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