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One Of The Remarkable Qualities Of The Story Is That It Creates Space. We Can Dwell In A Story, Walk Around, Find Our Own Place. The Story Confronts But Does Not Oppress; The Story Inspires But Does Not Manipulate. The Story Invites Us To An Encounter, A Dialogue, A Mutual Sharing. As Long As We Have Stories To Tell To Each Other There Is Hope. As Long As We Can Remind Each Other Of The Lives Of Men And Women In Whom The Love Of God Becomes Manifest, There Is Reason To Move Forward To New Land In Which New Stories Are Hidden.

-Henri Nouwen

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One Of The Remarkable

Henri Nouwen

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One Of The Remarkable Qualities Of The Story Is That It Creates Space. We Can Dwell In A Story, Walk Around, Find Our Own Place. The Story Confronts But Does Not Oppress; The Story Inspires But Does Not Manipulate. The Story Invites Us To An Encounter, A Dialogue, A Mutual Sharing. As Long As We Have Stories To Tell To Each Other There Is Hope. As Long As We Can Remind Each Other Of The Lives Of Men And Women In Whom The Love Of God Becomes Manifest, There Is Reason To Move Forward To New Land In Which New Stories Are Hidden.

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God's Kingdom Is A Place Of Abundance Where Every Generous Act Overflows Its Original Bounds And Becomes Part Of The Unbounded Grace Of God At Work In The World.

As Those Who Are Chosen, Blessed, Broken, And Given, We Are Called To Live Our Lives With A Deep Inner Joy And Peace. It Is The Life Of The Beloved, Lived In A World Constantly Trying To Convince Us That The Burden Is On Us To Prove That We Are Worthy Of Being Loved.

Solitude Is Very Different From A 'time-out' From Our Busy Lives. Solitude Is The Very Ground From Which Community Grows. Whenever We Pray Alone, Study, Read, Write, Or Simply Spend Quiet Time Away From The Places Where We Interact With Each Other Directly, We Are Potentially Opened For A Deeper Intimacy With Each Other.

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

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

The Spiritual Life Is Not A Life Before, After, Or Beyond Our Everyday Existence. No, The Spiritual Life Can Only Be Real When It Is Lived In The Midst Of The Pains And Joys Of The Here And Now.

A Life Without A Lonely Place, That Is, A Life Without A Quiet Center, Easily Becomes Destructive. When We Cling To The Results Of Our Actions As Our Only Way Of Self-identifiction, Then We Become Possessive And Defensive And Tend To Look At Our Fellow Human Beings More As Enemies To Be Kept At A Distance Than As Friends With Whom We Share The Gifts Of Life.

There Is Nothing So Important In The Family As The Sacred Quality Of The Meal.

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

Jesus Didn't Live Alone. He Had Peter, John, And James Around Him. There Were The Twelve And The Other Disciples. They Formed Circles Of Intimacy Around Jesus. We Too Need These Circles Of Intimacy, But It's A Discipline.

The Pain That Comes From Deep Love Makes Your Love More Fruitful. It Is Like A Plow That Breaks The Ground To Allow The Seed To Take Root.

...when You Can Look Into The Face Of Human Beings And You Have Enough Light To Recognize Them As Your Brothers And Sisters. Up Until Then It Is Night And Darkness Is Still With Us. Let Us Pray For The Light. It Is The Peace The World Cannot Give.

There Are Areas I Have To Work On. I Had Some Questions And Some Struggles, But It Was An Enormously Important Time For Me.

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.

People Who Have Known The Joy Of God Point Each Other To Flashes Of Light Here And There, And Remind Each Other That They Reveal The Hidden But Real Presence Of God. They Discover That There Are People Who Heal Each Other's Wounds, Forgive Each Other's Offenses, Share Their Possessions, Foster The Spirit Of Community, Celebrate The Gifts They Have Received, And Live In Constant Anticipation Of The Full Manifestation Of God's Glory.

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.

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.

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

Unconditional Love

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.

Becoming The Beloved Is Pulling The Truth Revealed To Me From Above Down Into The Ordinariness Of What I Am, In Fact, Thinking Of, Talking About And Doing From Hour To Hour.

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.

Somehow, Somewhere, I Know That God Loves Me, Even Though I Do Not Feel That Love As I Can Feel A Human Embrace, Even Though I Do Not Hear A Voice As I Hear Human Words...god Is Greater Than My Senses, Greater Than My Thoughts, Greater Than My Heart. I Do Believe That He Touches Me In Places That Are Unknown Even To Myself.

While My Friend Always Spoke About The Sun, I Kept Speaking About The Clouds, Until One Day I Realized That It Was The Sun That Allowed Me To See The Clouds.

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

True Hospitality Is Welcoming The Stranger On Her Own Terms. This Kind Of Hospitality Can Only Be Offered By Those Who've Found The Center Of Their Lives In Their Own Hearts.

For Many, Religion Has To Do With What We Are Allowed To Do And Not Allowed To Do. In The End, That Doesn't Bear Fruit.

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.

The Only Feelings That Do Not Heal Are The Ones You Hide.

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.

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

Prayer Requires That We Stand In God's Presence With Open Hands, Naked And Vulnerable, Proclaiming To Ourselves And To Others That Without God We Can Do Nothing. As Disciples, We Find Not Some But All Of Our Strength, Hope, Courage, And Confidence In God. Therefore, Prayer Must Be Our First Concern.

We Cannot Make It Rain But We Can See To It That The Rain Falls On Prepared Soil.

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

The Christian Leaders Of The Future Have To Be Theologians, Persons Who Know The Heart Of God And Are Trained - Through Prayer, Study, And Careful Analysis - To Manifest The Divine Event Of God's Saving Work In The Midst Of The Many Seemingly Random Events Of Their Time.

A Sense Of Solitude Is One Of The Most Beautiful Things That Parents Can Give A Child. It Doesn't Mean Leaving The Child Alone, But It Does Mean Creating Safe Spaces Where The Child Can Be With Other People. It Does Mean Directing Their Attention To God.

If I Were To Let My Life Be Taken Over By What Is Urgent, I Might Very Well Never Get Around To What Is Essential.

There Is A Wonderful Story In The Gospel Of Luke (6:12-26). Jesus Went Up To The Mountain To Pray At Night; In The Morning He Came Down From The Mountain And Called His Twelve Apostles Around Him. In The Afternoon He Went Out On The Plain With Them To Preach The Good News And Heal The Sick. He Had Communion With God First, Then He Had Community, And Then He Went Out To Do The Work Of God. That's The Order Of Things.

One Of The Experiences Of Prayer Is That It Seems That Nothing Happens. But When You Start With It And Look Back Over A Long Period Of Prayer, You Suddenly Realize That Something Has Happened. What Is Most Close, Most Intimate, Most Present, Often Cannot Be Experienced Directly But Only With A Certain Distance. When I Think That I Am Only Distracted, Just Wasting My Time, Something Is Happening Too Immediate For Knowing, Understanding, And Experiencing. Only In Retrospect Do I Realize That Something Very Important Has Taken Place.

Compassion Requires Us To Be Weak With The Weak, Vulnerable With The Vulnerable, And Powerless With The Powerless. Compassion Means Full Immersion In The Condition Of Being Human.

Once You Are In Communion With God, You Have The Eyes To See And The Ears To Hear Other People In Whom God Has Also Found A Dwelling Place.

In Community, Where You Have All The Affection You Could Ever Dream Of, You Feel That There Is A Place Where Even Community Cannot Reach. That's A Very Important Experience. In That Loneliness, Which Is Like A Dark Night Of The Soul, You Learn That God Is Greater Than Community.

The World Is Evil Only When You Become Its Slave.

Those Who Keep Speaking About The Sun While Walking Under A Cloudy Sky Are Messengers Of Hope, The True Saints Of Our Day.

Prayer And Action...can Never Be Seen As Contradictory Or Mutually Exclusive. Prayer Without Action Grows Into Powerless Pietism, And Action Without Prayer Degenerates Into Questionable Manipulation.

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.

Fear Is The Great Enemy Of Intimacy. Fear Makes Us Run Away From Each Other Or Cling To Each Other But Does Not Create True Intimacy.

Where Is Peace To Be Found? The Answer Is Surprising But Clear. In Weakness. Why There? Because In Our Weakness, Our Familiar Ways Of Controlling And Manipulating Our World Are Being Stripped Away, And We Are Forced To Let Go From Doing Much, Thinking Much, And Relying On Our Self-sufficiency. Right There Where We Are Most Vulnerable, The Peace That Is Not Of This World Is Mysteriously Hidden.

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

The Man Who Can Articulate The Movements Of His Inner Life Need No Longer Be A Victim Of Himself, But Is Able Slowly And Consistently To Remove The Obstacles That Prevent The Spirit From Entering.

I Want My Work To Create Space Where People Can Meet God, Rather Than Give Them Something They Can "apply" To Their Daily Life.

The Mystery Of One Man Is Too Immense And Too Profound To Be Explained By Another Man.

Although I Am A Committed Catholic Priest, And Nowhere Hide That Fact, My Focus Is Very Much A Spiritual Journey.

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.

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

...the Word That Seems Best To Summarize The Desire Of The Human Heart Is 'communion.' ...wherever We Look It Is Communion That We Seek.

Be Surprised By Joy, Be Surprised By The Little Flower That Shows Its Beauty In The Midst Of A Barren Desert, And Be Surprised By The Immense Healing Power That Keeps Bursting Forth Like Springs Of Fresh Water From The Depth Of Our Pain.

Asking People For Money Is Giving Them The Opportunity To Put Their Resources At The Disposal Of The Kingdom.

I Still Believe That The University Is A Place Where People Can Develop Their Minds And Learn Skills, But Also They Can Develop Their Personalities And Their Spiritual Life.

The Real 'work' Of Prayer Is To Become Silent And Listen To The Voice That Says Good Things About Me.

God Doesn't Give Us Just Enough. God Gives Us More Than Enough: More Bread And Fish Than We Can Eat, More Love Than We Dared To Ask For.

Compassion- Which Means, Literally, "to Suffer With"- Is The Way To The Truth That We Are Most Ourselves, Not When We Differ From Others, But When We Are The Same. Indeed The Main Spiritual Question Is Not, "what Difference Do You Make?" But "what Do You Have In Common?" It Is Not "excelling" But "serving" That Makes Us Most Human. It Is Not Proving Ourselves To Be Better Than Others But Confessing To Be Just Like Others That Is The Way To Healing And Reconciliation.

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.

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.

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

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

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

The More You Have Loved And Have Allowed Yourself To Suffer Because Of Your Love, The More You Will Be Able To Let Your Heart Grow Wider And Deeper. When Your Love Is Truly Giving And Receiving, Those Whom You Love Will Not Leave Your Heart Even When They Depart From You. The Pain Of Rejection, Absence, And Death Can Become Fruitful. Yes, As You Love Deeply The Ground Of Your Heart Will Be Broken More And More, But You Will Rejoice In The Abundance Of The Fruit It Will Bear.

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.

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

I Often Wonder If My Knowledge About God Has Not Become My Greatest Stumbling Block To My Knowledge Of God.

Knowledge Of God

We Enter Into Solitude First Of All To Meet Our Lord And To Be With Him And Him Alone. Only In The Context Of Grace Can We Face Our Sin; Only In The Place Of Healing Do We Dare To Show Our Wounds; Only With A Singleminded Attention To Christ Can We Give Up Our Clinging Fears And Face Our Own True Nature.

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.

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

Distance Friendship

Inspirational Long Distance Relationship

Nobody Escapes Being Wounded. We Are All Wounded People, Whether Physically, Emotionally, Mentally, Or Spiritually. The Main Question Is Not, 'how Can We Hide Our Wounds?' So We Don't Have To Be Embarrassed, But 'how Can We Put Our Woundedness In The Service Of Others?' When Our Wounds Cease To Be A Source Of Shame, And Become A Source Of Healing, We Have Become Wounded Healers.

The Question Is Not How Much Are You Going To Accomplish? Or Can You Show Some Results? But Are You In Love With Jesus? In Our World Of Brokeness And Despair, There Is An Enormous Need For Men And Women Who Know The Heart Of God; A Heart That Forgives, Cares, Reaches Out And Wants To Heal.

It Is Not That The University As Such Is Against Spiritual Formation. It Is Just That Often The University Does Not Know How To Integrate Spiritual Formation Within Its Academic Disciplines.

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

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.

In Their Poverty, The Mentally Handicapped Reveal God To Us And Hold Us Close To The Gospel.

Mentally Handicapped

Joy Is Hidden In Sorrow And Sorrow In Joy. If We Try To Avoid Sorrow At All Costs, We May Never Taste Joy, And If We Are Suspicious Of Ecstasy, Agony Can Never Reach Us Either. Joy And Sorrow Are The Parents Of Our Spiritual Growth.

You Have To Dare To Live Through The Pain And Struggle. Acknowledge Your Anguish But Do Not Let It Pull You Out Of Yourself. Hold On To Your Chosen Direction, Your Discipline, Your Prayer, Your Work, Your Guides, And Trust That One Day Love Will Have Conquered Enough Of You That Even The Most Fearful Part Will Allow Love To Cast Out All Fear.

[praying] Demands That You Take To The Road Again And Again, Leaving Your House And Looking Forward To A New Land For Yourself And Your [fellow Human]. This Is Why Praying Demands Poverty, That Is, The Readiness To Live A Life In Which You Have Nothing To Lose So That You Always Begin Afresh.

The Farther The Outward Journey Takes You, The Deeper The Inward Journey Must Be.

When We Have Sold Our Identity To The Judges Of This World, We Are Bound To Become Restless, Because Of A Growing Need For Affirmation And Praise.

That Is Our Vocation: To Convert The Enemy Into A Guest And To Create The Free And Fearless Space Where Brotherhood And Sisterhood Can Be Formed And Fully Experienced.

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

This Brief Lifetime Is My Opportunity To Receive Love, Deepen Love, Grow In Love, And Give Love.

Simply Being With Someone Is Difficult Because It Asks Of Us That We Share In The Other's Vulnerability, Enter With Him Or Her Into The Experience Of Weakness And Powerlessness, Become Part Of The Uncertainty, And Give Up Control And Self-determination.

I Choose L'arche; L'arche Chooses Me. I Would Be Dead If I Weren't Here. I Need People To Love Me And Care For Me.

Fundraising Is A Very Rich And Beautiful Activity. It Is A Confident, Joyful And Hope-filled Expression Of Ministry. In Ministering To Each Other, Each From The Riches That He Or She Possesses, We Work Together For The Full Coming Of God's Kingdom.

If You Feel Loved, You Can Do A Thousand Things. If You Feel Rejected, Everything Becomes A Problem.

Christian Life Is Not A Life Divided Between Times For Action And Times For Contemplation. No. Real Social Action Is A Way Of Contemplation, And Real Contemplation Is The Core Of Social Action.

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.

The Spiritual Life Is A Life Beyond Moods. It Is A Life In Which We Choose Joy And Do Not Allow Ourselves To Become Victims Of Passing Feelings Of Happiness Or Depression.

The Discipline Of Gratitude Is The Explicit Effort To Acknowledge That All I Am And Have Is Given To Me As A Gift Of Love, A Gift To Be Celebrated With Joy.

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

Prayer Is The Way To Both The Heart Of God And The Heart Of The World - Precisely Because They Have Been Joined Through The Suffering Of Jesus Christ Praying Is Letting One's Own Heart Become The Place Where The Tears Of God's Children Merge And Become Tears Of Hope.

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

To Live In The Present, We Must Deeply Believe That What Is Most Important Is In The Here And Now.

Live In The Present

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

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

Meaningful Life

We Seldom Realize Fully That We Are Sent To Fulfill God-given Tasks. We Act As If We Were Simply Dropped Down In Creation And Have To Decide To Entertain Ourselves Until We Die. But We Were Sent Into The World By God, Just As Jesus Was. Once We Start Living Our Lives With That Conviction, We Will Soon Know What We Were Sent To Do.

Those We Most Love Cause Us Not Only Great Joy But Also Great Pain. 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.

Positive Thinking

Nuclear Man Is The Man Who Realizes That His Creative Powers Hold The Potential For Self-destruction. He Sees That In This Nuclear Age Vast New Industrial Complexes Enable Man To Produce In One Hour That Which He Labored Over For Years In The Past, But He Also Realizes That These Same Industries Have Disturbed The Ecological Balance And, Through Air And Noise Pollution, Have Contaminated His Own Milieu.

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

For Me The University Has Always Been An Ideal Context For Spiritual Formation. I Always Felt That If You Want To Offer Spiritual Formation At The University, You Can.

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

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.

[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.

Pay Attention To The People God Puts In Your Path If You Want To Discern What God Is Up To In Your Life.

His (christ's) Appearance In Our Midst Has Made It Undeniably Clear That Changing The Human Heart And Changing Human Society Are Not Separate Tasks, But Are As Interconnected As The Two Beams Of The Cross.

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.

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

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

Every Time There Are Losses, There Are Choices To Be Made. You Choose To Live Your Losses As Passages To Anger, Blame, Hatred, Depression And Resentment, Or You Choose To Let These Losses Be Passages To Something New, Something Wider, And Deeper.

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

Solitude Is The Furnace Of Transformation.

Real Greatness Is Often Hidden, Humble, Simple, And Unobtrusive. It Is Not Easy To Trust Ourselves And Our Actions Without Public Affirmation. We Must Have Strong Self-confidence Combined With Deep Humility.

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.

The Real Enemies Of Our Life Are The 'oughts' And The 'ifs.' They Pull Us Backward Into The Unalterable Past And Forward Into The Unpredictable Future. But Real Life Takes Place In The Here And Now.

Is My Growing Old Making Me Any Closer To Christ? Am I Only Getting Older Or Am I Getting More Godly?

Somewhere We Know That Without Silence Words Lose Their Meaning, That Without Listening Speaking No Longer Heals, That Without Distance Closeness Cannot Cure.

One Of The Tragedies Of Our Life Is That We Keep Forgetting Who We Are

...marriage Is Foremost A Vocation. Two People Are Called Together To Fulfill A Mission That God Has Given Them. Marriage Is A Spiritual Reality. That Is To Say, A Man And A Woman Come Together For Life, Not Just Because They Experience Deep Love For Each Other, But Because They Believe That God Loves Each Of Them With An Infinite Love And Has Called Them To Each Other To Be Living Witnesses Of That Love. To Love Is To Embody God's Infinite Love In A Faithful Communion With Another Human Being.

Solitude Is The Furnace Of Transformation. Without Solitude We Remain Victims Of Our Society And Continue To Be Entangled In The Illusions Of The False Self.

Without Solitude It Is Virtually Impossible To Live A Spiritual Life. ...we Do Not Take The Spiritual Life Seriously If We Do Not Set Aside Some Time To Be With God And Listen To Him.

Community Is Where Humility And Glory Touch.

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

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.

Spiritual Maturity Is Not Knowing What To Do With Your Whole Life, But Just Knowing What To Do Next.

From The Moment We Claim The Truth Of Being The Beloved, We Are Faced With The Call To Become Who We Are.

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

To Live A Spiritual Life We Must First Find The Courage To Enter Into The Desert Of Loneliness And To Change It By Gentle And Persistent Efforts Into A Garden Of Solitude.

Precisely Where I Feel My Poverty Is Where I Discover God's Blessing.

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.

Through Compassion It Is Possible To Recognize That The Craving For Love That People Feel Resides Also In Our Own Hearts, That The Cruelty The World Knows All Too Well Is Also Rooted In Our Own Impulses. Through Compassion We Also Sense Our Hope For Forgiveness In Our Friends' Eyes And Our Hatred In Their Bitter Mouths. When They Kill, We Know That We Could Have Done It; When They Give Life, We Know That We Can Do The Same. For A Compassionate Person Nothing Human Is Alien: No Joy And No Sorrow, No Way Of Living And No Way Of Dying.

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.

The Gospel Word Of The Day Can Become Like A Painting On The Walls. Of Your Inner Room, The Inner Room That Is Your Heart.

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

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.

When You Pray, You Open Yourself To The Influence Of The Power Which Has Revealed Itself As Love. The Power Gives You Freedom And Independence. Once Touched By This Power, You Are No Longer Swayed Back And Forth By The Countless Opinions, Ideas, And Feelings Which Flow Through You. You Have Found A Center For Your Life That Gives You A Creative Distance So That Everything You See, Hear, And Feel Can Be Tested Against The Source.

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.

Take Prayer With You Wherever You Go. Say It Anytime, And Then Focus Your Mind And Heart On God.

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

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.

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

The Church Is The Body Of Christ Fashioned By Baptism & The Eucharist.

Lord Jesus, Master Of Both The Light And The Darkness, Send Your Holy Spirit Upon Our Preparations For Christmas. We Whose Hearts Are Heavy Seek The Joy Of Your Presence. We Are Your People, Walking In Darkness, Yet Seeking The Light. To You We Say, 'come Lord Jesus!'

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.

People Forget Ideas; They Don't Forget The Real Presence.

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.

Obviously A Child Can Never Conceive Solitude If His Parents Aren't Living It Somewhere Themselves. I Don't Mean That To Be Alone You Have To Get Down On Your Knees For An Hour In A Yoga Posture.

When We Have Nothing To Cling To As Our Own And Cease Thinking Of Ourselves As People Who Must Defend Privileges, We Can Open Ourselves Freely To Others With The Faithful Expectation That Our Strength Will Manifest Itself In Our Shared Weakness.

Who Can Take Away Suffering Without Entering It?

Television Is Obviously An Enormous Intruder. Quite Often People Say They Have No Time, But In Fact They Waste A Lot Of Time On Things That Are Not Healthy.

As Peacemakers, We Must Resist All The Powers Of War And Destruction And Proclaim That Peace Is The Divine Gift Offered To All Who Affirm Life. Resistance Means Saying 'no' To All The Forces Of Death, Wherever They May Be.

It's Not Easy To Sit And Trust That In Solitude God Will Speak To You - Not As A Magical Voice But That God Will Let You Know Something Gradually Over The Years. And In That Word From God You Will Find The Inner Place From Which To Live Your Life. Solitude Is Where Spiritual Ministry Begins. That's Where Jesus Listened To God. That's Where We Listen To God.

Gratitude Goes Beyond The 'mine' And 'thine' And Claims The Truth That All Of Life Is A Pure Gift. In The Past I Always Thought Of Gratitude As A Spontaneous Response To The Awareness Of Gifts Received, But Now I Realize That Gratitude Can Also Be Lived As A Discipline. The Discipline Of Gratitude Is The Explicit Effort To Acknowledge That All I Am And Have Is Given To Me As A Gift Of Love, A Gift To Be Celebrated With Joy.

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

Today's Reading Was "if They Ask You To Walk A Mile, Walk Two. Don't Take An Eye For An Eye Or A Tooth For A Tooth." You Have Chances Every Second To Live This Word, But It Has To Be In You. It Can't Just Be An Idea; It Has To Sink From The Mind Into The Heart.

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

Forgiveness Is The Name Of Love Practiced Among People Who Love Poorly. The Hard Truth Is That All People Love Poorly. We Need To Forgive And Be Forgiven Every Day, Every Hour Increasingly. That Is The Great Work Of Love Among The Fellowship Of The Weak That Is The Human Family.

If We Want Other People To Give Us Something That Only God Can Give, We Become A Demon. We Say, "love Me!" And Before You Know It We Become Violent And Demanding And Manipulative. It's So Important That We Keep Forgiving One Another - Not Once In A While, But Every Moment Of Life.

Do Not Tell Everyone Your Story. You Will Only End Up Feeling More Rejected. People Cannot Give You What You Long For In Your Heart. The More You Expect From People's Response To Your Experience Of Abandonment, The More You Will Feel Exposed To Ridicule.

When We Are Crushed Like Grapes, We Cannot Think Of The Wine We Will Become.

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.

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.

Our Efforts To Disconnect Ourselves From Our Own Suffering End Up Disconnecting Our Suffering From God's Suffering For Us. The Way Out Of Our Loss And Hurt Is In And Through.

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.

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.

Our First Responsibility In The Midst Of Violence Is To Prevent It From Destroying Us.

To Live A Spiritual Life We Must First Find The Courage To Enter Into The Desert Of Our Loneliness And To Change It By Gentle And Persistent Efforts Into A Garden Of Solitude. The Movement From Loneliness To Solitude, However, Is The Beginning Of Any Spiritual Life Because It It Is The Movement From The Restless Senses To The Restful Spirit,l From The Outward-reaching Cravings To The Inward-reaching Search, From The Fearful Clinging To The Fearless Play.

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.

I'm Learning That The Blessing Is Located In Our Poor People, In People Who Are Weak; They Are The Ones We Should Stay Close To, Not Because They Need Us But Because We Need To Receive From Them The Blessing.

'how Much Longer Will I Live?'... Only One Thing Seems Clear To Me. Every Day Should Be Well-lived. What A Simple Truth! Still, It Is Worthy Of My Attention.

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.

The World Is Waiting For New Saints, Ecstatic Men And Women Who Are So Deeply Rooted In The Love Of God That They Are Free To Imagine A New International Order.

Our Society Is So Fragmented, Our Family Lives So Sundered By Physical And Emotional Distance, Our Friendships So Sporadic, Our Intimacies So 'in-between' Things And Often So Utilitarian, That There Are Few Places Where We Can Feel Truly Safe.

Our Greatest Fulfillment Lies In Giving Ourselves To Others.

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...that Is A Friend Who Cares.

It Is Freeing To Become Aware That We Do Not Have To Be Victims Of Our Past And Can Learn New Ways Of Responding. Forgiveness Is Love Practiced Among People Who Love Poorly. It Sets Us Free Without Wanting Anything In Return.

It Is In Solitude That We Discover That Being Is More Important Than Having And That We Are Worth More Than The Results Of Our Efforts. In Solitude We Discover That Our Life Is Not A Possession To Be Defended But A Gift To Be Shared.

To Receive Spiritual Direction Is To Recognize That God Does Not Solve Our Problems Or Answer All Our Questions, But Leads Us Closer To The Mystery Of Our Existence Where All Questions Cease.

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.

As We Are Involved In Unceasing Thinking, So We Are Called To Unceasing Prayer.

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.

God Is Your Safety And Your Home. You Are Well Embraced." Start Living The Multi-formity Of Life From This Place. If You Can Hold On To That, It All Becomes One.

Ministry Is The Least Important Thing. You Cannot Not Minister If You Are In Communion With God And Live In Community.

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

This Sounds Very Simple And Maybe Even Trite, But Very Few People Know That They Are Loved Without Condition Or Limits.

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.

What Once Seemed Such A Curse Has Become A Blessing. All The Agony That Threatened To Destroy My Life Now Seems Like The Fertile Ground For Greater Trust, Stronger Hope, And Deeper Love.

I Always Try To Turn My Personal Struggles Into Something Helpful For Others.

Where Are You Getting Your Affection? Who's Touching You? Who's Holding You? Who Makes You Feel Alive? Who Says, "you Are A Beautiful Person, You Are The Beloved Of God, Don't Forget It"? That's An Important Discipline.

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

The Soul Of The Artist Cannot Remain Hidden.

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

Every Time I Take A Step In The Direction Of Generosity, I Know I Am Moving From Fear To Love.

As Long As We Continue To Live As If We Are What We Do, What We Have, And What Other People Think About Us, We Will Remain Filled With Judgments, Opinions, Evaluations, And Condemnations. We Will Remain Addicted To Putting People And Things In Their "right" Place.

It Is By Chance That We Met, By Choice That We Became Friends.

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