It Is Hard To Love

It is not love in the abstract that counts. Men have loved a cause as they have loved a woman. They have loved the brotherhood, the workers, the poor, the oppressed - but they have not loved [humanity]; they have not loved the least of these. They have not loved "personally." It is hard to love. It is the hardest thing in the world, naturally speaking. Have you ever read Tolstoy's Resurrection? He tells of political prisoners in a long prison train, enduring chains and persecution for the love of their brothers, ignoring those same brothers on the long trek to Siberia. It is never the brothers right next to us, but the brothers in the abstract that are easy to love."

- Dorothy Day

Neglecting Prayer

In one area of Africa where Christianity began to spread, converts were zealous about daily devotions. They would find their own spot within the wild thickets and pour their hearts out to God. After some time the spots became well-worn, and paths were created. Soon, one's prayer life was made public. If someone began to neglect his or her devotional life, it would soon be noticed by others. Believers would then gently and lovingly remind those in neglect, "The grass grows on your path."

Ancient Thoughts

Inscribed on the walls of an ancient Persian temple are these thoughts:
Do not say all you know,
for he who says all he knows
often says more than he knows.

Do not tell all you hear,
for he who tells all he hears
often tells more than he hears.

Do not spend all you have,
for he who spends all he has
often spends more than he has.

Do not covet all you see,
for he who covets all he sees
often wants more than he sees.

Waiting to Be Lifted Up With Christ

Waiting for Christ's second coming and waiting for the resurrection are one and the same. The second coming is the coming of the risen Christ, raising our mortal bodies with him in the glory of God. Jesus' resurrection and ours are central to our faith. Our resurrection is as intimately related to the resurrection of Jesus as our belovedness is related to the belovedness of Jesus. Paul is very adamant on this point. He says: "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ cannot have been raised either, and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is without substance, and so is your faith" (1 Corinthians 15:13-14).
Indeed, our waiting is for the risen Christ to lift us up with him in the eternal life with God. It is from the perspective of Jesus' resurrection and our own that his life and ours derive their full significance. "If our hope in Christ has been for this life only," Paul says, "we are of all people the most pitiable" (1 Corinthians 15:18). We don't need to be pitied, because as followers of Jesus we can look far beyond the limits of our short life on earth and trust that nothing we are living now in our body will go to waste.

- Henri Nouwen

Our Way of Giving

Once when I was in Victoria, I saw a very large house. They told me it was a bank, and that the white men place their money there to be taken care of, and that by and by they got it back, with interest. We are Indians, and we have no such bank; but when we have plenty of money or blankets, we give them away to other chiefs and people, and by and by they return them, and our hearts feel good. Our way of giving is our bank.

Maquinna, Nootka chief, early 19th Century

Waiting for Christ to Come

If we do not wait patiently in expectation for God's coming in glory, we start wandering around, going from one little sensation to another. Our lives get stuffed with newspaper items, television stories, and gossip. Then our minds lose the disciline of discerning between what leads us closer to God and what doesn't, and our hearts gradually lose their spiritual sensitivity.
Without waiting for the second coming of Christ, we will stagnate quickly and become tempted to indulge in whatever gives us a moment of pleasure. When Paul asks us to wake from sleep, he says: "Let us live decently, as in the light of day; with no orgies or drunkenness, no promiscuity or licentiousness, and no wrangling or jealousy. Let your armour be the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop worrying about how your disordered natural inclinations may be fulfilled" (Romans 13:13-14). When we have the Lord to look forward to, we can already experience him in the waiting.

- Henri Nouwen

On The Journey Towards Accepting my Disability

Last year I was struck with intestinal parasites. I used to dream of attaining a tragic illness - it would be so moving. If not a total excuse for not getting my life together, at least it would garner me some sympathy. My parasites turned out to be humbling but not life threatening. I was just tired, bloated and smelly. I had to work hard for some sympathy.
The problem with parasites is that they are not an excuse for not living. I had to learn how to live with something that made me weak, took away some control in my life. I actually gained weight-something hard to do with parasites-because I took up eating when I couldn't run.
Disability can be such a crutch. I have experienced this temptation in minor health issues as well as more serious depression. I have seen how some people with disability have been crushed by the way people treated them. Life isn't fair, but it's all we're given.
Some individuals have discovered their disability as a means to becoming more fully human, more fully alive. Supported by caring and honest people, these men and women have named their limits, discovering that they are intertwined with some unique and wonderful gifts. Rather than being a barrier, disability can reveal a person's capacity for profound connection with others and with God.
I still struggle with my sometimes hidden disability. Through some amazing teachers, I have learned a lot about my potential to live a more honest, intimate and compassionate life. I feel called to work with others to build community that welcomes individuals' gifts with loving regard for their disability.

by John Guido

A Thankful Heart

Would you know who is the greatest saint in the world? It is not he who prays most or fasts most, it is not he who gives most alms or is most eminent for temperance, chastity or justice; but it is he who is always thankful to God, who wills everything that God wills, who receives everything as an instance of God's goodness and has a heart always ready to praise God for it.

- William Law

What Gratitude Does

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

- Melody Beattie

The Challenge of Aging

Waiting patiently in expectation does not necessarily get easier as we become older. On the contrary, as we grow in age we are tempted to settle down in a routine way of living and say: "Well, I have seen it all. ... There is nothing new under the sun. ... I am just going to take it easy and take the days as they come." But in this way our lives lose their creative tension. We no longer expect something really new to happen. We become cynical or self-satisfied or simply bored.
The challenge of aging is waiting with an ever-greater patience and an ever- stronger expectation. It is living with an eager hope. It is trusting that through Christ "we have been admitted into God's favour ... and look forward exultantly to God's glory" (Romans 5:2).

- Henri Nouwen

A Living Legacy - One Man's Witness

"The witness of Eberhard Arnold is a much-needed corrective to today's church, which has lost the vital connection between belief and obedience. Arnold's vision shows us what true discipleship might look like in the modern world." - Jim Wallis
"Arnold's writing has all the simple, luminous, direct vision into things that I have come to associate with his name. Is has an authentic ring. It stirs to repentance and renewal, and I am deeply grateful for it." - Thomas Merton
He died on November 22, 1935, but is still turning lives upside down.

Enjoying Our Gifts With Gratitude

There's an old book called "Tracks of a Fellow Struggler" written by John Claypool, who lost a daughter to leukemia. He tells a story of growing up during World War II. When one of his father's business associates went off to war, the man's family went to live elsewhere, and they left behind their washing machine for the Claypool family to use.
Two years passed. The war was over, the friends returned, and they wanted their washing machine back. When they came and took it, young Claypool openly expressed his resentment. His family had grown accustomed to having the washing machine, and it seemed so unfair to have to give it back. His mother wisely pointed out that the washing machine was never theirs in the first place. It was a gift for as long as they were able to use it, and the proper response to a gift is gratitude.
When you come to the place where you recognize that everything you love is a gift, it becomes possible to enjoy those gifts - not with an attitude of greed but with one of gratitude.

- Nancy Guthrie in "Holding on to Hope"

In Memory of Jesus and the Saints

Belonging to the communion of saints means being connected with all people transformed by the Spirit of Jesus. This connection is deep and intimate. Those who have lived as brothers and sisters of Jesus continue to live within us, even though they have died, just as Jesus continues to live within us, even though he has died.
We live our lives in memory of Jesus and the saints, and this memory is a real presence. Jesus and his saints are part of our most intimate and spiritual knowledge of God. They inspire us, guide us, encourage us, and give us hope. They are the source of our constant transformation. Yes, we carry them in our bodies and thus keep them alive for all with whom we live and work.

- Henri Nouwen

The Large Network of God's People

The saints are God's holy people. The apostle Paul speaks about all those who belong to Christ as "holy people" or "saints." He directs his letters to "those who have been consecrated in Christ Jesus and called to be God's holy people" (1 Corinthians 1:2; see also Ephesians 1:1). This sanctity is the work of the Spirit of Jesus. Paul again says: "All of us, with our unveiled faces like mirrors reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the image that we reflect in brighter and brighter glory; this is the working of the Lord who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
As saints we belong to that huge network of God's people that shines like a multitude of stars in the dark sky of the universe.

- Henri Nouwen

Waiting in Expectation

Waiting patiently for God always includes joyful expectation. Without expectation our waiting can get bogged down in the present. When we wait in expectation our whole beings are open to be surprised by joy.
All through the Gospels Jesus tells us to keep awake and stay alert. And Paul says, "Brothers and sisters ... the moment is here for you to stop sleeping and wake up, because by now our salvation is nearer than when we first began to believe. The night is nearly over, daylight is on the way; so let us throw off everything that belongs to the darkness and equip ourselves for the light" (Romans 13:11-12). It is this joyful expectation of God's coming that offers vitality to our lives. The expectation of the fulfillment of God's promises to us is what allows us to pay full attention to the road on which we are walking.

- Henri Nouwen

All Talk?

How will God’s future come about? Must not the day come when humankind experiences matter and spirit as one, so that we can once more till the soil in harmony, as brothers and sisters? Must not the moment come at last when we go from words to deeds, from devout feelings to realisation?

- Eberhard Arnold, lecture in Frankfurt, 1921

Waiting with Patience

How do we wait for God? We wait with patience. But patience does not mean passivity. Waiting patiently is not like waiting for the bus to come, the rain to stop, or the sun to rise. It is an active waiting in which we live the present moment to the full in order to find there the signs of the One we are waiting for.
The word patience comes from the Latin verb patior which means "to suffer." Waiting patiently is suffering through the present moment, tasting it to the full, and letting the seeds that are sown in the ground on which we stand grow into strong plants. Waiting patiently always means paying attention to what is happening right before our eyes and seeing there the first rays of God's glorious coming.

- Henri Nouwen

Active Waiting

Waiting is essential to the spiritual life. But waiting as a disciple of Jesus is not an empty waiting. It is a waiting with a promise in our hearts that makes already present what we are waiting for. We wait during Advent for the birth of Jesus. We wait after Easter for the coming of the Spirit, and after the ascension of Jesus we wait for his coming again in glory. We are always waiting, but it is a waiting in the conviction that we have already seen God's footsteps.
Waiting for God is an active, alert - yes, joyful - waiting. As we wait we remember him for whom we are waiting, and as we remember him we create a community ready to welcome him when he comes.

- Henri Nouwen

Responding To God

The response called for in the Bible to the hearing of the words of God is not mere assent, but faith in God who speaks the promise, obedience to the God who commands, faithfulness to the God who has made His covenant plain, return to the God who warns, and hope in the God who foretells the future. To respond to God's words is to respond to God: God is present in the speaking of His words.

- Peter Adams in "Speaking God's Words"

Acting in the Name of Jesus

Ministry is acting in the Name of Jesus. When all our actions are in the Name, they will bear fruit for eternal life. To act in the Name of Jesus, however, doesn't mean to act as a representative of Jesus or his spokesperson. It means to act in an intimate communion with him. The Name is like a house, a tent, a dwelling. To act in the Name of Jesus, therefore, means to act from the place where we are united with Jesus in love. To the question "Where are you?" we should be able to answer, "I am in the Name." Then, whatever we do cannot be other than ministry because it will always be Jesus himself who acts in and through us. The final question for all who minister is "Are you in the Name of Jesus?" When we can say yes to that, all of our lives will be ministry.

- Henri Nouwen

Ministry and the Spiritual Life

All Jesus' words and actions emerge from his intimate relationships with his Father. "Do you not believe," Jesus says, "that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? What I say to you I do not speak of my own accord: it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his works. You must believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe it on the evidence of these works" (John 14:10-11).
Just as all Jesus' words and actions emerge from his communion with his Father, so all our words and actions must emerge from our communion with Jesus. "In all truth I tell you," he says, "whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, and will perform even greater works. ... Whatever you ask for in my name I will do" (John 14:12-13). It is this profound truth that reveals the relationship between the spiritual life and the life of ministry.

- Henri Nouwen

Unity in the Heart of God

Love unites all, whether created or uncreated. The heart of God, the heart of all creation, and our own hearts become one in love. That's what all the great mystics have been trying to tell us through the ages. Benedict, Francis, Hildegard of Bingen, Hadewijch of Brabant, Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Dag Hammarskjöld, Thomas Merton, and many others, all in their own ways and their own languages, have witnessed to the unifying power of the divine love. All of them, however, spoke with a knowledge that came to them not through intellectual arguments but through contemplative prayer. The Spirit of Jesus allowed them to see the heart of God, the heart of the universe, and their own hearts as one. It is in the heart of God that we can come to the full realisation of the unity of all that is, created and uncreated.

- Henri Nouwen

On The Journey Towards Accepting my Disability

Self-acceptance is not a permanent condition of mind or spirit. I know personally a fellow who seems to everybody else to be "rehabilitated" or "well-adjusted". Most of the time, and especially in the presence of others, he maneuvers quite well, and people can forget that he has "anything wrong" with him. He laughs at times when he stumbles or knocks something over. He also grimaces in pride-pain when doing those same things. Others never know the flare-ups of the war within.
Accepting disabilities is similar to accepting limited abilities, which we all have and wish we did not. This friend of mine can do many surprising things; he has abilities. But when the wave of anger or frustration comes, what he cannot do outweighs in his mind all that he can do. The "disability" then seems wrong and ugly, and nobody else seems to have any limitations at all.
Self-acceptance takes patience. Waiting to see how a "disability" will become an "ability" and something to celebrate takes patience. The problem is that patience is not necessarily accompanied by calm acceptance. When the flight attendant thanks you for being patient after you have been seated in the plane on the runway for over an hour, you don't feel patient, but remaining seated is a patient act.
Accepting any limitation takes time, and we occasionally run out of patience, but the celebration is always what we do with what we actually have. Little by little those waves of unacceptance recede, and there are more and more times of doing and being, which are graces and celebrations of God's creative artistry.

- Fr. Larry Gillick, S.J.

The Bible: What's In It For Me?

The Bible is about you. You can learn a tremendous amount about who you are, where you fit into the great plan, and how God wants you to lead your life. In a sense, you were there as a slave in Egypt, and God rescued you (the book of Exodus). You were there among the people who acted as though God was not their King and committed terrible atrocities because "everyone did as he saw fit" (Judges 21:25). You were there at the Cross mocking Jesus, and you were there weeping and embracing Him when He rose from the grave. In a sense, the whole story is about a loving God pursuing you.
Nevertheless, you will learn the most about you when you discipline yourself to look first for God, His plan, and His People. Because humans are naturally self-centered, it's natural to read the Bible for what it can tell you about you. Also, under the worldview of our culture, God, the Bible, and the church exist for the purpose of making your life meaningful and fulfilling. God's job is to give you "abundant life" - and "abundant" is culturally defined as happy and full of feelings of achievement. Under this assumption, the Bible's purpose is to show you how to lead a happy and fulfilling life. It's no surprise, then, that people visit a new church or open the Bible with the question, "What's in it for me?" The idea that you and the Bible and the church exist for God's purposes is foreign to our culture's thinking.
Nevertheless, it is so. You and the Bible exist for God. Luckily, God is not an egotist, an insane dictator, or a control freak. His plan includes your eternal joy as the most unique and beautiful human being you can be. In Christ's life, death, and resurrection, God had shown that you exist for the sake of a God who loves you passionately and will go to any length for your sake.
Still, if you come to the Bible with a narcissistic worldview, you will misread everything. Narcissism is self-centeredness.
It's like Bette Midler's character in the film Beaches: "But enough about me. Let's talk about you. What do you think - about me?" Narcissism can keep you from seeing and fulfilling the role God has for you in His plan. While you're focused on your personal comfort and interest, you can squander your chance to be a player on God's stage.

Karen Lee-Thorp in A Compact Guide to the Bible

Feeling Melancholy?

If you are afflicted with melancholy at this season, go to the swamp and see the brave spears of the skunk cabbage already advance toward a new year. Their gravestones are not bespoken yet. Who shall be sexton to them? Is it the winter of their discontent? Do they seem to have lain down to die, despairing of skunk cabbagedom?

Henry David Thoreau

Embracing the Universe

Living a spiritual life makes our little, fearful hearts as wide as the universe, because the Spirit of Jesus dwelling within us embraces the whole of creation. Jesus is the Word, through whom the universe has been created. As Paul says: "In him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible - all things were created through him and for him - in him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:16-17). Therefore when Jesus lives within us through his Spirit, our hearts embrace not only all people but all of creation. Love casts out all fear and gathers in all that belongs to God.
Prayer, which is breathing with the Spirit of Jesus, leads us to this immense knowledge.

- Henri Nouwen

Partners With Christ

Any careful reading of the Bible provides a lot of evidence to support the claim that trying to make all things good and beautiful is very much a part of being God's people. When Jesus saved us, He called us to be partners with Him in the work that He wanted to do in the world. There is little doubt that our Lord very much wants to recreate this world through us and make it like new. Part of the reason why Jesus came into the world and saved us from sin was for just that purpose. Through us who are saved and sanctified by His grace, He wants to renew the earth. God's will is that everything, ourselves included, should be made new and beautiful again. The Bible says as much in Romans 8:19ff:

"For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who His children really are. Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God's curse. All creation anticipates the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right to the present time. And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as His children, including the new bodies He has promised us." (Romans 8:19-23 NLT)

- Tony Campolo in "Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God"

Travel Guides

Providence watches over each of us as we journey through life, providing us with two guides: repentance and remorse. The one calls us forward. The other calls us back. Yet they do not contradict each other, nor do they leave the traveler in doubt or confusion. For the one calls forward to the Good, the other back from the evil. And there are two of them, because in order to make our journey secure we must look ahead as well as back.

- Soren Kierkegaard