Meeting God

A little boy wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with a bag of potato chips and a six-pack of root beer and started his journey.
When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old woman. She was sitting in the park, just staring at some pigeons. The boy sat down next to her and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old lady looked hungry, so he offered her some chips. She gratefully accepted and smiled at him. Her smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered her a root beer. Again, she smiled at him. The boy was delighted! They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word. As twilight approached, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave; but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old woman, and gave her a hug. She gave him her biggest smile ever.
When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, What did you do today that made you so happy? He replied, "I had lunch with God." But before his mother could respond, he added, "You know what? She's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen!"
Meanwhile, the old woman, also radiant with joy, returned to her home. Her son was stunned by the look of peace on her face and he asked, Mother, what did you do today that made you so happy? She replied, "I ate potato chips in the park with God." However, before her son responded, she added, "You know, he's much younger than I expected."
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. People come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime! Embrace all equally!
Have lunch with God....... bring chips.

source unknown

Christ In Me

If I abide in Christ, if I present myself before God's Spirit for searching and filling, if I study and ponder the Scriptures and live my life in brokenness before a grace-dispensing community, I can transcend my inadequacy. I can find myself as I worship. I can struggle on behalf of others with the energy of Christ powerfully working in me.

- Larry Crabb in "Shattered Dreams"

In the Wake of Hiroshima

To fail to speak to the utter moral corruption of the mass destruction of civilians was to fail as a Christian and as a priest. Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened in and to a world and a Christian church that had asked for it - that had prepared the moral consciousness of humanity to do and to justify the unthinkable
- Father George Zabelka, Catholic chaplain for the 509th Composite Group, the atomic bomb crew.

Mastering Evil with Good

The apostle Paul writes to the Romans: "Bless your persecutors; never curse them, bless them. ... Never pay back evil with evil. ... Never try to get revenge. ... If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat; if thirsty, something to drink. ... Do not be mastered by evil, but master evil with good" (Romans 12:14-21). These words cut to the heart of the spiritual life. They make it clear what it means to choose life, not death, to choose blessings not curses. But what is asked of us here goes against the grain of our human nature. We will only be able to act according to Paul's words by knowing with our whole beings that what we are asked to do for others is what God has done for us.

- Henri Nouwen

When Every Hope Has Been Explored

It is precisely when every earthly hope has been explored and found wanting, when every possibility of help from earthly sources has been sought and is not forthcoming, when every recourse this world offers, moral as well as material, has been drawn on and expended with no effect, when in the shivering cold every stick of wood has been thrown on the fire, and in the gathering darkness every glimmer of light has finally flickered out—it is then that Christ’s hand reaches out, sure and firm, that Christ’s words bring their inexpressible comfort, that his light shines brightest, abolishing the darkness for ever.

- Malcolm Muggeridge

Claiming Our God Given Selves

When we have been deeply hurt by another person, it is nearly impossible not to have hostile thoughts, feelings of anger or hatred, and even a desire to take revenge. All of this often happens spontaneously, without much inner control. We simply find ourselves brooding about what we are going to say or do to pay back the person who has hurt us. To choose blessings instead of curses in such a situation asks for an enormous leap of faith. It calls for a willingness to go beyond all our urges to get even and to choose a life-giving response.
Sometimes this seems impossible. Still, whenever we move beyond our wounded selves and claim our God-given selves, we give life not just to ourselves but also to the ones who have offended us.

- Henri Nouwen

When Catastrophe Strikes

Only when we take human existence upon ourselves in its starkest and most humiliating misery—a misery in which nothing has meaning—can we win through to the only possible way to live. Only when we taste the lot of all, when we become involved deeply in world suffering, one in heart with the need of humanity, can we win through to our true vocation. Only when the conscience becomes active, only when love is born out of suffering, only when hardship leads to liberating action, is victory near.

Lecture, April 1919

- Eberhard Arnold

A Choice Calling for Discipline

When we look critically at the many thoughts and feelings that fill our minds and hearts, we may come to the horrifying discovery that we often choose death instead of life, curse instead of blessing. Jealousy, envy, anger, resentment, greed, lust, vindictiveness, revenge, hatred ... they all float in that large reservoir of our inner life. Often we take them for granted and allow them to be there and do their destructive work.
But God asks us to choose life and to choose blessing. This choice requires an immense inner discipline. It requires a great attentiveness to the death-forces within us and a great commitment to let the forces of life come to dominate our thoughts and feelings. We cannot always do this alone; often we need a caring guide or a loving community to support us. But it is important that we both make the inner effort and seek the support we need from others to help us choose life.

- Henri Nouwen

On The Journey Toward Claiming Leadership

I live in a L'Arche community - a community centered on the needs and gifts of people with intellectual disabilities. Leadership is an important element of our community culture. We have a Leadership Team that is responsible for the management of our homes and programs. Every home and program has a leader. We send people to learn about leadership development. We know that leaders are essential for our community life.
For core members, the people with intellectual disabilities at the heart of our community, it is often very important that leadership roles be clearly held. They want to know who is responsible for the house they live in, who is the boss at their workplace, who is on the Community Council, and who is the leader of the community. Core members can also be transparent about their desire to carry leadership: they take pride in cooking a nice dinner, saying grace before a meal, leading a house meeting, making a candle, or participating in a liturgy. They recognize that it is possible to offer leadership in many ways, and they look for these opportunities.
Several years ago we welcomed Mary Cosby from Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C., to lead our community in a retreat. I will never forget when she shared her experience and belief that "we are each leaders at the place of our gift. We are each followers at the place of gift in the other." When our claim of leadership is grounded in a belief in and acceptance of our gifts, our relationships thrive and our communities flourish.

- Carl MacMillan

Wiser Than Men

Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than grown men and women, who fail to live it worthily, but who think they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure.

- Henry David Thoreau

Choosing Life

God says, "I am offering you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live" (Deuteronomy 30:19).
"Choose life." That's God's call for us, and there is not a moment in which we do not have to make that choice. Life and death are always before us. In our imaginations, our thoughts, our words, our gestures, our actions ... even in our nonactions. This choice for life starts in a deep interior place. Underneath very life-affirming behaviour I can still harbour death-thoughts and death-feelings. The most important question is not "Do I kill?" but "Do I carry a blessing in my heart or a curse?" The bullet that kills is only the final instrument of the hatred that began being nurtured in the heart long before the gun was picked up.

- Henri Nouwen

Sharing The Good News

Christians who can't or won't share their faith with others may be in a crisis of faith of their own. The question is whether they believe in the efficacy of the Gospel - the Gospel which justified so that we don't need to earn our status before God or vie for position with others; the gospel which gives shape and purpose to live, making us other-directed rather than self-centered; the gospel of peace which reconciles broken relationships and builds community; the gospel of justice which advocates for the poor and the marginalized. This is good news. So how can one keep from sharing it?

- from the Leadership Network, first published in "Christian Century", 11/20/02

The Companionship of the Dead

As we grow older we have more and more people to remember, people who have died before us. It is very important to remember those who have loved us and those we have loved. Remembering them means letting their spirits inspire us in our daily lives. They can become part of our spiritual communities and gently help us as we make decisions on our journeys. Parents, spouses, children, and friends can become true spiritual companions after they have died. Sometimes they can become even more intimate to us after death than when they were with us in life.
Remembering the dead is choosing their ongoing companionship.

- Henri Nouwen

Breaking the Spell

Without being forgiven, released from the consequences of what we have done, our capacity to act would, as it were, be confined to a single deed from which we could never recover; we would remain the victims of its consequences forever, not unlike the sorcerer's apprentice who lacked the magic formula to break the spell.

- Hannah Arendt

A Grateful Death

When we think about death, we often think about what will happen to us after we have died. But it is more important to think about what will happen to those we leave behind. The way we die has a deep and lasting effect on those who stay alive. It will be easier for our family and friends to remember us with joy and peace if we have said a grateful good-bye than if we die with bitter and disillusioned hearts.
The greatest gift we can offer our families and friends is the gift of gratitude. Gratitude sets them free to continue their lives without bitterness or self-recrimination.

- Henri Nouwen

Being Ready to Die

Death often happens suddenly. A car accident, a plane crash, a fatal fight, a war, a flood, and so on. When we feel healthy and full of energy, we do not think much about our deaths. Still, death might come very unexpectedly.
How can we be prepared to die? By not having any unfinished relational business. The question is: Have I forgiven those who have hurt me and asked forgiveness from those I have hurt? When I feel at peace with all the people I live with, my death might cause great grief, but it will not cause guilt or anger.
When we are ready to die at any moment, we also are ready to live at any moment.

- Henri Nouwen

The Lunch Date

The following is a synopsis of a 10-minute movie that won an Academy Award in the short film category one year...
An older woman, smartly dressed, checking the clock in Grand Central Station. She finds her ticket in her purse only to discover that her wallet has been stolen. First scared and then annoyed, she scrounges for a few bills in the bottom of her purse, finds the cafeteria, buys a cobb salad, settles into her booth with her lunch, then she realizes she forgot her fork.
So she leaves her packages and salad to return only to find a very large, disheveled man in her booth eating her lunch. She is indignant. But he doesn't seem to notice. Determined, she sits down at the table, picks up her fork and stabs at the salad; he does the same, each taking a turn till they're done. Finally the man leaves, only to return again with coffee, two cups of coffee, and they end their meal in polite silence. He is the first to leave.
She looks at her watch; it's time for her to catch her train. She reaches for her packages and discovers they're gone!! - And then her eye wanders to the next booth, where her packages sit along with her cobb salad, untouched!
I wonder how many times I've been forgiven; I wonder how many times I've been forgiven and not even known that I needed to be.

Remembering the Dead

When we lose a dear friend, someone we have loved deeply, we are left with a grief that can paralyse us emotionally for a long time. People we love become part of us. Our thinking, feeling and acting are codetermined by them: Our fathers, our mothers, our husbands, our wives, our lovers, our children, our friends ... they are all living in our hearts. When they die a part of us has to die too. That is what grief is about: It is that slow and painful departure of someone who has become an intimate part of us. When Christmas, the new year, a birthday or anniversary comes, we feel deeply the absence of our beloved companion. We sometimes have to live at least a whole year before our hearts have fully said good-bye and the pain of our grief recedes. But as we let go of them they become part of our "members" and as we "re-member" them, they become our guides on our spiritual journey.

- Henri Nouwen

Impractical, Immoral

Violence as a way of achieving justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Love and the Pain of Leaving

Every time we make the decision to love someone, we open ourselves to great suffering, because those we most love cause us not only great joy but also great pain. The greatest pain comes from leaving. When the child leaves home, when the husband or wife leaves for a long period of time or for good, when the beloved friend departs to another country or dies ... the pain of the leaving can tear us apart.
Still, if we want to avoid the suffering of leaving, we will never experience the joy of loving. And love is stronger than fear, life stronger than death, hope stronger than despair. We have to trust that the risk of loving is always worth taking.

- Henri Nouwen

Tears - The Jewels Of Remembrance

The death of a dear one is the most profound of all sorrows. The grief that comes with such a loss is intense and multifaceted, affecting our emotions, our bodies and our lives. Grief is preoccupying and depleting. Emotionally, grief is a mixture of raw feelings such as sorrow, anguish, anger, regret, longing, fear, and deprivation. Grief may be experienced physically as exhaustion, emptiness, tension, sleeplessness, or loss of appetite. 'Grief invades our daily lives in many sudden gaps and changes, like that empty place at the dinner table, or the sudden loss of affection and companionship, as well as in the many new apprehensions, adjustments, and uncertainties. The loss of a dear one throws every aspect of our lives out of balance. The closer we were to the person who died, the more havoc the loss creates. Love does not die quickly. Hence to grieve is also 'to celebrate the depth of the union. Tears are then the jewels of remembrance, sad but glistening with the beauty of the past. So grief in its bitterness marks the end ... but it also is praise to the one who is gone.'

- Judy Tatelbaum in "The Courage to Grieve"

A Great Thing?

You don’t believe my words now, but you’ll come to it yourself... Suffering is a great thing.

- Fyodor Dostoevsky

Parents' Grief

Many parents have to suffer the death of a child, at birth or at a very young age. There probably is no greater suffering than losing a child, since it so radically interferes with the desire of a father and mother to see their child grow up to be a beautiful, healthy, mature, and loving person. The great danger is that the death of a child will take away the parents' desire to live. It requires an enormous act of faith on the part of parents to truly believe that their children, however brief their lives, were given to them as a gift from God, to deepen and enrich their own lives.
Whenever parents can make that leap of faith, their children's short lives can become fruitful far beyond their expectations.

- Henri Nouwen

On The Journey Toward Claiming Leadership

Recently I was asked to give a series of reflections on leadership around the United States and one of the major points that I made was that if we call ourselves disciples of Jesus, then we are leaders. Right out of the gate we are stating that we stand for something that is countercultural, prophetic and challenging. Challenging indeed!
To be sure, our claim to leadership is an awareness that grows through our life experiences. I have moments when I feel I am a great leader. Those moments are fleeting, though, as more often than not, what I think has been good leadership comes under someone else's critical eye and I'm called to reflect again. Perhaps more than being an outward expression to others, true leadership is in the daily faithfulness and sometimes anguish of trying to live an authentic life.
My journey towards claiming leadership is now more a grappling with interior effort than an exterior effort. I still work to share my gifts in leading and guiding others but always knowing profoundly that I can give away only what I have become. If I continue to look deeply within, with the desire to become more authentic, then I know that my outward leadership will be a positive sign for others. The greatest leaders I have known have been women and men who have understood that weakness and frailty are essential experiences on the way to spiritual maturity. Leadership flows from this journey like a river.

Victoria S. Schmidt

Harmony And Proportion

Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen

- Leonardo Da Vinci

Pie in the Sky

Long-haired preachers come out every night,
Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;
But when asked how 'bout something to eat
They will answer with voices so sweet:
You will eat, bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You'll get pie in the sky when you die.

- Joe Hill

The Calling Of God

What is the calling of God? In every life, calling may manifest itself in a different way, but the result will be the same. God's calling does not allow us to separate the sacred from the secular. We have one life to live for Him in every aspect of existence. The calling of God challenges us to bring Him into our most mundane activities, breathing life into our smallest tasks, and giving power to our greatest challenges.

- Stephen Arterburn in "The Power Book"

The Quality of Life

It is very hard to accept an early death. When friends die who are seventy, eighty, or ninety years old, we may be in deep grief and miss them very much, but we are grateful that they had long lives. But when a teenager, a young adult, or a person at the height of his or her career dies, we feel a protest rising from our hearts: "Why? Why so soon? Why so young? It is unfair."
But far more important than our quantity of years is the quality of our lives. Jesus died young. St. Francis died young. St. Thèrëse of Lisieux died young, Martin Luther King, Jr., died young. We do not know how long we will live, but this not knowing calls us to live every day, every week, every year of our lives to its fullest potential.

- Henri Nouwen

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

- William Butler Yeats

Growing Out Of The Heart

"The fruit of the Spirit," which is in those who live in Christ's Spirit, "is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23). An old legend tells of people who came wanting to buy the fruit of the Spirit. They were told, "We don't sell the fruit; we sell the seeds." Indeed, these traits of the holy life are not forced, not strived for, certainly not bought. Rather, they grow out of the believer's heart. They grow out of the indwelling presence of Jesus, the promised Holy Spirit.

- U.M. Bishop Richard Wilke in "DISCIPLE: Becoming Disciples Through Bible Study"

Living Our Passages Well

Death is a passage to new life. That sounds very beautiful, but few of us desire to make this passage. It might be helpful to realise that our final passage is preceded by many earlier passages. When we are born we make a passage from life in the womb to life in the family. When we go to school we make a passage from life in the family to life in the larger community. When we get married we make a passage from a life with many options to a life committed to one person. When we retire we make a passage from a life of clearly defined work to a life asking for new creativity and wisdom.
Each of these passages is a death leading to new life. When we live these passages well, we are becoming more prepared for our final passage.

- Henri Nouwen

Whoever Has Love

When someone is driven by love in any way, he or she is driven by Christ. Whoever has love, has the love of God, even if he or she does not confess Christ in words. There is a hidden Christ; he is much too great to be confined by human thought.

- Eberhard Arnold

Taking the Sting Out of Death

Dying is returning home. But even though we have been told this many times by many people, we seldom desire to return home. We prefer to stay where we are. We know what we have; we do not know what we will get. Even the most appealing images of the afterlife cannot take away the fear of dying. We cling to life, even when our relationships are difficult, our economic circumstances harsh, and our health quite poor.
Still, Jesus came to take the sting out of death and to help us gradually realise that we don't have to be afraid of death, since death leads us to the place where the deepest desires of our hearts will be satisfied. It is not easy for us to truly believe that, but every little gesture of trust will bring us closer to this truth.

- Henri Nouwen

Who's To Choose?

To whom does God offer His gift? To the brightest? The most beautiful or the most charming? No. His gift is for us all...
And He wants us so badly, He'll take us in any condition - "as is" reads the tag on our collars. He's not about to wait for us to reach perfection (He knows we'll never get there!). Do you think He's waiting for us to overcome all temptations? Hardly. When we master the Christian walk? Far from it. Remember, Christ died for us when we were still sinners. His sacrifice, then, was not dependent on our performance.
He wants us now. And He'll do whatever it takes to bring His children home. Christ's love has no strings, no expectations, no hidden agendas, no secrets. His love for us is up front and clear. "I love you," He says. Even if you let Me down. I love you in spite of your failures." Why did God choose you? Why did He choose me? Honestly. Why? What do we have that He needs?...
The answer is at once simple and profound. He chose you because He wanted to. After all, you are His. He made you. He brought you home. He owns you. And if you've never heard Him assuring you of that simple fact, be reminded by the words on this page. Let these words resonate in your heart: the God who created you loves you. He made the ultimate sacrifice because of you. No, God doesn't need you. He wants you. So, what do we do with this gift? What does it have to do with our daily existence?
It has everything to do with it. Our task on earth is singular -- to choose our eternal home. You can afford many wrong choices in life. You can choose the wrong career and survive, the wrong city and survive, the wrong house and survive. You can even choose the wrong mate and survive. But there is one choice that must be made correctly and that is your eternal destiny.

- Max Lucado in "The Gift for All People"

The Subject Of The Bible

Come to the Bible, not to study the history of God's divine action, but to be its object; not to learn what it has achieved throughout the centuries and still does, but simply to be the subject of its operation.

- Jean-Pierre de Caussade (1675-1751)

Happy Are They

One of the first things Christ says in the Gospel is this: "Happy the simple-hearted!" Yes, happy those who head towards simplicity, simplicity of heart and simplicity of life.
A simple heart attempts to live in the present moment, to welcome each day as God’s today… Simplifying our life enables us to share with the least fortunate, in order to alleviate suffering where there is disease, poverty, famine…
Where can we find the simplicity indispensable for living out the Gospel? Some words of Christ enlighten us. One day he said to his disciples, "Let the little children come to me; the realities of God are for those who are like them."
And so we would like to say to God: "God, you love us: turn us into people who are humble; give us great simplicity in our prayer, in human relationships, in welcoming others."

- Brother Roger of Taizé

Meeting God in the Poor

When we are not afraid to confess our own poverty, we will be able to be with other people in theirs. The Christ who lives in our own poverty recognises the Christ who lives in other people's. Just as we are inclined to ignore our own poverty, we are inclined to ignore others'. We prefer not to see people who are destitute, we do not like to look at people who are deformed or disabled, we avoid talking about people's pains and sorrows, we stay away from brokenness, helplessness, and neediness.
By this avoidance we might lose touch with the people through whom God is manifested to us. But when we have discovered God in our own poverty, we will lose our fear of the poor and go to them to meet God.

- Henri Nouwen

The Treasure of the Poor

The poor have a treasure to offer precisely because they cannot return our favours. By not paying us for what we have done for them, they call us to inner freedom, selflessness, generosity, and true care. Jesus says: "When you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; then you will be blessed, for they have no means to repay you and so you will be repaid when the upright rise again" (Luke 14:13-14).
The repayment Jesus speaks about is spiritual. It is the joy, peace, and love of God that we so much desire. This is what the poor give us, not only in the afterlife but already here and now.

- Henri Nouwen

Our Poverty, God's Dwelling Place

How can we embrace poverty as a way to God when everyone around us wants to become rich? Poverty has many forms. We have to ask ourselves: "What is my poverty?" Is it lack of money, lack of emotional stability, lack of a loving partner, lack of security, lack of safety, lack of self-confidence? Each human being has a place of poverty. That's the place where God wants to dwell! "How blessed are the poor," Jesus says (Matthew 5:3). This means that our blessing is hidden in our poverty.
We are so inclined to cover up our poverty and ignore it that we often miss the opportunity to discover God, who dwells in it. Let's dare to see our poverty as the land where our treasure is hidden.

- Henri Nouwen

Focussing Our Minds and Hearts

How can we stay in solitude when we feel that deep urge to be distracted by people and events? The most simple way is to focus our minds and hearts on a word or picture that reminds us of God. By repeating quietly: "The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want," or by gazing lovingly at an icon of Jesus, we can bring our restless minds to some rest and experience a gentle divine presence.
This doesn't happen overnight. It asks a faithful practice. But when we spend a few moments every day just being with God, our endless distractions will gradually disappear.

- Henri Nouwen

On The Journey Toward Right Use of Power

The man in front of me was six feet tall and in his late twenties - much younger than I am - and the gleam in his eye said, "I'm going to hit you." Then he bowed, never taking his eyes from mine. As I bowed back, I glanced at the black belt around his waist and thought of my own recently earned yellow belt. I had been proud of that achievement, but now I wanted to run as fast as I could. What was I thinking? A middle-aged woman should not be wearing boxing gloves and facing off with a young man, protective gear notwithstanding. It isn't dignified. It isn't age-appropriate. It isn't safe. I thought I heard amusement in my teacher's voice when he hit the bell and yelled "Fight!" After the longest two minutes in the world, the bell rang again. We bowed to each other again, and the black belt smiled at me. "You did great. Next time, keep your hands up, and throw more."
I was alive! As I walked home, I realized that I had truly expected to be badly hurt in my first fight. After all, my sparring partner had age, power, and skill to his advantage. I had assumed he would use all of that to its maximum because he could, and because doing so would make him look great in front of the teacher. But instead he challenged me just enough - the punches really landed, and they really hurt, but they were gauged to make me respond, to fight back, to defend myself and learn in the process. There were many other opponents of his skill level, whom he would be glad to fight with all he had, but with me he knew his role was to use his power judiciously to empower me to believe in myself. It was an astounding revelation.
Now, three years later, I am preparing for my own black belt promotion. Now there are many yellow belts who, facing off with me, feel that same fear. Will I hurt them? Will I use my power to make myself look good or to humiliate them? But I have learned at the hands of the best teachers - power is to be used to lead others to new levels of accomplishment and insight. This use of power makes me understand better the power of God, whose "might" is beyond measure but who chooses to be incarnate among us and to share our weakness. God's power is "power-with" and not "power-over," the kind of power that challenges us to respond, to grow into our best selves, and to create with God a world where all are empowered to love, to grow, and to be whole.

by Lisa Cataldo

Let The Light Shine

"For it is the God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness', who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
- 2 Corinthians 4:6 -

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

- C. S. Lewis in "Is Theology Poetry?"

The First Hour of Your Morning

The duties and cares of the day crowd about us when we awake each day - if they have not already dispelled our night's rest. How can everything be accommodated in one day? When will I do this, when that? How will it all be accomplished? Thus agitated, we are tempted to run and rush. And so we must take the reins in hand and remind ourselves, "Let go of your plans. The first hour of your morning belongs to God. Tackle the day's work that he charges you with, and he will give you the power to accomplish it."

- Edith Stein

The Cushioned Life

Our technological civilisation has cushioned life on all sides, yet more than ever before, people helplessly succumb to the blows of life. This is very simply because a merely technological culture cannot give any help in the face of life’s eternal tragedy; here only an inward foundation can help. Externalised as they are, too many people today have no ideas, no strength, nothing that might enable them to master their restlessness and dividedness. They do not know what to make of trials, obstacles, or suffering—how to make something constructive of them—and perceive them only as things that oppress and irritate them and interfere with life.

- Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster

Do You Know An Angel?

Angels don't submit to the litmus tests, testify in court, or slide under a microscope for explanation. Thus, their existence cannot be "proved" by the guidelines we humans usually use. To know one, perhaps, requires a willingness to suspend judgment, to open ourselves to possibilities we've only dreamed about.

- Joan Wester Anderson in "Where Angels Walk"

Coming up for Air

Now at last perhaps I am coming up for air after nearly being lost in a sea of despair, too heavy for me to move or breathe. What finally raised me was a sudden knowing that my own despair and my own feelings really were completely insignificant and didn't matter at all. God is the important fact, and Christ the moving force, and I had been wallowing in my own misery out of my egocentricity and sin. So I asked for strength and forgiveness and the air began to clear, and I could act again, but not in my own strength.

- Jane Tyson Clement

Clinging to God in Solitude

When we enter into solitude to be with God alone, we quickly discover how dependent we are. Without the many distractions of our daily lives, we feel anxious and tense. When nobody speaks to us, calls on us, or needs our help, we start feeling like nobodies. Then we begin wondering whether we are useful, valuable, and significant. Our tendency is to leave this fearful solitude quickly and get busy again to reassure ourselves that we are "somebodies." But that is a temptation, because what makes us somebodies is not other people's responses to us but God's eternal love for us.
To claim the truth of ourselves we have to cling to our God in solitude as to the One who makes us who we are.

- Henri Nouwen

Slaying Evil

Annihilation itself is no death to evil. Only good where evil was, is evil dead. An evil thing must live with its evil until it chooses to be good. That alone is the slaying of evil.

- George Macdonald

Productive Small Groups

"Christianity is as much caught as it is taught." ...The importance of solid teaching about the basics of the faith cannot be denied. But... some of the most significant spiritual lessons I have learned through the years have been "picked up" observing others share real life experiences in a small Bible study or prayer group, a Sunday school class, or in one-on-one conversation. "If that's occurring in someone else's life... then, it could happen in my life too!" is a frequent thought pattern I experience in such situations. Spending time with other believers in formal and informal settings has "spurred me on toward love and good deeds," to borrow a phrase from Hebrews 10:24. Because of this I want to enthusiastically echo the verse that follows, "Let us not give up meeting together... but let us encourage one another..." (Hebrews 10:25). I believe this encouragement or prodding process is usually more productive in smaller (instead of larger) groups... Make certain you're a part of one!

- Steve Bell in "The Chapel Newsletter"

Protecting Our Hiddenness

If indeed the spiritual life is essentially a hidden life, how do we protect this hiddenness in the midst of a very public life? The two most important ways to protect our hiddenness are solitude and poverty. Solitude allows us to be alone with God. There we experience that we belong not to people, not even to those who love us and care for us, but to God and God alone. Poverty is where we experience our own and other people's weakness, limitations, and need for support. To be poor is to be without success, without fame, and without power. But there God chooses to show us God's love.
Both solitude and poverty protect the hiddenness of our lives.

- Henri Nouwen

Hiddenness, a Place of Purification

One of the reasons that hiddenness is such an important aspect of the spiritual life is that it keeps us focused on God. In hiddenness we do not receive human acclamation, admiration, support, or encouragement. In hiddenness we have to go to God with our sorrows and joys and trust that God will give us what we most need.
In our society we are inclined to avoid hiddenness. We want to be seen and acknowledged. We want to be useful to others and influence the course of events. But as we become visible and popular, we quickly grow dependent on people and their responses and easily lose touch with God, the true source of our being. Hiddenness is the place of purification. In hiddenness we find our true selves.

- Henri Nouwen

Hiddenness, a Place of Intimacy

Hiddenness is an essential quality of the spiritual life. Solitude, silence, quiet, ordinary tasks, being with people without great agendas, sleeping, eating, working, playing - all of that without being different from others, that is the life that Jesus lived and the life he asks us to live. It is in hiddenness that we, like Jesus, can increase "in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and with people" (Luke 2:51). It is in hiddenness that we can find a true intimacy with God and a true love for people.
Even during his active ministry, Jesus continued to return to hidden places to be with God alone. If we don't have a hidden life with God, our public life for God cannot bear fruit.

- Henri Nouwen

The Unity Of The Church

"Homesickness for the [One True Church]" is genuine and legitimate only in so far as it is a disquietude at the fact that we have lost and forgotten Christ, and with Him have lost the unity of the Church. Thus we must be on our guard, all along the line, lest the motives which stir us today lead us to a quest that looks past Him. Indeed, however rightful and urgent those motives are, we could well leave them out of our reckoning. We shall do well to realize that in themselves they are well-meaning but merely human desires, and that we can have no final certainty that they are rightful, no unanswerable claim for their fulfillment. Unless we regard them with a measure of holy indifference, we are ill placed for a quest after the unity of the Church.

- Karl Barth in "The Church and the Churches"

All We Know

No one can know what goes on in the soul of an afflicted person. No one can know what secret inner ripening can come from suffering and sorrow. All we know is that every individual’s life is priceless - that each is dear to God.

- Christoph Probst

The Hidden Life of Jesus

The largest part of Jesus' life was hidden. Jesus lived with his parents in Nazareth, "under their authority" (Luke 2:51), and there "increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and with people" (Luke 2:52). When we think about Jesus we mostly think about his words and miracles, his passion, death, and resurrection, but we should never forget that before all of that Jesus lived a simple, hidden life in a small town, far away from all the great people, great cities, and great events. Jesus' hidden life is very important for our own spiritual journeys. If we want to follow Jesus by words and deeds in the service of his Kingdom, we must first of all strive to follow Jesus in his simple, unspectacular, and very ordinary hidden life.

- Henri Nouwen

Do We Need Jesus?

I am frightened by our ability in [the West] to convince ourselves that we don't need Jesus. We can amass fortunes, we can get degrees, we can own our house all on our own. And yet, there's a certain affluence that we can attain when we become poverty-stricken - a certain humility that comes with trials, that brings us face to face with the Saviour.

- Max Lucado

Trusting in the Fruits

We belong to a generation that wants to see the results of our work. We want to be productive and see with our own eyes what we have made. But that is not the way of God's Kingdom. Often our witness for God does not lead to tangible results. Jesus himself died as a failure on a cross. There was no success there to be proud of. Still, the fruitfulness of Jesus' life is beyond any human measure. As faithful witnesses of Jesus we have to trust that our lives too will be fruitful, even though we cannot see their fruit. The fruit of our lives may be visible only to those who live after us.
What is important is how well we love. God will make our love fruitful, whether we see that fruitfulness or not.

- Henri Nouwen

Burning With Love

Often we are preoccupied with the question "How can we be witnesses in the Name of Jesus? What are we supposed to say or do to make people accept the love that God offers them?" These questions are expressions more of our fear than of our love. Jesus shows us the way of being witnesses. He was so full of God's love, so connected with God's will, so burning with zeal for God's Kingdom, that he couldn't do other than witness. Wherever he went and whomever he met, a power went out from him that healed everyone who touched him. (See Luke 6:19.)
If we want to be witnesses like Jesus, our only concern should be to be as alive with the love of God as Jesus was.

- Henri Nouwen

A Circle of Compassion

A human being is a part of the whole that we call the universe, a part limited in time and space. And yet we experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical illusion of our consciousness. This illusion is a prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for only the few people nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living beings and all of nature.

- Albert Einstein

On The Journey Toward Right Use of Power

"Please, you must come inside," she begged. I refused, for the third time. Some people had gathered to watch. It was becoming uncomfortable. I turned away and joined the line of people waiting for their servings of food from the huge, communal pots.
I was attending a local man's ordination into the priesthood at an outdoor Mass in a township of Bulawayo, the city in Zimbabwe where I lived and worked for three years. The woman had invited me to join the young man's close friends and family, as well as local dignitaries, inside the Parish Hall. There they were enjoying (relatively) rich food and the use of tables, chairs, and cutlery. Outside, people took their food in bowls, used fingers to eat, and sat in clusters on the ground.
When I lived in Zimbabwe, I often found myself in situations like this, where my status as a well-educated white woman from a wealthy nation was all too evident. Why should I be invited inside? I did not know the man. I had attended this celebration only because a friend thought all Catholics in the city should be part of this great day. I turned away from the invitation knowing that my decision was hurtful, yet it was the one that resonated most deeply in my heart. I, a stranger, could not join this man's closest circle while others who knew him better remained outside.
While I felt certain of my response, my reflections on it since have not been without questions. This journey towards the right use of power, I now realize, is often marked by a sense of incompleteness, of questions not fully answered and dynamics not fully understood. Were the questions to stop, I would begin to be concerned. And while all our decisions must be informed by the truth that we are all created equally as God's children, it would be naïve to assume that the politics of power are not at play, even in our most basic everyday encounters.
I think of this often, many years later, as I raise my three young boys. Although my life certainly seems simpler now, the journey towards the right use of power carries on. As I try, sometimes ungracefully, to work out with my sons the best way to live this day, I search for the resonance of power used well.

by Madeline Burghart

The Omni-Perspective Of God

The truth is we compare God to ourselves. We measure divine actions against our own. We think we know what we would do, what we would enact or change if we were omni-everything... It's hard for us to believe that our measures of what is just, what is merciful and what is best are not in sync with the mind of God. They seem good to us. But we are not omni... We have some perspective, but not the omni-perspective of God, who knows the movement of all history towards all futures, who knows our place among those billions of galaxies.

- Rev. Mary W. Anderson

Fellowship Of The Weak

As we seek to become more and more economically independent, as we become more and more secure, we remove ourselves from our need to be "helped." We separate ourselves from the possibility of community and miss the opportunity to experience the richness of loving relationships. Henri Nouwen once wrote, "...every time I am willing to break out of my false need for self-sufficiency and dare to ask for help, a new community emerges - a fellowship of the weak - strong in the trust that together we can be a people of hope for a broken world."

Being Living Signs of Love

Jesus' whole life was a witness to his Father's love, and Jesus calls his followers to carry on that witness in his Name. We, as followers of Jesus, are sent into this world to be visible signs of God's unconditional love. Thus we are not first of all judged by what we say but by what we live. When people say of us: "See how they love one another," they catch a glimpse of the Kingdom of God that Jesus announced and are drawn to it as by a magnet.
In a world so torn apart by rivalry, anger, and hatred, we have the privileged vocation to be living signs of a love that can bridge all divisions and heal all wounds.

- Henri Nouwen

Even with a Crust

We cannot love God unless we love each other. We know him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone anymore. Heaven is a banquet, and life is a banquet too - even with a crust - where there is companionship. We have all known loneliness, and we have learned that the only solution is love, and that love comes with community.

- Dorothy Day

Einstein's Formula For Success

Albert Einstein had a formula for success. Can you believe that? One of the greatest minds of all time developed a math formula for success! I suggest you read this carefully -- this may be the most important math equation that you will ever see.
Einstein said, "If A equals success, then the formula is: A=X+Y+Z.
X is work.
Y is play.
Z is keep your mouth shut."
Einstein no doubt had an excellent sense of humour. Let's look at the 3 variables in this equation. They are:
1. Work
2. Play
3. Keeping your mouth shut!
1. Work: Albert Einstein had a tremendous work ethic and because of that gave more to society and modern science than any person in recent times
2. Play: Einstein, however, did not work 24 hours a day and made time for fun and relaxation. His idea of fun may have been different than yours, but that doesn't mean it still wasn't play.
3. Keeping your mouth shut: Finally, my favorite part of his success formal is to keep your mouth shut. I genuinely believe that the person who talks the least says the most. A friend of mine complains that the woman he is dating talks too much. I don't know how to break the news to him; however, the problem is not that she talks too much. It simply is the fact that he is irritated that he isn't able to talk. Now, let me just say this is not a generic man and woman statement. I am speaking about a specific person that I know. His desire is to constantly talk and because he likes to talk so much, he will talk in circles. If you let him talk long enough he will repeat the same thing three times and then contradict himself. His desire is not to hear but to be heard.
Albert Einstein, on the other hand had nothing to prove. He felt no need to be the "Chatty Cathy" he could have been with his knowledge. It wasn't important to him to talk to everyone he met and talk over their heads to demonstrate his IQ. Instead, he learned the value of quietness and solitude.
Shift your mind set from being a talker to a listener. It has been said that you can make more friends in 5 minutes by becoming interested in others than you can make in 5 years of trying to get others interested in you! How do you become interested in others? You ask questions and then keep your mouth shut!
Dale Carnegie wrote a best-selling book entitled, 'How to Win Friends and Influence People.' One of the key premises of this book was that everyone's favorite subject is actually themselves and that the sweetest sound to their ears is the sound of their own name. Einstein knew this and realized he could influence others by choosing his spots to speak and validating others by extending them the courtesy of listening.

by Ron White

The Bottom Line Of Life

Whatever else may be said about home, it is the bottom line of life, the anvil upon which attitudes and convictions are hammered out. It is the place where life's bills come due, the single most influential force in our earthly existence. No price tag can adequately reflect its value. No gauge can measure its ultimate influence... for good or ill. It is at home, among family members, that we come to terms with circumstances. It is here life makes up its mind.
Although stripped of stained glass, soothing organ preludes, and the King's English, home is a sacred place. It's a place where milk is spilled, where toes are stubbed, and where people see you in your underwear.
It's real life... where real people rub up against real challenges. And how those people meet those challenges determines whether the faith of the family flourishes or flounders.

- Charles R. Swindoll in "The Practical Life of Faith"

Being Unconditional Witnesses

Good news becomes bad news when it is announced without peace and joy. Anyone who proclaims the forgiving and healing love of Jesus with a bitter heart is a false witness. Jesus is the saviour of the world. We are not. We are called to witness, always with our lives and sometimes with our words, to the great things God has done for us. But this witness must come from a heart that is willing to give without getting anything in return.
The more we trust in God's unconditional love for us, the more able we will be to proclaim the love of Jesus without any inner or outer conditions.

- Henri Nouwen

Keeping the Peace in Our Hearts

Whatever we do in the Name of Jesus, we must always keep the peace of Jesus in our hearts. When Jesus sends his disciples out to preach the Gospel, he says: "Whatever town or village you go into, seek out someone worthy and stay with him until you leave. As you enter his house, salute it, and if the house deserves it, may your peace come upon it; if it does not, may your peace come back to you" (Matthew 10:11-13).
The great temptation is to let people take our peace away. This happens whenever we become angry, hostile, bitter, spiteful, manipulative, or vengeful when others do not respond favourably to the good news we bring to them.

- Henri Nouwen

Being Joyful Witnesses

To speak about Jesus and his divine work of salvation shouldn't be a burden or a heavy obligation. When we go to people feeling that unless they accept our way of knowing Jesus, they are lost and we are failures, it is hardly possible to be true witnesses.
It is a great joy when people recognise through our witness that Jesus is the divine redeemer who opened for them the way to God. It is a true cause for gratitude and celebration. But we should also be able to live joyful and grateful lives when our witness with deeds and words does not lead people to accept Jesus in the way we do.

- Henri Nouwen

The Spirit's Ministry

There is a place for emotion in spiritual experience. The Holy Spirit's... ministry is not limited to illuminating our minds and teaching us about Christ. He also pours God's love into our hearts. Similarly, He bears witness with our spirit that we are God's children, for He causes us to say "Abba, Father" and to exclaim with gratitude, "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" (1 John 3:1)

- John Stott in "The Contemporary Christian"

Why We Flee

Unfortunately, in seeing ourselves as we truly are, not all that we see is beautiful and attractive. This is undoubtedly part of the reason we flee silence. We do not want to be confronted with our hypocrisy, our phoniness. We see how false and fragile is the false self we project. We have to go through this painful experience to come to our true self.
It is a harrowing journey, a death to self—the false self—and no one wants to die. But it is the only path to life, to freedom, to peace, to true love. And it begins with silence. We cannot give ourselves in love if we do not know and possess ourselves. This is the great value of silence. It is the pathway to all we truly want.

- M. Basil Pennington

Sharing the Abundant Love

Why must we go out to the far ends of the world to preach the Gospel of Jesus when people do not have to know Jesus in order to enter the house of God? We must go out because we want to share with all people the abundant love and hope, joy and peace that Jesus brought to us. We want to "proclaim the unfathomable treasure of Christ" and "throw light on the inner workings of the mystery kept hidden through all ages in God, the creator of everything" (Ephesians 3:8-9).
What we have received is so beautiful and so rich that we cannot hold it for ourselves but feel compelled to bring it to every human being on earth.

- Henri Nouwen

Building Character

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece - by thought, choice, courage and determination.

- John Luther

"My God! What Have We Done?"

Nearly sixty-five years ago, Father George Zabelka, a chaplain with the U.S. Air Force, met with the airmen who dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and gave them his blessing.
Days later he counseled a crew member who had flown a low-level reconnaissance flight over Nagasaki to review the results. The man described how thousands of scorched, twisted bodies writhed on the ground in the final throes of death, while those still on their feet wandered aimlessly in shock - flesh seared, melted, and falling off.
The description raised a stifled cry from the depths of Zabelka’s soul - and eventually altered the course of his life.

Jesus Comes to Us in the Poor

What finally counts is not whether we know Jesus and his words but whether we live our lives in the Spirit of Jesus. The Spirit of Jesus is the Spirit of Love. Jesus himself makes this clear when he speaks about the last judgment. There people will ask: "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?" and Jesus will answer: "In so far as you did this to one of the least ... of mine, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:37, 40).
This is our great challenge and consolation. Jesus comes to us in the poor, the sick, the dying, the prisoners, the lonely, the disabled, the rejected. There we meet him, and there the door to God's house is opened for us.

- Henri Nouwen

By The Numbers: Got Water?

$46 billion - Amount spent per year globally on bottled water
$1.7 billion - Amount needed per year beyond current spending to provide clean drinking water to everyone on earth
More than one billion - Number of people worldwide who lack reliable access to safe drinking water
80 - Percentage of world illnesses due to water-borne diseases

Source: The New York Times

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

They Are the Most Precious

You yourself are the child you must learn to know, rear, and above all enlighten. To demand that others should provide you with answers is like asking a strange woman to give birth to your baby. There are insights that can be born only of your own pain, and they are the most precious. Seek in your child the undiscovered part of yourself.

- Janusz Korczak

The Door Open to Anyone

Jesus is the door to a life in and with God. "I am the gate," he says (John 10:9). "I am the Way; I am Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). Still, many people never have heard or will hear of Jesus. They are born, live their lives, and die without having been exposed to Jesus and his words. Are they lost? Is there no place in the Father's house for them?
Jesus opened the door to God's house for all people, also for those who never knew or will know that it was Jesus who opened it. The Spirit that Jesus sent "blows where it pleases" (John 3:8), and it can lead anyone through the door to God's house.

- Henri Nouwen

On The Journey Toward Right Use of Power

My early experience of power was the fear-based, coercive power of a fundamentalist institution. My angry reaction to the abuse leaked out in a studied avoidance of any institution where I could self-righteously excoriate the powerful. I happily used Henri Nouwen's frequent comments about downward mobility (consciously choosing not to act powerfully) as justification for my power avoidance. But gradually I have come to admit that power was a shadow I was afraid to embrace.
Power is good when we find our true identity within ourselves and offer our power as a gift to the world. Power is evil when we impose our will on others because we seek our identity outside ourselves. St. Paul says Christ empowers us in our inner beings to experience the fullness of God's love. That enables us to live with gentleness, patience and forgiveness within the diversity of community. Such a centered life is powerful and empowering to others.
Henri's words about downward mobility are important for those who have access to external power and who seek their identity through competition, prestige and security. But those same words can be hurtful to people without access to power. The marginalized need to embrace power. Not external power but the power to trust their own goodness and claim their rightful place in the world.
Whether we live in the corridors of power or on the margins, the way we use power is the key. We can rely on external power to impose our will on others in order to bolster our fearful selves, or we can live out of our inner empowerment. That decision makes all the difference.

- Susan M. S. Brown

Learning A Lesson

Oh, profound wisdom! It is pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson a celebration, instead of a cause for regret, is to only ask, "How can I put this to use tomorrow?"

- Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards

The Deepest Comfort

Pain and sorrow are never wasted when given into God's hands, and their transformation is far beyond our imaginings. But in this life, we will experience a poignancy, a regret that harm was done when our actions could have been different. This poignancy is a valid, healthy part of our journey of release.
The deepest comfort in our mourning is to know that God not only has compassion but actually feels our suffering with us. Jesus tells us that not even a tiny sparrow will fall to the ground "apart from your Father" (Matthew 10:29). To me this means that God's heart so enfolds and unites with the sparrow (and with us) that the suffering of the tiny creature is shared, felt by that supreme heart. The creature's suffering resounds through God's whole being.

- Flora Slosson Wuellner in "Forgiveness, the Passionate Journey"

Jesus Takes Away Fatality

The great mystery of the incarnation is that God became human in Jesus so that all human flesh could be clothed with divine life. Our lives are fragile and destined to death. But since God, through Jesus, shared in our fragile and mortal lives, death no longer has the final word. Life has become victorious. Paul writes: "And after this perishable nature has put on imperishability and this mortal nature has put on immortality, then will the words of scripture come true: "Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:54). Jesus has taken away the fatality of our existence and given our lives eternal value.

- Henri Nouwen

Let the Whole World Fall In

True evangelism, based on the example of Jesus, does not suggest the "missionary zeal" of self-righteous proselytizers. It implies, on the contrary, the kind of all-embracing universality evident in Mother Teresa's prayer: "May God break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in." Not just fellow nuns, Catholics, Calcuttans, Indians. The whole world. It gives me pause to realize that, were such a prayer said by me and answered by God, I would afterward possess a heart so open that even hate-driven zealots would fall inside.

- David James Duncan

Fear And Trust

"Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid, The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation."
(Isaiah 12:2 NIV)

You've heard Lord Acton's famous phrase, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." I can name a four-letter word that corrupts more than power. The word is FEAR. Fear corrupts the world, fear corrupts the church, more than power does. Granted, it is not easy to make sense of the "moronific inferno" of contemporary North American culture, to quote Saul Bellow; but whatever tack one takes, we are living in a culture of fear. Our faith communities are especially suffering from fear fever, and are desperately looking for health insurance protection rather than prevention and cure. The two most important words for every one of us to confront are these words: FEAR and TRUST.

- Leonard Sweet in "A Cup of Coffee at the SoulCafe"

What's Wrong with Wealth?

The penalty of affluence is that it cuts one off from the common lot, common experience, and common fellowship. In a sense it outlaws one automatically from one’s birthright of membership in the great human family.

- Arnold Toynbee

All People Lifted Up with Jesus

The death and resurrection of Jesus are God's way to open for all people the door to eternal life. Jesus said: "When I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all people to myself" (John 12:32). Indeed, all people, from all times and places, are lifted up with Jesus on the cross and into the new life of the resurrection. Thus, Jesus' death is a death for all humanity, and Jesus' resurrection is a resurrection for all humanity.
Not one person from the past, present, or future is excluded from the great passage of Jesus from slavery to freedom, from the land of captivity to the promised land, from death to eternal life.

- Henri Nouwen

Jesus' Loneliness

When Jesus came close to his death, he no longer could experience God's presence. He cried out: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:47). Still in love he held on to the truth that God was with him and said: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit" (Luke 23:46).
The loneliness of the cross led Jesus to the resurrection. As we grow older we are often invited by Jesus to follow him into this loneliness, the loneliness in which God is too close to be experienced by our limited hearts and minds. When this happens, let us pray for the grace to surrender our spirits to God as Jesus did.

- Henri Nouwen

Two Kinds of Loneliness

In the spiritual life we have to make a distinction between two kinds of loneliness. In the first loneliness, we are out of touch with God and experience ourselves as anxiously looking for someone or something that can give us a sense of belonging, intimacy, and home. The second loneliness comes from an intimacy with God that is deeper and greater than our feelings and thoughts can capture.
We might think of these two kinds of loneliness as two forms of blindness. The first blindness comes from the absence of light, the second from too much light. The first loneliness we must try to outgrow with faith and hope. The second we must be willing to embrace in love.

- Henri Nouwen

Prayer And Action

Prayer and action... can never be seen as contradictory or mutually exclusive. Prayer without action grows in powerless pietism, and action without prayer degenerates into questionable manipulation. If prayer leads us into a deeper unity with the compassionate Christ, it will always give rise to concrete acts of service. And if concrete acts of service do indeed lead us to a deeper solidarity with the poor, the hungry, the sick, the dying, and the oppressed, they will always give rise to prayer. In prayer we meet Christ, and in Him all human suffering. In service we meet people, and in them the suffering Christ.

- Henri J. M. Nouwen in "Compassion"

What Then?

That cause can never be lost nor stayed
which takes the course of what God has made;
and is not trusting in walls and towers,
but slowly growing from seeds to flowers.

Each noble service that has been wrought
was first conceived as a fruitful thought;
each worthy cause with a future glorious
by quietly growing becomes victorious.

Thereby itself like a tree it shows:
that high it reaches, as deep it grows;
and when the storms are its branches shaking,
it deeper root in the soil is taking.

Be then no more by a storm dismayed,
for by it the full grown seeds are laid;
and though the tree by its might it shatters,
what then, if thousands of seeds it scatters?

- Kristian Ostergaard

Spiritual Dryness

Sometimes we experience a terrible dryness in our spiritual life. We feel no desire to pray, don't experience God's presence, get bored with worship services, and even think that everything we ever believed about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is little more than a childhood fairy tale.
Then it is important to realise that most of these feelings and thoughts are just feelings and thoughts, and that the Spirit of God dwells beyond our feelings and thoughts. It is a great grace to be able to experience God's presence in our feelings and thoughts, but when we don't, it does not mean that God is absent. It often means that God is calling us to a greater faithfulness. It is precisely in times of spiritual dryness that we must hold on to our spiritual discipline so that we can grow into new intimacy with God.

- Henri Nouwen

Walking With Christ

God will use your life now.
Following Christ, participating in the purpose of God, being used by God begins now. You need not become better; you need not develop perfect skills; you do not have to know all the answers to life's hard questions, not even all of your own answers. God accepts you as you are and begins to use you where you are - "warts and all." The will of God for your life is here and now.
Walk into your future with the confidence that God has claimed you. The pathway into active partnership lies beneath your next step.

- Ben Campbell Johnson in "Calming the Restless Spirit"

Joy Unspeakable

There is a life, though the world comprehends it not. It has a body without defect, want, misery, anger, or death. The Holy Spirit is its air and spirit, and it is filled with love and joy. This life has been from eternity, rising up and blossoming. It is not of this earth, but of another substance—eternal life.
To all you who are in the process of birth: may each of you be strengthened and bud in the life of God, and grow, and bear fruit on the Tree of Paradise—may each branch and twig shelter all the others, that this tree may become a great tree. Then shall we all be filled with joy unspeakable, and glory.

- Jakob Boehme (1575-1624)

Putting Our Temperaments in the Service of God

Our temperaments - whether flamboyant, phlegmatic, introverted, or extroverted - are quite permanent fixtures of our personalities. Still, the way we "use" our temperaments on a daily basis can vary greatly. When we are attentive to the Spirit of God within us, we will gradually learn to put our temperaments in the service of a virtuous life. Then flamboyancy gives great zeal for the Kingdom, phlegmatism helps to keep an even keel in times of crisis, introversion deepens the contemplative side, and extroversion encourages creative ministry.
Let's live with our temperaments as with gifts that help us deepen our spiritual lives.

- Henri Nouwen

They Whose Souls Burn

I look not only at tongue and speech;
I look at the spirit and the inward feeling.
I look into the heart to see whether it be lowly...

Enough of phrases and conceits and metaphors!
I want burning, burning...

Light up a fire of love in thy soul,
Burn all thought and expression away!

Moses, they that know the conventions are of one sort;
They whose souls burn are of another.

- Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273)

A Window on Our Spiritual Lives

Even though our emotional and spiritual lives are distinct, they do influence one another profoundly. Our feelings often give us a window on our spiritual journeys. When we cannot let go of jealousy, we may wonder if we are in touch with the Spirit in us that cries out "Abba." When we feel very peaceful and "centered," we may come to realise that this is a sign of our deep awareness of our belovedness.
Likewise our prayer lives, lived as faithful response to the presence of the Spirit within us, may open a window on our emotions, feelings, and passions and give us some indication of how to put them into the service of our long journey into the heart of God.

- Henri Nouwen

On The Journey Toward Right Use of Power

Our leader said she had never seen it before. A small group of friends who gather weekly to dance as prayer were doing exercises to deepen our sense of connection. Facing each other in silent pairs, we were to make our way together to both ends of the room. And I assumed, though the assumption did not make me comfortable or happy, that it would be like a game of soccer or football, each of us trying to move our pair in the opposite direction, physical strength or cunning prevailing.
But instead of pushing or pulling me, my partner backed up and, with spontaneous but exquisitely beautiful movement, beckoned me to follow. We touched the sofa against the wall (her "goal"), then made our way in tandem to the other end of the room.
Most of us have the privilege of living in enough safety to have glimpsed in our own lives, to have seen in news and history about nonviolent peacemakers, to believe as a tenet of faith, that power-with, as opposed to power-over, is always a possibility. Certainly among my prayerful dancing friends, gentle persuasion was more easily accessible than it would have been to many of us in a harsher setting. Still, I simply took for granted that we would be in competition. The invitation to cooperate instead was a gracious epiphany to body, mind, and spirit.

Susan M. S. Brown

What If...

What if God couldn't take the time to bless us today
because we couldn't take the time to thank Him yesterday?

What if God decided to stop leading us tomorrow
because we didn't follow His Son today?

What if we never saw another flower bloom
because we grumbled when God sent the rain?

What if God didn't walk with us today
because we failed to recognize it as His day?

What if God took away the Bible tomorrow
because we would not read it today?

What if God took away His message
because we failed to listen to the Messenger?

What if God didn't send His only begotten Son
because He wanted us to be prepared to pay the price for sin.

What if the door of the church was closed
because we did not open the door of our heart?

What if God stopped loving and caring for us
because we failed to love and care for others?

What if God would not hear us today
because we would not listen to Him?

What if God answered our prayers
the way we answer His call to service?

What if God met our needs
the way we give Him our lives???

- Unknown

Living in the Shadow

To live with the conscious knowledge of the shadow of uncertainty, with the knowledge that disaster or tragedy could strike at any time; to be afraid and to know and acknowledge your fear, and still to live creatively and with unstinting love: that is to live with grace.

- Peter Abrahams