The poor man cries before your house, and you pay no attention. There is your brother, naked, crying, and you stand there, confused over the choice of an attractive floor covering.

- St. Ambrose of Milan (339-397)

Worse Than No Christianity

Discipleship means complete dedication. It demands everything - the whole heart, the whole mind, and the whole of life, including one's time, energy, and property - for the cause of love. Half-hearted Christianity is worse than no Christianity.

- J. Heinrich Arnold

Bridging the Gap Between People

To become neighbours is to bridge the gap between people. As long as there is distance between us and we cannot look in each other's eyes, all sorts of false ideas and images arise. We give them names, make jokes about them, cover them with our prejudices, and avoid direct contact. We think of them as enemies. We forget that they love as we love, care for their children as we care for ours, become sick and die as we do. We forget that they are our brothers and sisters and treat them as objects that can be destroyed at will.
Only when we have the courage to cross the street and look in one another's eyes can we see there that we are children of the same God and members of the same human family.

- Henri Nouwen

Through the Tiniest Atom

If we become completely whole-hearted we will have love for all people and will seek in each person what is most holy, what God has inspired in him or her. And only then will there be no danger of softening or twisting our witness. Why? Because the capacity of our faith will no longer be narrow. If we are not broadhearted, we have not yet grasped the meaning of faith. We must always be ready to be newly led in our faith, even through the tiniest atom of godliness we find in others. It is that which leads us to the kingdom of God. We affirm that there is something of God in all people - something of the light. It may only gleam now, but it will eventually lead to complete illumination.

- Eberhard Arnold

What Are We Raising?

My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass."
"We're not raising grass," Dad would reply. "We're raising boys."

- Harmon Killebrew, member of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame

Crossing the Road for One Another

We become neighbours when we are willing to cross the road for one another. There is so much separation and segregation: between black people and white people, between gay people and straight people, between young people and old people, between sick people and healthy people, between prisoners and free people, between Jews and Gentiles, Muslims and Christians, Protestants and Catholics, Greek Catholics and Latin Catholics.
There is a lot of road crossing to do. We are all very busy in our own circles. We have our own people to go to and our own affairs to take care of. But if we could cross the street once in a while and pay attention to what is happening on the other side, we might become neighbours.

- Henri Nouwen

A New Way

Recently moving to a smaller home, I have needed to give away, to let go of clutter, to make room. All these actions have been symbols expressing how I believe God wants my life to be - a way chosen for me. I cannot take pride in this emptying, but only thank God for space created, and pray for this way to be a way of simplicity, compassion, and love.

- Roberta Porter

On The Journey Toward Becoming More Merciful

We live in a world that thrives on judgment. All one has to do is listen to the media and we see and hear someone sitting in judgment over someone else. Sadly, this demeanor has become inculturated and trickles down into our everyday lives. I have made many mistakes in judging others. I know that I have been quick to judge other people before I even know what is in their heart. Some years ago I judged my brother harshly and it caused a deep hurt in our family. It separated us from the love that we shared for each other. It wasn't until I sought forgiveness that our relationship was restored.
I decided some time ago that I needed to put my judge and jury to rest. It lacks true Christian charity to judge a person harshly when we do not know what is truly in their heart. When I'm tempted to bring out my judge and jury I remember the Beatitude that Jesus spoke, "Blest are they who show mercy; mercy shall be theirs." God knows I have struggled to learn this lesson.
The amount of mercy we show to others is the mercy that will be shown to us. On my journey toward becoming more merciful I seek a humble heart that allows me to always seek forgiveness and mercy.
Mercy toward others and ourselves softens the harshness of life.

Victoria S. Schmidt

Fed up?

You are fed up with words, and I don't blame you. I am nauseated by them sometimes. I am also, to tell the truth, nauseated by ideals and with causes. This sounds like heresy, but I think you will understand what I mean.
It is so easy to get engrossed with ideas and slogans and myths that in the end one is left holding the bag, empty, with no trace of meaning left in it. And then the temptation is to yell louder than ever in order to make the meaning be there again by magic. Going through this kind of reaction helps you to guard against this. Your system is complaining of too much verbalizing, and it is right...
The big results are not in your hands or mine, but they suddenly happen, and we can share in them; but there is no point in building our lives on this personal satisfaction, which may be denied us and which after all is not that important.

- Thomas Merton

Who Is My Neighbour?

"Love your neighbour as yourself" the Gospel says (Matthew 22:38). But who is my neighbour? We often respond to that question by saying: "My neighbours are all the people I am living with on this earth, especially the sick, the hungry, the dying, and all who are in need." But this is not what Jesus says. When Jesus tells the story of the good Samaritan (see Luke 10:29-37) to answer the question "Who is my neighbour?" he ends the by asking: "Which, ... do you think, proved himself a neighbour to the man who fell into the bandits' hands?" The neighbour, Jesus makes clear, is not the poor man laying on the side of the street, stripped, beaten, and half dead, but the Samaritan who crossed the road, "bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, ... lifted him onto his own mount and took him to an inn and looked after him." My neighbour is the one who crosses the road for me!

- Henri Nouwen

Passing On The Poison

"Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors; let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; deliver us, and forgive our sins, for Your name's sake."
(Psalm 79:8,9 NRSV)

If you as parents cut corners, your children will too. If you lie, they will too. If you spend all your money on yourselves and tithe no portion of it for charities, colleges, churches, synagogues, and civic causes, your children won't either. And if parents snicker at racial and gender jokes, another generation will pass on the poison adults still have not had the courage to snuff out.

- Marian Wright Edelman

Recognizing Christ in Suffering Communities

Communities as well as individuals suffer. All over the world there are large groups of people who are persecuted, mistreated, abused, and made victims of horrendous crimes. There are suffering families, suffering circles of friends, suffering religious communities, suffering ethnic groups, and suffering nations. In these suffering bodies of people we must be able to recognise the suffering Christ. They too are chosen, blessed, broken and given to the world.
As we call one another to respond to the cries of these people and work together for justice and peace, we are caring for Christ, who suffered and died for the salvation of our world.

- Henri Nouwen

always be open

may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it’s sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young

and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there’s never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile

- e.e. cummings

Learning Our Purpose In Life

One spring day a boy was playing in the woods when suddenly he spotted something that looked like a nest. As he crept closer he saw it was a bird's nest with only one egg in it. Instinctively, he looked around but he didn't see any birds flying above him. The boy decided to take the egg home.
After showing the egg to his parents, he placed it in the chicken coop. (He hoped a chicken would sit on the egg until it hatched.) Finally, the day came for the hatching, and excitedly the boy ran and got his parents to come see the baby bird. But then came the revelation: The boy's father looked at the baby bird and told his son it was an eagle.
As the eagle grew, the boy's father helped clip its wings. The eagle seemed content in the barnyard with all the chickens.
Summer came, and the boy and his father became busy and forgot about the eagle. The father forgot to keep the eagle's wings clipped. No one noticed that the eagle grew more restless with each passing day.
With the change of seasons, it was inevitable that a summer storm would come, too. As the wind moaned and whipped through the barnyard, all the chickens began to hurry and scurry to find shelter. But not the eagle. The eagle stood with its wings spread out, looking into the sky. There, amid the pelting rain and lighting flashes was another eagle soaring with the storm.
Just then a gust of wind arose. The wind filled the young eagle's wings, enabling it to lift up from the ground and soar high into the sky with the other eagle. At last, soaring with another eagle, the orphaned bird knew its purpose in life.
Like the eagle, we too can learn our purpose in life once we know the great love our heavenly Father has for us.
"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1 NIV)

- Sheryl Lynn Hill in "Soar As the Eagle"

The Body of Community

When we gather around the table and break the bread together, we are transformed not only individually but also as community. We, people from different ages and races, with different backgrounds and histories, become one body. As Paul says: "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).
Not only as individuals but also as community we become the living Christ, taken, blessed, broken, and given to the world. As one body, we become a living witness of God's immense desire to bring all peoples and nations together as the one family of God.

- Henri Nouwen

In Grasping...

If what most people take for granted were really true — if all you needed to be happy was to grab everything and see everything and investigate every experience and then talk about it, I should have been a very happy person, a spiritual millionaire, from the cradle even until now…What a strange thing! In filling myself, I had emptied myself. In grasping things, I had lost everything. In devouring pleasures and joys, I had found distress and anguish and fear.

Thomas Merton

Becoming the Living Christ

Whenever we come together around the table, take bread, bless it, break it, and give it to one another saying: "The Body of Christ," we know that Jesus is among us. He is among us not as a vague memory of a person who lived long ago but as a real, life-giving presence that transforms us. By eating the Body of Christ, we become the living Christ and we are enabled to discover our own chosenness and blessedness, acknowledge our brokenness, and trust that all we live we live for others. Thus we, like Jesus himself, become food for the world.

- Henri Nouwen

Being Given

Jesus is given to the world. He was chosen, blessed, and broken to be given. Jesus' life and death were a life and death for others. The Beloved Son of God, chosen from all eternity, was broken on the cross so that this one life could multiply and become food for people of all places and all times.
As God's beloved children we have to believe that our little lives, when lived as God's chosen and blessed children, are broken to be given to others. We too have to become bread for the world. When we live our brokenness under the blessing, our lives will continue to bear fruit from generation to generation. That is the story of the saints - they died, but they continue to be alive in the hearts of those who live after them - and it can be our story too.

- Henri Nouwen

Being Broken

Jesus was broken on the cross. He lived his suffering and death not as an evil to avoid at all costs, but as a mission to embrace. We too are broken. We live with broken bodies, broken hearts, broken minds or broken spirits. We suffer from broken relationships.
How can we live our brokenness? Jesus invites us to embrace our brokenness as he embraced the cross and live it as part of our mission. He asks us not to reject our brokenness as a curse from God that reminds us of our sinfulness but to accept it and put it under God's blessing for our purification and sanctification. Thus our brokenness can become a gateway to new life.

- Henri Nouwen

The Word Of God

We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to a high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scripture, and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is, to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it does abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God: yet, notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts.

- The Westminster Confession of Faith

Being Blessed

Jesus is the Blessed One. When Jesus was baptised in the Jordan river a voice came from heaven saying: "You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you" (Mark 1:11). This was the blessing that sustained Jesus during his life. Whatever happened to him - praise or blame - he clung to his blessing; he always remembered that he was the favourite child of God.
Jesus came into the world to share that blessing with us. He came to open our ears to the voice that also says to us, "You are my beloved son, you are my beloved daughter, my favour rests on you ." When we can hear that voice, trust in it, and always remember it, especially during dark times, we can live our lives as God's blessed children and find the strength to share that blessing with others.

- Henri Nouwen

A Mandate To Forgive

"Don't judge other people, and you will not be judged. Don't accuse others of being guilty, and you will not be accused of being guilty. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." (Luke 6:37)
Go back to the Cross and see how God through the Cross forgives us: that gives us strength to forgive each other. We have a mandate to forgive, a liberating concept that says you have a choice. You don't have to live with anger or resentment - you can get rid of it. It IS possible to forgive - through prayer and the Holy Spirit, it IS possible!

- Max Lucado

A Mother’s Plea

There have been streams of tears, innocent tears. There have been rivers of blood, innocent blood. Which cause has been served? Certainly not the cause of God or Allah, because God Almighty only gives life and is full of mercy.
How much blood must be spilled? How many tears shall we cry? How many mothers' hearts must be maimed? It's time to stop and think. We cannot live in fear because we are surrounded by hatred. Hatred begets only hatred. It is time to stop this vicious cycle of killing. We must all stand together, for our common humanity.

- Marie Fatayi-Williams

Being Chosen

Jesus is taken by God or, better, chosen by God. Jesus is the Chosen One. From all eternity God has chosen his most precious Child to become the saviour of the world. Being chosen expresses a special relationship, being known and loved in a unique way, being singled out. In our society our being chosen always implies that others are not chosen. But this is not true for God. God chooses his Son to reveal to us our chosenness.
In the Kingdom of God there is no competition or rivalry. The Son of God shares his chosenness with us. In the Kingdom of God each person is precious and unique, and each person has been given eyes to see the chosenness of others and rejoice in it.

- Henri Nouwen