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

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

Understanding the Quote: "we cannot make it rain but we can see to it that..."

This quote by Henri Nouwen reflects deeply on the theme of rain. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Rain, Fall, Soil, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Henri Nouwen interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Henri Nouwen

Henri Nouwen is celebrated for insightful thoughts on rain and fall. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Rain
Fall
Soil
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If You Believe You Are The Beloved Of God, You Need To Spend Time Listening To His Voice - Period! You Can't Say, "yes God Calls Me The Beloved, But I Have To Go Out To Do Something Now."
Believe
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Listening
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.
Moving
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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.
Thinking
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Our Life Is...a Time In Which Sadness And Joy Kiss Each Other At Every Moment.
Sadness
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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.
Despair
Regression
Return
Solitude Is The Furnace Of Transformation.
Solitude
Transformation
Furnaces
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.
Distance
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Giving
We Have To Trust That Our Stories Deserve To Be Told. We May Discover That The Better We Tell Our Stories The Better We Will Want To Live Them.
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The Fruits Of Your Labors May Be Reaped Two Generations From Now. Trust, Even When You Don't See The Results.
Two
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May
Prayer Is Not One Of The Many Things The Community Does. Rather, It Is Its Very Beingbut When Prayer Is No Longer Its Primary Concern, And When Its Many Activities Are No Longer Seen And Experienced As Part Of Prayer Itself, The Community Quickly Degenerates Into A Club With A Common Cause But No Common Vocation.
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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.
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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.
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When We Are Crushed Like Grapes, We Cannot Think Of The Wine We Will Become.
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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.
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It Is Very Hard To Stay In Touch With Our True Identity Because Those Who Want Our Money, Our Time, And Our Energy Profit More From Our Insecurity And Fears Than From Our Inner Freedom.
True Identity
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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.
Moving
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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.
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Solitude Begins With A Time And Place For God, And Him Alone. If We Really Believe Not Only That God Exists But Also That He Is Actively Present In Our Lives—healing, Teaching, And Guiding — We Need To Set Aside A Time And Space To Give Him Our Undivided Attention.
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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.
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I Have Found It Very Important...to Let Go Of My Wishes And Start Hoping.
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We Need To Remind Each Other That The Cup Of Sorrow Is Also The Cup Of Joy, That Precisely What Causes Us Sadness Can Become The Fertile Ground For Gladness.
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In Other Words, First We Must Call People To Communion With God, To Intimacy With God, To A Sense Of Belonging. Most People Are Lost, Confused, Alienated. They Suffer And Struggle Immensely In Relationships. We Have To Proclaim Loudly And Clearly In Our Actions And In Our Words That God Loves Us That We Belong To Him. That's A Call To The Mystical Life.
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...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.
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I Want My Work To Create Space Where People Can Meet God, Rather Than Give Them Something They Can "apply" To Their Daily Life.
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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.
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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.
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A Life Without A Lonely Place, That Is, Without A Quiet Center, Becomes Destructive.
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The Resistance To Praying Is Like The Resistance Of Tightly Clenched Fists. This Image Shows A Tension, A Desire To Cling Tightly To Yourself, A Greediness Which Betrays Fear.
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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.
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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
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From The Moment We Claim The Truth Of Being The Beloved, We Are Faced With The Call To Become Who We Are.
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Who Can Take Away Suffering Without Entering It?
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If You Meet God In Solitude, You Discover The God You Meet Is The God Who Embraces All People.
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Life Is A Gift, Not To Possess, But To Share.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The Real Question Is: How Can I Live So That My Death Will Be Fruitful For Others?
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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.
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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.
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...the Word That Seems Best To Summarize The Desire Of The Human Heart Is 'communion.' ...wherever We Look It Is Communion That We Seek.
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In 1984, Jean Vanier Invited Me Me To Visit L'arche Community In Trosly, France. He Didn't Say "we Need A Priest" Or "we Could Use You." He Said, "maybe Our Community Can Offer You A Home." I Visited Several Times, Then Resigned From Harvard And Went To Live With The Community For A Year. I Loved It! I Didn't Have Much To Do. I Wasn't Pastor Or Anything. I Was Just A Friend Of The Community.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Ministry In No Way Is A Privilege...it Is The Core Of The Christian Life. No Christian Is A Christian Without Being A Minister.
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If Fear Is The Great Enemy Of Intimacy, Love Is Its True Friend.
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Community Is Where Humility And Glory Touch.
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Prayer Is First Of All Listening To God. It's Openness. God Is Always Speaking; He's Always Doing Something.
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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.
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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.
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Our First Responsibility In The Midst Of Violence Is To Prevent It From Destroying Us.
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However, Community Is First Of All A Quality Of The Heart. It Grows From The Spiritual Knowledge That We Are Alive Not For Ourselves But For One Another. Community Is The Fruit Of Our Capacity To Make The Interests Of Others More Important Than Our Own. The Question, Therefore, Is Not 'how Can We Make Community?' But, 'how Can We Develop And Nurture Giving Hearts?'
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I Always Try To Turn My Personal Struggles Into Something Helpful For Others.
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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.
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You Have To Listen To The One Who Calls You Beloved. That Has To Be Affirmed Over And Over Again. That Is Prayer - Listening To The Voice Of The One Who Calls You "the Beloved."
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Voice
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The Main Question Is Not, How Can We Hide Our Wounds...but How Can We Put Our Woundedness In Service To Others.
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Forgiveness Means That I Continually Am Willing To Forgive The Other Person For Not Being God — For Not Fulfilling All My Needs. I, Too, Must Ask Forgiveness For Not Being Able To Fulfill Other People's Needs. … The Interesting Thing Is That When You Can Forgive People For Not Being God, Then You Can Celebrate That They Are A Reflection Of God.
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Yes, It's A Competitive World, But Where Is Your Heart?
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World
The More You Are Called To Speak For God's Love, The More You Will Need To Deepen The Knowledge Of That Love In Your Own Heart. The Farther The Outward Journey Takes You, The Deeper The Inward Journey Must Be. Only When Your Roots Are Deep Can Your Fruits Be Abundant.
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Every Time I Take A Step In The Direction Of Generosity, I Know I Am Moving From Fear To Love.
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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.
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Our Inclination Is To Show Our Lord Only What We Feel Comfortable With. But The More We Dare To Reveal Our Whole Trembling Self To Him, The More We Will Be Able To Sense That His Love, Which Is Perfect Love, Casts Out All Our Fears.
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When You Are Still Young And Not Yet Adult, You Want To Hold Everything In Your Own Hands, But If You Have Your Hands Open Toward Prayer, You Are Able To Stretch Out Your Arms And Let Yourself Be Led Without Knowing Where. You Know Only The Freedom Which God's Breath Has Brought You Will Lead To New Life, Even If The Cross Is The Only Sign Of It You Can See.
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Knowing
Community Always Calls Us Back To Solitude, And Solitude Always Calls Us To Community. Community And Solitude, Both, Are Essential Elements Of Ministry And Witnessing.
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Jesus Has To Be And Become Ever More The Center Of My Life. It Is Not Enough That Jesus Is My Teacher, My Guide, My Source Of Inspiration. It Is Not Even Enough That He Is My Companion On They Journey, My Friend And My Brother. Jesus Must Become The Heart Of My Heart, The Fire Of My Life, The Love Of My Soul, The Bridegroom Of My Spirit. He Must Become My Only Thought, My Only Concern, My Only Desire.
Teacher
Brother
Jesus
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.
Real
Somewhere Else
Live In The Moment
Listening Is Much More Than Allowing Another To Talk While Waiting For A Chance To Respond. Listening Is Paying Full Attention To Others And Welcoming Them Into Our Very Beings. The Beauty Of Listening Is That Those Who Are Listened To Start Feeling Accepted, Start Taking Our Words More Seriously And Discovering Their True Selves.
Self
Waiting
Feelings
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.
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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.
Spiritual
Struggle
Journey
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.
Reality
Solitude
Together
I Have Always Felt That If I Am Very Personal And Connected With What I Myself Am Living, My Writing Will Transcend Ecclesial Boundaries.
Writing
Boundaries
Connected
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.
Heart
Eye
Compassion
Compassion Means Full Immersion In The Condition Of Being Human.
Mean
Compassion
Being Human
I Really Believe That What We Finally Want Is To Know God, As God Has Come To Be Known Through Jesus. Knowledge Is Knowledge Of The Heart - The Spirit - I Would Say. It Is The Spirit In Us Who Reveals God.
Jesus
Believe
Heart
This Sounds Very Simple And Maybe Even Trite, But Very Few People Know That They Are Loved Without Condition Or Limits.
Simple
People
Sound
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.
Christian
Men
Space
In Our Own Woundedness, We Can Become Sources Of Life For Others.
Source
Source Of Life
Woundedness
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.
Art
Dark
Light
Joy Does Not Simply Happen To Us. We Have To Choose Joy And Keep Choosing It Every Day.
Happiness
Opportunity
True Joy
Often We Come Home From A Sharing Session With A Feeling That Something Precious Has Been Taken Away From Us Or That Holy Ground Has Been Trodden Upon.
Taken
Home
Holy Ground
Compassion Can Never Coexist With Judgement Because Judgement Creates The Distance, The Distinction, Which Prevents Us From Really Being With The Other.
Distance
Compassion
Judgement
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.
Father
Son
Challenges
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.
Spiritual
Believe
Skills
Our Greatest Fulfillment Lies In Giving Ourselves To Others.
Lying
Compassion
Giving
It Is By Chance That We Met, By Choice That We Became Friends.
Choices
Chance
Mets
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.
Gratitude
Block
Envy
When We Honestly Ask Ourselves Which Person In Our Lives Means The Most To Us, We Often Find That It Is Those Who, Instead Of Giving Much Advice, Solutions, Or Cures, Have Chosen Rather To Share Our Pain And Touch Our Wounds With A Gentle And Tender Hand.
Love
Friendship
Pain
My Writing Has Developed Drastically . The Return Of The Prodigal Son Is The Most Important Thing I've Done, And My Most Mature Book.
Book
Writing
Son
Every Time You Reject Yourself, You Idealize Others
Rejects
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.
People
Authority
Certain
Somewhere We Know That Without Silence Words Lose Their Meaning, That Without Listening Speaking No Longer Heals, That Without Distance Closeness Cannot Cure.
Distance
Silence
Listening
Is My Growing Old Making Me Any Closer To Christ? Am I Only Getting Older Or Am I Getting More Godly?
Godly
Getting Older
Growing
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.
Artist
Broken
People
As We Read Spiritually About Spiritual Things, We Open Our Hearts To God's Voice. Sometimes We Must Be Willing To Put Down The Book We Are Reading And Just Listen To What God Is Saying To Us Through Our Words.
Spiritual
Book
Reading
I Am The Prodigal Son Every Time I Search For Unconditional Love Where It Cannot Be Found.
Unconditional Love
Son
Found
[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.
Spiritual
Book
Journey
Do Not Hesitate To Love And To Love Deeply.
Deep Love
I Feel The Problems I Have Are Meant To Purify Me.
Problem
Feels
The Great Teachers Are Always Those Who Can Live The Tension. They Are Not Criticizing Everybody, They're Not Complaining. They Give Young People A Vision.
Teacher
People
Giving
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.
Discipline
Silence
Temptation
Compassion Asks Us To Go Where It Hurts, To Enter Into The Places Of Pain, To Share In Brokenness, Fear, Confusion, And Anguish. Compassion Challenges Us To Cry Out With Those In Misery, To Mourn With Those Who Are Lonely, To Weep With Those In Tears. 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.
Lonely
Hurt
Pain
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.
Life
Lonely
Distance
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.
Gratitude
Hurt
Grateful
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.
Fruit
God Love
Intimate
Our Life Is Full Of Brokenness - Broken Relationships, Broken Promises, Broken Expectations. How Can We Live With That Brokenness Without Becoming Bitter And Resentful Except By Returning Again And Again To God's Faithful Presence In Our Lives.
Relationship
Broken
Expectations
Friends Share Our Pain And Touch Our Wounds With A Gentle And Tender Hand.
Friendship
Pain
True Friend
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.
Inspirational
Religious
Judging
The Tragedy Of Our Lives Is That, While We Suffer From The Wounds Afflicted On Us By Those Who Love Us, We Cannot Avoid Wounding Those We Want To Love.
Suffering
Tragedy
Want
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.
Christian
Real
Godly
The Mystery Of One Man Is Too Immense And Too Profound To Be Explained By Another Man.
Men
Profound
Mystery
Although I Am A Committed Catholic Priest, And Nowhere Hide That Fact, My Focus Is Very Much A Spiritual Journey.
Spiritual
Journey
Focus
Community Life Is Not Easy For Somebody Like Me, Who Is Used To Living By Himself And Doing What He Wants. It's A Demanding Life, And You Quickly Get In Touch With Your Own Handicaps And Weaknesses.
Community
Want
Weakness
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.
Spiritual
Pain
Real
I Have Found It Very Important In My Own Life To Try To Let Go Of My Wishes And Instead To Live In Hope. I Am Finding That When I Choose To Let Go Of My Sometimes Petty And Superficial Wishes And Trust That My Life Is Precious And Meaningful In The Eyes Of God Something Really New, Something Beyond My Own Expectations Begins To Happen For Me. (finding My Way Home)
Letting Go
Meaningful
Eye
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.
People
Broken
Needs
Your Life Is Not Going To Be Easy, And It Should Not Be Easy. It Ought To Be Hard. It Ought To Be Radical; It Ought To Be Restless; It Ought To Lead You To Places You'd Rather Not Go.
Encouragement
Life Is
Easy
A Prayerful Life Is Not A Life In Which We Say Many Prayers, But A Life In Which Nothing, Absolutely Nothing, Is Done, Said, Or Understood Independently Of Him Who Is The Origin And Purpose Of Our Existence.
Prayer
Purpose
Done
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.
Real
Past
Enemy
In The Face Of The Oppressed I Recognize My Own Face, And In The Hands Of The Oppressor I Recognize My Own Hands. Their Flesh Is My Flesh, Their Blood Is My Blood, Their Pain Is My Pain, Their Smile Is My Smile.
Pain
Blood
Hands
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.
Spiritual
Joy
Feelings
Our Brokenness Has No Other Beauty But The Beauty That Comes From The Compassion That Surrounds It.
Compassion
Surround
Brokenness
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.
Christian
Intimate Relationships
People
It Is God’s Passionate Pursuit Of Us That Calls Us To Prayer.
Prayer
Passionate
Pursuit
Our Spiritual Life Is A Life In Which We Wait, Actively Present To The Moment, Expecting That New Things Will Happen To Us, New Things That Are Far Beyond Our Own Imagination Or Prediction. This, Indeed, Is A Very Radical Stance Toward Life In A World Preoccupied With Control.
Spiritual
Imagination
Waiting
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.
Heart
Self
People
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.
Fruit
Bears
Ends
It Is Precisely When You Are Loved A Lot That You Might Realize A Second Loneliness Which Is Not To Be Solved But Lived. This Second Loneliness Is An Existential Loneliness That Belongs To The Basis Of Our Being. It's Where We Are Unfulfilled Because Only God Can Fill Us.
Loneliness
Might
Realizing
The Crisis Of Our Prayer Life Is That Our Minds May Be Filled With Ideas Of God While Our Hearts Remain Far From Him.
Prayer
Heart
Ideas
Our Lives Are Unique Stones In The Mosaic Of Human Existence -- Priceless And Irreplaceable.
Unique
Mosaics
Stones
As A General Remark, I Would Say We Must Move From The Moral To The Mystical Life.
Moving
Moral
Mystical
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.
Spiritual
Solitude
Impossible
In Their Poverty, The Mentally Handicapped Reveal God To Us And Hold Us Close To The Gospel.
Poverty
Handicapped
Mentally Handicapped
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.
Running
Jesus
Believe
Peacemaking Is A Full-time Vocation That Includes Each Member Of God's People.
People
Members
Vocation
L'arche Is Not A Service Institution Or A Group Home. It Is A Community That Exists To Reveal God's Love. Our People Are Given To The World To Tell Others About Peace And Forgiveness And Celebration, To Make Them Aware That In The Midst Of Their Brokenness, There Is Joy; In The Midst Of Their Wounded Nature, There Is Healing.
Healing
Home
People
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.
Moving
Men
Land
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.
Spiritual
Character
Journey
The Evangelical Movement Has Become Just A Bit Victimized By A Success-oriented Culture, Wanting The Church - Like The Corporation - To Be Successful.
Successful
Church
Corporations
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.
Self
Opposites
People
What Makes Us Human Is Not Our Mind But Our Heart, Not Our Ability To Think But Our Ability To Love.
Heart
Thinking
Mind
Each Day Holds A Surprise. But Only If We Expect It Can We See, Hear, Or Feel It When It Comes To Us. Let's Not Be Afraid To Receive Each Day's Surprise, Whether It Comes To Us As Sorrow Or As Joy It Will Open A New Place In Our Hearts, A Place Where We Can Welcome New Friends And Celebrate More Fully Our Shared Humanity.
Heart
Joy
Humanity
Through Discipline, Discipline Is The Other Side Of Discipleship. If You Want To Follow Jesus, You Have To Have Discipline.
Jesus
Discipline
Want
God Wants You To Live For Others And To Live That Presence Well.
Live For Others
Want
Wells
All The Great Spiritual Leaders In History Were People Of Hope. Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Mary, Jesus, Rumi, Gandhi, And Dorothy Day All Lived With A Promise In Their Hearts That Guided Them Toward The Future Without The Need To Know Exactly What It Would Look Like. Let's Live With Hope.
Spiritual
Jesus
Heart
Let Us Not Underestimate How Hard It Is To Be Compassionate. Compassion Is Hard Because It Requires The Inner Disposition To Go With Others To Place Where They Are Weak, Vulnerable, Lonely, And Broken. But This Is Not Our Spontaneous Response To Suffering. What We Desire Most Is To Do Away With Suffering By Fleeing From It Or Finding A Quick Cure For It.
Lonely
Compassion
Broken
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.
Growth
Age
Doe
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.
Spiritual
Want
University
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.
Friendship
True Friend
Grief
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.
Christian
Inspiration
Forgiving
Jesus Didn't Say, 'blessed Are Those Who Care For The Poor.' He Said, 'blessed Are We Where We Are Poor, Where We Are Broken.' It Is There That God Loves Us Deeply And Pulls Us Into Deeper Communion With Himself.
Jesus
Blessed
Broken
Solitude, Community, And Ministry Are Certainly Not Just For Celibates! Celibates Also Have A Hard Time Keeping Up.
Hard Times
Time Keeping
Community
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.
Love
Depression
Anger
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.
Effort
Solitude
Important
Ministry Is The Least Important Thing. You Cannot Not Minister If You Are In Communion With God And Live In Community.
Community
Important
Ministry
My Whole Life I Have Been Complaining That My Work Was Constantly Interrupted, Until I Discovered That My Interruptions Were My Work.
Complaining
Whole Life
Interruptions
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.
Healing
Thinking
Our World
When You Recognize The Festive And The Still Moments As Moments Of Prayer, Then You Gradually Realize That To Pray Is To Live.
Prayer
Praying
Realizing
We May Be Little, Insignificant Servants In The Eyes Of A World Motivated By Efficiency, Control And Success. But When We Realize That God Has Chosen Us From All Eternity, Sent Us Into The World As The Blessed Ones, Handed Us Over To Suffering, Can't We, Then, Also Trust That Our Little Lives Will Multiply Themselves And Be Able To Fulfill The Needs Of Countless People?
Blessed
Eye
People
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.
Determination
Giving Up
Self
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.
Spiritual
Believe
Tasks
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.
Patience
Live In The Moment
Taste
Trust That The Treasure We Look For Is Hidden In The Ground On Which We Stand.
Looks
Treasure
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.
Heart
Optimism
Perspective
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.
Gratitude
Heart
Fundraising
The Leaders Of The Future Will Be Those Who Dare To Claim Their Irrelevance In The Contemporary World As A Divine Vocation.
Irrelevance
Leader
World
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.
People
Would Be
Needs
What Is Forgotten Cannot Be Healed, And That Which Cannot Be Healed Easily Becomes The Cause Of Greater Evil.
Evil
Causes
Forgotten
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.
Love
War
Emotional
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.
Jesus
Mean
Home
...real Care Means The Willingness To Help Each Other In Making Our Brokenness Into The Gateway To Joy.
Real
Mean
Joy
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.
Heart
Two
Tasks
Dare To Love And To Be A Real Friend. The Love You Give And Receive Is A Reality That Will Lead You Closer And Closer To God As Well As Those Whom God Has Given You To Love.
Love
Real
Giving
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.
Taken
Essentials
Might
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.
Believe
Unique
Blessing
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
Eye
Ears
Life Is
'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.
Simple
Attention
Should
Hope Is Willing To Leave Unanswered Questions Unanswered And Unknown Futures Unknown. Hope Makes You See God's Guiding Hand Not Only In The Gentle And Pleasant Moments But Also In The Shadows Of Disappointment And Darkness.
Disappointment
Hands
Darkness
Ministry Is A Very Confronting Service. It Does Not Allow People To Live With Illusions Of Immortality And Wholeness. It Keeps Reminding Others That They Are Mortal And Broken, But Also That With The Recognition Of This Condition, Liberation Starts.
People
Broken
Doe
Waiting Is A Period Of Learning. The Longer We Wait, The More We Hear About Him For Whom We Are Waiting.
Waiting
Periods
Joy Is The Experience Of Knowing That You Are Unconditionally Loved.
Knowing
Joy
To Learn Patience Is Not To Rebel Against Every Hardship.
Rebel
Hardship
Much Violence Is Based On The Illusion That Life Is A Property To Be Defended And Not To Be Shared.
Life
Peace
Freedom
In Our Production-oriented Society, Being Busy, Having An Occupation, Has Become One Of The Main Ways, If Not The Main Way, Of Identifying Ourselves. Without An Occupation, Not Just Our Economic Security But Our Very Identity Is Endangered.
Identity
Occupation
Way
The Friend Who Cares Makes It Clear That Whatever Happens In The External World, Being Present To Each Other Is What Really Matters. In Fact, It Matters More Than Pain, Illness, Or Even Death.
Pain
Real
Who Cares
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.
Church
Moral
Behavior
To Listen Is Very Hard, Because It Asks Of Us So Much Interior Stability That We No Longer Need To Prove Ourselves By Speeches, Arguments, Statements Or Declarations. True Listeners No Longer Have An Inner Need To Make Their Presence Known. They Are Free To Receive, Welcome, To Accept.
Listening
Needs
Speech
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.
Spiritual
Jesus
Thinking
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.
Thinking
Judging People
Long
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.
Relationship
I Miss You
Missing You
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.
Real
Light
People
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.
Pain
Spring
Flower
Living A Spiritual Life Requires A Change Of Heart, A Conversion. Such A Conversion May Be Marked By A Sudden Inner Change, Or It Can Take Place Through A Long, Quiet Process Of Transformation. But It Always Involves An Inner Experience Of Oneness.
Spiritual
Heart
Oneness
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.
Spiritual
Successful
Way
Joy Is Based On The Spiritual Knowledge That, While The World In Which We Live Is Shrouded In Darkness, God Has Overcome The World.
Spiritual
Joy
Darkness
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.
Hands
Looks
Loving God
Keep A Space Where God Can Let Something Totally New Take Place.
Space
To Be Baptized Means To Make The Passage With The People Of Israel And With Jesus From Slavery To Freedom And From Death To New Life. It Is A Commitment To A Life In And Through Jesus.
Jesus
Mean
Commitment
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.
Hands
Giving
Want
Forgiveness Changes The Way We Remember. It Converts The Curse Into A Blessing. Forgiveness Indeed Heals Memories . . .
Memories
Blessing
Way
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