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Friendship Is One Of The Greatest Gifts A Human Being Can Receive. It Is A Bond Beyond Common Goals, Common Interests, Or Common Histories. It Is A Bond Stronger Than Sexual Union Can Create, Deeper Than A Shared Fate Can Solidify, And Even More Intimate Than The Bonds Of Marriage Or Community. Friendship Is Being With The Other In Joy And Sorrow, Even When We Cannot Increase The Joy Or Decrease The Sorrow. It Is A Unity Of Souls That Gives Nobility And Sincerity To Love. Friendship Makes All Of Life Shine Brightly.

-Henri Nouwen

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Friendship Is One Of

Henri Nouwen

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Friendship Is One Of The Greatest Gifts A Human Being Can Receive. It Is A Bond Beyond Common Goals, Common Interests, Or Common Histories. It Is A Bond Stronger Than Sexual Union Can Create, Deeper Than A Shared Fate Can Solidify, And Even More Intimate Than The Bonds Of Marriage Or Community. Friendship Is Being With The Other In Joy And Sorrow, Even When We Cannot Increase The Joy Or Decrease The Sorrow. It Is A Unity Of Souls That Gives Nobility And Sincerity To Love. Friendship Makes All Of Life Shine Brightly.

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Hope Means To Keep Living Amid Desperation And To Keep Humming In The Darkness.

Prayer Is The Beginning And The End, The Source And The Fruit, The Core And The Content, The Basis And The Goal Of All Peacemaking.

Jesus Says, "keep Your Heart On The Kingdom First. Keep Your Heart On God's Love. Keep Focused On The Fact That You Are God's Beloved Daughter Or Son. That's The Truth Of Who You Are.

The Journey From Teaching About Love To Allowing Myself To Be Loved Proved Much Longer Than I Realised.

Of One Thing I Am Sure. Complaining Is Self-perpetuating And Counterproductive. Whenever I Express My Complaints In The Hope Of Evoking Pity And Receiving The Satisfaction I So Much Desire, The Result Is Always The Opposite Of What I Tried To Get. A Complainer Is Hard To Live With, And Very Few People Know How To Respond To The Complaints Made By A Self-rejecting Person. The Tragedy Is That, Often, The Complaint, Once Expressed, Leads To That Which Is Most Feared: Further Rejection.

When I Trust Deeply That Today God Is Truly With Me And Holds Me Safe In A Divine Embrace, Guiding Every One Of My Steps I Can Let Go Of My Anxious Need To Know How Tomorrow Will Look, Or What Will Happen Next Month Or Next Year. I Can Be Fully Where I Am And Pay Attention To The Many Signs Of God's Love Within Me And Around Me.

Hospitality Means Primarily The Creation Of Free Space Where The Stranger Can Enter And Become A Friend Instead Of An Enemy. Hospitality Is Not To Change People, But To Offer Them Space Where Change Can Take Place. It Is Not To Bring Men And Women Over To Our Side, But To Offer Freedom Not Disturbed By Dividing Lines.

Life Is Not A Possession To Be Defended, But A Gift To Be Shared.

The Deepest Satisfaction Of Writing Is Precisely That It Opens Up New Spaces Within Us Of Which We Were Not Aware Before We Started To Write. To Write Is To Embark On A Journey Whose Final Destination We Do Not Know.

Trust That The Treasure We Look For Is Hidden In The Ground On Which We Stand.

Dear God, I Am So Afraid To Open My Clenched Fists! Who Will I Be When I Have Nothing Left To Hold On To? Who Will I Be When I Stand Before You With Empty Hands? Please Help Me To Gradually Open My Hands And To Discover That I Am Not What I Own, But What You Want To Give Me.

Life Is Just A Little Opportunity For You During A Few Years To Say, "i Love You, Too."

Praying Is No Easy Matter. It Demands A Relationship In Which You Allow Someone Other Than Yourself To Enter Into The Very Center Of Your Person, To See There What You Would Rather Leave In Darkness, And To Touch There What You Would Rather Leave Untouched.

Spiritual Identity Means We Are Not What We Do Or What People Say About Us. And We Are Not What We Have. We Are The Beloved Daughters And Sons Of God.

In Solitude We Become Aware That Our Worth Is Not The Same As Our Usefulness.

The Mystery Of Ministry Is That We Have Been Chosen To Make Our Own Limited And Very Conditional Love The Gateway For The Unlimited And Unconditional Love Of God.

Unconditional Love

What Is Hope?hope Is That Inner Dynamic That Compels Us To Explore And Pursue The Expectations Built Into The Human Condition. Hope Was Born The Day The First Human Beings Discovered The First Bridge And Decided Not To Jump Off The Bridge In Despair, But To Cross It

People Have Filled An Enormously Important Role In My Life - More Than Books! For Me, It's Not The Formal Advising Or The Therapy That Meant So Much. It Was More The Fact That Someone Committed Himself Or Herself To Me. They Were Really Interested In My Life; They Wanted To Know What I Was Doing; They Followed Me; They Dared To Confront And Challenge Me.

I Feel Strongly That The God We Meet In Solitude Is Always The God Who Calls Us To Community.

The Christian Leader Of The Future Is Called To Be Completely Irrelevant And To Stand In This World With Nothing To Offer But His Or Her Own Vulnerable Self. God Loves Us, Not Because Of What We Do Or Accomplish, But Because God Has Created And Redeemed Us In Love.

God Wants You To Live For Others And To Live That Presence Well.

Live For Others

When The Imitation Of Christ Does Not Mean To Live A Life Like Christ, But To Live Your Life As Authentically As Christ Lived His, Then There Are Many Ways And Forms In Which A Man Can Be A Christian.

Friends Share Our Pain And Touch Our Wounds With A Gentle And Tender Hand.

I've Had A Tremendous Problem With Depression In My Life. I'd Rather Not Talk About It, Because It's Over. But Depression Is Real.

Life Is Precious. Not Because It Is Unchangeable, Like A Diamond, But Because It Is Vulnerable, Like A Little Bird. To Love Life Means To Love Its Vulnerability, Asking For Care, Attention, Guidance, And Support. Life And Death Are Connected By Vulnerability. The Newborn Child And The Dying Elder Both Remind Us Of The Preciousness Of Our Lives. Let's Not Forget The Preciousness And Vulnerability Of Life During The Times We Are Powerful, Successful, And Popular.

...we All Want To Hear Stories, From The Moment We Are Born To The Moment We Die. Stories Connect Our Little Lives With The World Around Us And Help Us Discover Who We Are.

When We Are Securely Rooted In Personal Intimacy With The Source Of Life, It Will Be Possible To Remain Flexible Without Being Relativistic, Convinced Without Being Rigid, Willing To Confront Without Being Offensive, Gentle And Forgiving Without Being Soft, And True Witnesses Without Being Manipulative.

The Great Challenge Is To Discover That We Are Truly Invited To Participate In The Divine Life Of The Father, The Son, And The Holy Spirit.

The Dance Of Life Finds Its Beginnings In Grief......here A Completely New Way Of Living Is Revealed. It Is The Way In Which Pain Can Be Embraced, Not Out Of A Desire To Suffer, But In The Knowledge That Something New Will Be Born In The Pain.

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Although Many, We Might Even Say Most, Strangers In This World Become Easily The Victim Of A Fearful Hostility, It Is Possible For Men And Women And Obligatory For Christians To Offer An Open And Hospitable Space Where Strangers Can Cast Off Their Strangeness And Become Our Fellow Human Beings.

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Mentally Handicapped

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I Am Deeply Convince That The Necessity Of Prayer, And To Pray Unceasingly, Is Not As Much Based On Our Desire For God As On God's Desire For Us. It Is God's Passionate Pursuit Of Us That Calls Us To Prayer.

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A Spiritual Life Without Prayer Is Like The Gospel Without Christ.

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Waiting Is A Dry Desert Between Where We Are And Where We Want To Be. (finding My Way Home)

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I Have Found It Very Important...to Let Go Of My Wishes And Start Hoping.

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In God's Eyes The Most Significant Is Often The Most Hidden.

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Prayer Is The Breath Of Your Life Which Gives You The Freedom To Go And Stay Where You Wish And To Find The Many Signs Which Point Out The Way To A New Land.

The Truth, Even Though I Cannot Feel It Right Now, Is That I Am The Chosen Child Of God, Precious In God's Eyes, Called The Beloved From All Eternity And Held Safe In An Everlasting Embrace... We Must Dare To Opt Consciously For Our Chosenness And Not Allow Our Emotions, Feelings, Or Passions To Seduce Us Into Self-rejection.

Our Humanity Comes To Its Fullest Bloom In Giving. We Become Beautiful People When We Give Whatever We Can Give: A Smile, A Handshake, A Kiss, An Embrace, A Word Of Love, A Present, A Part Of Our Life...all Of Our Life.

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Christian Community Is The Place Where We Keep The Flame Of Hope Alive Among Us And Take It Seriously So That It Can Grow And Become Stronger In Us.

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I Am The Prodigal Son Every Time I Search For Unconditional Love Where It Cannot Be Found.

Unconditional Love

We Have To Keep Asking Ourselves: 'what Does It All Mean? What Is God Trying To Tell Us? How Are We Called To Live In The Midst Of All This?' Without Such Questions Our Lives Become Numb And Flat.

Joy And Laughter Are The Gifts Of Living In The Presence Of God And Trusting That Tomorrow Is Not Worth Worrying About.

To Learn Patience Is Not To Rebel Against Every Hardship.

The Leaders Of The Future Will Be Those Who Dare To Claim Their Irrelevance In The Contemporary World As A Divine Vocation.

People Who Pray Stand Receptive Before The World. They No Longer Grab But Caress, They No Longer Bite But Kiss, They No Longer Examine But Admire.

The Joy That Compassion Brings Is One Of The Best-kept Secrets Of Humanity. It Is A Secret Known Only To A Very Few People, A Secret That Has To Be Rediscovered Over And Over Again.

Best Kept Secrets

Your Body Needs To Be Held And To Hold, To Be Touched And To Touch. None Of These Needs Is To Be Despised, Denied, Or Repressed. But You Have To Keep Searching For Your Body's Deeper Need, The Need For Genuine Love. Every Time You Are Able To Go Beyond The Body's Superficial Desires For Love, You Are Bringing Your Body Home And Moving Toward Integration And Unity.

The Members - Mentally Handicapped People Who Are Marginal In Society And Not Useful In An Economic Sense - Welcomed Me Into Their Lives. And I Was Loved, Not Because Of What S Doing But Because Of Who I Was.

What Is Forgotten Cannot Be Healed, And That Which Cannot Be Healed Easily Becomes The Cause Of Greater Evil.

Reading With Children Is An Enormous Gift To Them. It's A Great Honor To Invite Children To Read With Adults.

Waiting Is A Period Of Learning. The Longer We Wait, The More We Hear About Him For Whom We Are Waiting.

I Have Always Felt That If I Am Very Personal And Connected With What I Myself Am Living, My Writing Will Transcend Ecclesial Boundaries.

To The Degree That We Embrace The Truth That Our Identity Is Not Rooted In Our Success, Power, Or Popularity, But In God's Infinite Love, To That Degree Can We Let Go Of Our Need To Judge.

The Most Important Thing I've Come To Believe In Is That People With Mental Handicaps Have A Unique Mission To Bring God's Blessing To The World.

The Soul Of The Artist Cannot Remain Hidden.

It Is This Nothingness (in Solitude) That I Have To Face In My Solitude, A Nothingness So Dreadful That Everything In Me Wants To Run To My Friends, My Work, And My Distractions So That I Can Forget My Nothingness And Make Myself Believe That I Am Worth Something. The Task Is To Persevere In My Solitude, To Stay In My Cell Until All My Seductive Visitors Get Tired Of Pounding On My Door And Leave Me Alone. The Wisdom Of The Desert Is That The Confrontation With Our Own Frightening Nothingness Forces Us To Surrender Ourselves Totally And Unconditionally To The Lord Jesus Christ.

The People Who Most Affected Me Were The Ones Who Got Right In There With Me, Who Cried With Me, But Who Also Had A Certain Authority, Who Dared To Say What Needed Saying.

A Waiting Person Is A Patient Person. The Word Patience Means The Willingness To Stay Where We Are And Live The Situation Out To The Full In The Belief That Something Hidden There Will Manifest Itself To Us.

When We Keep Claiming The Light, We Will Find Ourselves Becoming More And More Radiant.

No One Person Can Fulfill All Your Needs. But The Community Can Truly Hold You. The Community Can Let You Experience The Fact That, Beyond Your Anguish, There Are Human Hands That Hold You And Show You God's Faithful Love.

Everything Changes Radically From The Moment You Know Yourself As Being Sent Into This World.

Most Christian Leadership Is Exercised By People Who Do Not Know How To Develop Healthy, Intimate Relationships And Have Opted For Power And Control Instead. Many Christian Empire-builders Have Been People Unable To Give And Receive Love.

Intimate Relationships

Let’s Not Be Afraid To Look At Everything That Has Brought Us To Where We Are Now And Trust That We Will Soon See In It The Guiding Hand Of A Loving God.

Without Pentecost The Christ-event - The Life, Death, And Resurrection Of Jesus - Remains Imprisoned In History As Something To Remember, Think About And Reflect On. The Spirit Of Jesus Comes To Dwell Within Us, So That We Can Become Living Christs Here And Now.

Suffering Invites Us To Place Our Hurts In Larger Hands. In Christ We See God Suffering – For Us. And Calling Us To Share In God’s Suffering Love For A Hurting World. The Small And Even Overpowering Pains Of Our Lives Are Intimately Connected With The Greater Pains Of Christ. Our Daily Sorrows Are Anchored In A Greater Sorrow And Therefore A Larger Hope.

Patience Asks Us To Live The Moment To The Fullest, To Be Completely Present To The Moment, To Taste The Here And Now, To Be Where We Are. When We Are Impatient We Try To Get Away From Where We Are. We Behave As If The Real Thing Will Happen Tomorrow, Later, And Somewhere Else. Let's Be Patient And Trust That The Treasure We Look For Is Hidden In The Ground On Which We Stand.

Live In The Moment

I Have An Increasing Sense That The Most Important Crisis Of Our Time Is Spiritual And That We Need Places Where People Can Grow Stronger In The Spirit And Be Able To Integrate The Emotional Struggles In Their Spiritual Journeys.

I Am Very Grateful That I Am In Touch With So Many Different Church Groups. I Am Always Very Moved By The Fact That So Many People - Practically Over The Spectrum Of The Christian World - Are Responding To My Writing.

Patience Asks Us To Live The Moment To The Fullest, To Be Completely Present To The Moment, To Taste The Here And Now, To Be Where We Are.

Live In The Moment

Our Lives Are Unique Stones In The Mosaic Of Human Existence -- Priceless And Irreplaceable.

My Whole Life I Have Been Complaining That My Work Was Constantly Interrupted, Until I Discovered That My Interruptions Were My Work.

In 1970 I Felt So Lonely That I Could Not Give; Now I Feel So Joyful That Giving Seems Easy. I Hope That The Day Will Come When The Memory Of My Present Joy Will Give Me The Strength To Keep Giving Even When Loneliness Gnaws At My Heart.

Peacemaking Is A Full-time Vocation That Includes Each Member Of God's People.

What Makes Us Human Is Not Our Mind But Our Heart, Not Our Ability To Think But Our Ability To Love.

The Life-converting Experience Is Not The Discovery That I Have Choices To Make That Determine The Way I Live Out My Existence, But The Awareness That My That My Existence Itself Is Not In The Center. Once I 'know' God, That Is, Once I Experience God's Love As The Love In Which All My Human Experiences Are Anchored, I Can Desire Only One Thing: To Be In That Love.

Forgiveness Changes The Way We Remember.

The Great Call For The Church Is To Not Just Be Concerned About Right Or Wrong Behavior, Which Is Moral Life, But About Communion With God, Which Is Mystical Life.

The Real Question Is: How Can I Live So That My Death Will Be Fruitful For Others?

Which Questions Guide Our Lives? Which Questions Do We Make Our Own? Which Questions Deserve Our Undivided And Full Personal Commitment? Finding The Right Questions Is Crucial To Finding The Answers.

What Is Important Is How Well We Love. God Will Make Our Love Fruitful, Whether We See That Fruitfulness Or Not.

We Are Not The Healers, We Are Not The Reconcilers, We Are Not The Givers Of Life. We Are Sinful, Broken, Vulnerable People Who Need As Much Care As Anyone We Care For.

When Suddenly You Seem To Lose All You Thought You Had Gained, Do Not Despair. You Must Expect Setbacks And Regressions. Don't Say To Yourself "all Is Lost. I Have To Start All Over Again." This Is Not True. What You Have Gained You Have Gained....when You Return To The The Road, You Return To The Place Where You Left It, Not To Where You Started.

Hiddenness Is The Place Of Purification. In Hiddenness We Find Our True Selves.

I Know That I Have To Move From Speaking About Jesus To Letting Him Speak Within Me, From Thinking About Jesus To Letting Him Think Within Me, From Acting For And With Jesus To Letting Him Act Through Me. I Know The Only Way For Me To See The World Is To See It Through His Eyes.

Beneath Our Frantic Activities, There's A Deep Desire To Show The World We Are Worthwhile.

Peace Is First Of All The Art Of Being.

If You Are Not Able To Be Silent, You Will Not Be Able To Speak Well.

For As Long As You Can Remember, You Have Been A Pleaser, Depending On Others To Give You An Identity. You Need Not Look At That Only In A Negative Way. You Wanted To Give Your Heart To Others, And You Did So Quickly And Easily. But Now You Are Being Asked To Let Go Of All These Self-made Props And Trust That God Is Enough For You. You Must Stop Being A Pleaser And Reclaim Your Identity As A Free Self.

Community Means That People Come Together Around The Table, Not Just To Feed Their Bodies, But To Feed Their Minds And Their Relationships.

Prayer Is First Of All Listening To God. It's Openness. God Is Always Speaking; He's Always Doing Something. Prayer Is To Enter Into That Activity... Convert Your Thoughts Into Prayer. As We Are Involved In Unceasing Thinking, So We Are Called To Unceasing Prayer. The Difference Is Not That Prayer Is Thinking About Other Things, But That Prayer Is Thinking In Dialogue,... A Conversation With God.

The Real "work" Of Prayer Is To Become Silent And Listen To The Voice That Says Good Things About Me. To Gently Push Aside And Silence The Many Voices That Question My Goodness And To Trust That I Will Hear The Voice Of Blessing-- That Demands Real Effort.

We Are All Healers Who Can Reach Out And Offer Health, And We Are All Patients In Constant Need Of Help.

I Am Beginning Now To See How Radically The Character Of My Spiritual Journey Will Change When I No Longer Think Of God As Hiding Out And Making It As Difficult As Possible For Me To Find Him, But Instead As The One Who Is Looking For Me While I Am Doing The Hiding.

I Am Working On Three Things: On Being A Prayerful Person; On Staying Close To The Handicapped; And On My Writing. These Are My Constant Concerns.

The Art Of Living Is To Enjoy What We Can See And Not Complain About What Remains In The Dark. When We Are Able To Take The Next Step With Trust That We Will Have Enough Light For The Step That Follows, We Can Walk Through Life With Joy And Be Surprised At How Far We Go.

The More We Touch The Intimate Love Of God Which Creates, Sustains, And Guides Us, The More We Recognize The Multitude Of Fruits That Come Forth From That Love.

[the Return Of The Prodigal Book] Came Out Of My Emotional And Spiritual Journey During The Four Months I Was Gone From Daybreak Because Of Depression.

Do Not Despair, Thinking That You Cannot Change Yourself After So Many Years. Simply Enter Into The Presence Of Jesus As You Are And Ask Him To Give You A Fearless Heart Where He Can Be With You. You Cannot Make Yourself Different. Jesus Came To Give You A New Heart, A New Spirit, A New Mind, And A New Body. Let Him Transform You By His Love And So Enable You To Receive His Affection In Your Whole Being.

The Greatest Trap In Our Life Is Not Success, Popularity Or Power, But Self-rejection.

Meaningful Life

Jesus' Whole Life And Mission Involve Accepting Powerlessness And Revealing In This Powerlessness The Limitlessness Of God's Love. Here We See What Compassion Means. It Is Not A Bending Toward The Underprivileged From A Privileged Position; It Is Not A Reaching Out From On High To Those Who Are Less Fortunate Below; It Is Not A Gesture Of Sympathy Or Pity For Those Who Fail To Make It In The Upward Pull. On The Contrary, Compassion Means Going Directly To Those People And Places Where Suffering Is Most Acute And Building A Home There.

To Forgive Another From The Heart Is An Act Of Liberation. We Set That Person Free From The Negative Bonds That Exist Between Us. As Long As We Do Not Forgive We Pull Them With Us, Or Worse, As A Heavy Load. The Great Temptation Is To Cling In Anger To Our Enemies & Then Define Ourselves As Being Offended & Wounded By Them. Forgiveness, Therefore, Liberates Not Only The Other But Also Ourselves. It Is The Way To The Freedom Of The Children Of God.

The Difference Between Rich And Poor Is Not That The Rich Sin Is More Than The Poor, That The Rich Find It Easier To Call Sin A Virtue.

When I Could No Longer Cling To My Normal Supports I Discovered That True Support And Real Safety Lie Far Beyond The Structures Of Our World.

While Optimism Makes Us Live As If Someday Soon Things Will Soon Go Better For Us, Hope Frees Us From The Need To Predict The Future And Allows Us To Live In The Present, With The Deep Trust That God Will Never Leave Us Alone But Will Fulfill The Deepest Desires Of Our Heart... Joy In This Perspective Is The Fruit Of Hope.

The Great Spiritual Task Facing Me Is To So Fully Trust That I Belong To God That I Can Be Free In The World--free To Speak Even When My Words Are Not Received; Free To Act Even When My Actions Are Criticized, Ridiculed, Or Considered Useless.... I Am Convinced That I Will Truly Be Able To Love The World When I Fully Believe That I Am Loved Far Beyond Its Boundaries.

Indeed, When God's Glory Dwells In Me, There Is Nothing Too Far Away, Nothing Too Painful, Nothing Too Strange Or Too Familiar That It Cannot Contain And Renew By Its Touch. Every Time I Recognize The Glory Of God In Me And Give It Space To Manifest Itself To Me, All That Is Human Can Be Brought There And Nothing Will Be The Same Again.

If You Want To Know Anything About Community, You Have To Realize That The Contemplative Side Is Essential. Community Without Retreating And Quiet Time Never Survives.

We Are Called To Be Fruitful - Not Successful, Not Productive, Not Accomplished. Success Comes From Strength, Stress, And Human Effort. Fruitfulness Comes From Vulnerability And The Admission Of Our Own Weakness.

The Lord Is Coming, Always Coming. When You Have Ears To Hear And Eyes To See, You Will Recognize Him At Any Moment Of Your Life. Life Is Advent; Life Is Recognizing The Coming Of The Lord

Once We Deeply Trust That We Ourselves Are Precious In God's Eyes, We Are Able To Recognize The Preciousness Of Others And Their Unique Places In God's Heart.

A Life Without A Lonely Place, That Is, Without A Quiet Center, Becomes Destructive.

Did I Offer Peace Today? Did I Bring A Smile To Someone's Face? Did I Say Words Of Healing? Did I Let Go Of My Anger And Resentment? Did I Forgive? Did I Love?' These Are The Real Questions. I Must Trust That The Little Bit Of Love That I Sow Now Will Be Many Fruits, Here In This World And The Life To Come.

Much Violence Is Based On The Illusion That Life Is A Property To Be Defended And Not To Be Shared.

It Is Good To Have A Prayer On Your Lips Wherever You Go. There Are So Many Moments In Life When You Are Free To Pray. When You Are Waiting For The Cashier In The Supermarket, Getting Mad Because He Or She Doesn't Hurry, Say A Little Prayer: 'lord, Jesus Christ, Have Mercy On Me.' Take That Prayer With You Wherever You Go.

Jesus Was A Revolutionary, Who Did Not Become An Extremist, Since He Did Not Offer An Ideology, But Himself. He Was Also A Mystic, Who Did Not Use His Intimate Relationship With God To Avoid The Social Evils Of His Time, But Shocked His Milieu To The Point Of Being Executed As A Rebel. In This Sense He Also Remains For Nuclear Man The Way To Liberation And Freedom.

Intimate Relationships

Compassion Can Never Coexist With Judgement Because Judgement Creates The Distance, The Distinction, Which Prevents Us From Really Being With The Other.

Joy Is Based On The Spiritual Knowledge That, While The World In Which We Live Is Shrouded In Darkness, God Has Overcome The World.

Ministers Are Powerless People Who Have Nothing To Boast Of Except Their Weaknesses. But When The Lord Whom They Serve Fills Them With His Blessing They Will Move Mountains And Change The Hearts Of People Wherever They Go.

I Am Learning That The Best Cure For Hypocrisy Is Community. Hypocrisy Is Not So Much The Result Of Not Living What I Preach But Much More Of Not Confessing My Inability To Fully Live Up To My Own Words.

As Long As We Have Our Stories There Is Hope.

That's The Temptation Of The Devil: "turn Stones Into Bread! Be Relevant!"

Prayer Is The Most Concrete Way To Make Our Home In God.

The World Is Evil Only When You Become Its Slave.

For Jesus, There Are No Countries To Be Conquered, No Ideologies To Be Imposed, No People To Be Dominated. There Are Only Children, Women And Men To Be Loved.

As Ministers Our Greatest Temptation Is Toward Too Many Words. They Weaken Our Faith And Make Us Lukewarm. But Silence Is A Sacred Discipline, A Guard Of The Holy Spirit.

When You're On The Bus Or Subway Or In Your Car, Why Busy Your Mind With All The Garbage Of Advertisements? Why Fill Your Mind With Television And Radio? Somehow You Have To Decide What Your Mind Will Receive. I Don't Mean You Shouldn't Ever Go To Movies Or Watch Television, But Control What Enters Your Mind And Heart. It's Not Just A Question Of Pushing Bad Things Out But Also A Question Of Holding On To Something Really Good.

In Solitude We Become Aware That We Were Together Before We Came Together And That Life Is Not A Creation Of Our Will But Rather An Obedient Response To The Reality Of Our Being United.

We Can Be Unhappy About Many Things, But Jy Can Still Be There... It Is Important To Become Aware That At Every Moment Of Our Life We Have An Opportunity To Choose Joy... It Is In The Choice That Our True Freedom Lies, And That Freedom Is, In The Final Analysis, The Freedom To Love.

Those Who Think That They Have Arrived, Have Lost Their Way. Those Who Think They Have Reached Their Goal, Have Missed It. Those Who Think They Are Saints, Are Demons.

Our Life Is...a Time In Which Sadness And Joy Kiss Each Other At Every Moment.

Theological Formation Is The Gradual And Often Painful Discovery Of God's Incomprehensibility. You Can Be Competent In Many Things, But You Cannot Be Competent In God.

I Don't Pray Enough, But I Pray More Now. Every Morning At Six O'clock Have A Half Hour Of Meditation Before The Blessed Sacrament. I Pray With Others Too.

There Are As Many Ways To Pray As There Are Moments In Life.

A Little Criticism Makes Me Angry, And A Little Rejection Makes Me Depressed. A Little Praise Raises My Spirits, And A Little Success Excites Me. It Takes Very Little To Raise Me Up Or Thrust Me Down. Often I Am Like A Small Boat On The Ocean, Completely At The Mercy Of Its Waves. All The Time And Energy I Spend In Keeping Some Kind Of Balance And Preventing Myself From Being Tipped Over And Drowning Shows My Life Is Mostly A Struggle For Survival: Not A Holy Struggle, But An Anxious Struggle Resulting From The Mistaken Idea That It Is The World That Defines Me.

You Are The Heir To The Kingdom. Prosperity Is Your Birth Right And You Hold The Key To More Abundance In Every Area Of Your Life Then You Can Possibly Imagine.

When We Approach Fundraising In A Spirit Of Gratitude, Our Confidence In Our Mission Does Not Depend On How The Person We Are With Responds To Our Request! We Are Free To Remain Secure In God's Love With Our Hearts Set Joyfully On The Kingdom.

Solitude Is An Essential Element For The Spiritual Health Of A Child. If We Only Stimulate Our Children - Keep Them Busy With Endless Stories With No Space To Be Alone - That's Not Good.

Although We Tend To Think About Saints As Holy And Pious, And Picture Them With Halos Above Their Heads And Ecstatic Gazes, True Saints Are Much More Accessible. They Are Men And Women Like Us, Who Live Ordinary Lives And Struggle With Ordinary Problems. What Makes Them Saints Is Their Clear And Unwavering Focus On God And God's People.

Resentment And Gratitude Cannot Coexist, Since Resentment Blocks The Perception And Experience Of Life As A Gift. My Resentment Tells Me That I Don't Receive What I Deserve. It Always Manifests Itself In Envy.

It Is God’s Passionate Pursuit Of Us That Calls Us To Prayer.

Living In A Community With Very Wounded People, I Came To See That I Had Lived Most Of My Life As A Tightrope Artist Trying To Walk On A High, Thin Cable From One Tower To The Other, Always Waiting For The Applause When I Had Not Fallen Off And Broken My Leg.

Based Or Our Baptism, All Are Called To A Mystical Life, To Communion With God. We Need To Claim That, To Taste It And Feel It, To Trust That The Deeper We Live This Communion, The More Our Behavior Will Witness To The Truth.

One Of The Main Tasks Of Theology Is To Find Words That Do Not Divide But Unite, That Do Not Create Conflict But Unity, That Do Not Hurt But Heal.

Through Discipline, Discipline Is The Other Side Of Discipleship. If You Want To Follow Jesus, You Have To Have Discipline.

In A Strange Way The Spiritual Life Isn't "useful" Or "successful." But It Is Meant To Be Fruitful. And Fruitfulness Comes Out Of Brokenness.

It Is Hard To Bear With People Who Stand Still Along The Way, Lose Heart, And Seek Their Happiness In Little Pleasures Which They Cling To...you Feel Sad About All That Self-indulgence And Self-satisfaction, For You Know With An Indestructible Certainty That Something Greater Is Coming.

The Central Question Is, Are The Leaders Of The Future Truly Men And Women Of God, People With An Ardent Desire To Dwell In God's Presence, To Listen To God's Voice, To Look At God's Beauty, To Touch God's Incarnate Word And To Taste Fully God's Infinite Goodness.

Yes, It's A Competitive World, But Where Is Your Heart?

The Great #‎ Conversion Called For By Jesus Is To Move From Belonging To The World To Belonging To God.

One Way To Express The Spiritual Crisis Of Our Time Is To Say That Most Of Us Have An Address But Cannot Be Found There.

Solitude, Community, And Ministry Are Certainly Not Just For Celibates! Celibates Also Have A Hard Time Keeping Up.

If Fear Is The Great Enemy Of Intimacy, Love Is Its True Friend.

Aging Does Not Need To Be Hidden Or Denied, But Can Be Understood, Affirmed And Experienced As A Process Of Growth By Which The Mystery Of Life Is Slowly Revealed To Us.

Joy Does Not Simply Happen To Us. We Have To Choose Joy And Keep Choosing It Every Day. It Is A Choice Based On The Knowledge That We Belong To God And Have Found In God Our Refuge And Our Safety And That Nothing, Not Even Death, Can Take God Away From Us.

The More I Think About The Human Suffering In Our World And My Desire To Offer A Healing Response, The More I Realize How Crucial It Is Not To Allow Myself To Become Paralyzed By Feelings Of Helplessness And Guilt. More Important Than Ever Is To Be Very Faithful To My Vocation To Do Well The Few Things I Am Called To Do And Hold On To The Joy And Peace They Bring Me. I Must Resist The Temptation To Let The Forces Of Darkness Pull Me Into Despair And Make Me One More Of Their Many Victims.

When You Recognize The Festive And The Still Moments As Moments Of Prayer, Then You Gradually Realize That To Pray Is To Live.

It's An Incredible Mystery Of God's Love That The More You Know How Deeply You Are Loved, The More You Will See How Deeply Your Sisters And Your Brothers In The Human Family Are Loved.

When We Honestly Ask Ourselves Which Person In Our Lives Mean The Most To Us, We Often Find That It Is Those Who, Instead Of Giving Advice, Solutions, Or Cures, Have Chosen Rather To Share Our Pain And Touch Our Wounds With A Warm And Tender Hand. The Friend Who Can Be Silent With Us In A Moment Of Despair Or Confusion, Who Can Stay With Us In An Hour Of Grief And Bereavement, Who Can Tolerate Not Knowing, Not Curing, Not Healing And Face With Us The Reality Of Our Powerlessness, That Is A Friend Who Cares.

...real Care Means The Willingness To Help Each Other In Making Our Brokenness Into The Gateway To Joy.

Perhaps Nothing Helps Us Make The Movement From Our Little Selves To A Larger World Than Remembering God In Gratitude. Such A Perspective Puts God In View In All Of Life, Not Just In The Moments We Set Aside For Worship Or Spiritual Disciplines. Not Just In The Moments When Life Seems Easy.

Jesus Invites Us To Abide In His Love. That Means To Dwell With All That I Am In Him. It Is An Invitation To A Total Belonging, To Full Intimacy, To An Unlimited Being-with. The Light Of The Spirit Reveals To Us That Love Conquers All Fear.

When We Break Bread And Give It To Each Other, Fear Vanishes And God Becomes Very Close.

Where True Inner Freedom Is, There Is God. And Where God Is, There We Want To Be.

The Beatitudes Say, "blessed Are The Poor". They Don't Say, "blessed Are Those Who Care For The Poor."

Somewhere We Know That Without Silence, Words Lose Their Meaning.

Distance Friendship

Inspirational Long Distance Relationship

The Great Illusion Of Leadership Is To Think That Man Can Be Led Out Of The Desert By Someone Who Has Never Been There.

When We Learn To Move Through Suffering, Rather Than Avoid It, Then We Greet It Differently. We Become Willing To Let It Teach Us. We Even Begin To See How God Can Use It For Some Larger End.

Any Dance Of Celebration Must Weave Both The Sorrows And The Blessings Into A Joyful Step....to Heal Is To Let The Holy Spirit Call Me To Dance, To Believe Again, Even Amid My Pain, That God Will Orchestrate And Guide My Life.

Think Of Each Wound As You Would Of A Child Who Has Been Hurt By A Friend. As Long As That Child Is Ranting And Raving, Trying To Get Back At The Friend, One Wound Leads To Another. But When The Child Can Experience The Consoling Embrace Of A Parent, She Or He Can Live Through The Pain, Return To The Friend, Forgive, And Build Up A New Relationship. Be Gentle With Yourself, And Let Your Heart Be Your Loving Parent As You Live Your Wounds Through.

Jesus Said Communion First, Community Comes Out Of That, And Out Of Community, Ministry.

Gratitude As A Discipline Involves A Conscious Choice. I Can Choose To Be Grateful Even When My Emotions And Feelings Are Still Steeped In Hurt And Resentment. It Is Amazing How Many Occasions Present Themselves In Which I Can Choose Gratitude Instead Of A Complaint.

Christmas Is Believing That The Salvation Of The World Is God's Work, And Not Mine.

Distance Never Seperates Two Hearts That Really Care, For Our Memories Span The Miles And In Seconds We Are There. But Whenever I Start Feeling Sad Cuz I Miss You I Remind Myself How Lucky I Am To Have Someone So Special To Miss.

Each Individual Human Being Can Claim The Spirit Of Jesus As The Guiding Spirit Of His Or Her Life. In That Spirit We Can Speak And Act Freely And Confidently With The Knowledge That The Same Spirit That Inspired Jesus Is Inspiring Us.

How Do You Pray? Take The Gospel Of Each Day And Spend Ten Minutes With It. Read It, And Read It Again. Walk Into The World With The Gospel In Your Heart.

Our Brokenness Has No Other Beauty But The Beauty That Comes From The Compassion That Surrounds It.

Learning To Weep, Learning To Keep Vigil, Learning To Wait For The Dawn. Perhaps This Is What It Means To Be Human.

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