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We Need To Be Angels For Each Other, To Give Each Other Strength And Consolation. Because Only When We Fully Realize That The Cup Of Life Is Not Only A Cup Of Sorrow But Also A Cup Of Joy Will We Be Able To Drink It.

-Henri Nouwen

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We Need To Be

Henri Nouwen

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We Need To Be Angels For Each Other, To Give Each Other Strength And Consolation. Because Only When We Fully Realize That The Cup Of Life Is Not Only A Cup Of Sorrow But Also A Cup Of Joy Will We Be Able To Drink It.

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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.

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.

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.

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

Ministry Means The Ongoing Attempt To Put One's Own Search For God, With All The Moments Of Pain And Joy, Despair And Hope, At The Disposal Of Those Who Want To Join This Search But Do Not Know How.

Ministry In No Way Is A Privilege...it Is The Core Of The Christian Life. No Christian Is A Christian Without Being A Minister.

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.

Lifting Our Cup Means Sharing Our Life So We Can Celebrate It. When We Truly Believe We Are Called To Lay Down Our Lives For Our Friends, We Must Dare To Take The Risk To Let Others Know What We Are Living.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Too Many Of Us Are Lonely Ministers Practicing A Lonely Ministry.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

In Our Own Woundedness, We Can Become Sources Of Life For Others.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Prayer Is The Center Of The Christian Life. It Is The Only Necessary Thing. It Is Living With God, Here And Now.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

To Learn Patience Is Not To Rebel Against Every Hardship.

I Speak Of God's Love And Grace And Redemption And Freedom, But When I Say "in The Context Of This Community," It Is Heard Differently. To Be With People So Obviously Broken, So Obviously Handicapped, And Here To Discover Real Joy And Peace - That Makes The Word Of God Come Alive.

Home Is The Center Of My Being Where I Can Hear The Voice That Says: 'you Are My Beloved, On You My Favor Rests' - The Same Voice That Gave Life To The First Adam And Spoke To Jesus, The Second Adam; The Same Voice That Speaks To All The Children Of God And Sets Them Free To Live In The Midst Of A Dark World While Remaining In The Light.

God, Help Me To See Others Not As Enemies Or As Ungodly But Rather As Thirsty People. And Give Me The Courage And Compassion To Offer Your Living Water, Which Alone Quenches Deep Thirst.

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.

I Wrote To My Bishop, The Archbishop Of Utrecht, Holland, And Explained That I Wanted Not Just Permission To Stay Longer, But A Mission. He Met Me At The Trosly L'arche Community And We Spent A Few Days Together . . . I Wanted Him To Get To Know L'arche, To Understand What I Was Doing There. Afterward He Said, "i Understand Now, Henri. You Have Found A Home For Your Self."

Discipline Means To Prevent Everything In Your Life From Being Filled Up. Discipline Means That Somewhere You're Not Occupied, And Certainly Not Preoccupied. In The Spiritual Life, Discipline Means To Create That Space In Which Something Can Happen That You Hadn't Planned Or Counted On.

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.

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.

When You Have Loved Deeply, That Love Can Grow Even Stronger After The Death Of The Person You Love. That Is The Core Message Of Jesus.

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.

If You Meet God In Solitude, You Discover The God You Meet Is The God Who Embraces All People.

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.

My Writing Has Developed Drastically . The Return Of The Prodigal Son Is The Most Important Thing I've Done, And My Most Mature Book.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Our Tendency Is To Run From The Painful Realities Or Try To Change Them As Soon As Possible. But Cure Without Care Makes Us Into Rulers, Controllers, Manipulators.

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.

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 World Is Evil Only When You Become Its Slave.

As A General Remark, I Would Say We Must Move From The Moral To The Mystical Life.

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.

Who Am I? Where Have I Come From? Where Am I Going?-are Not Questions With An Answer But Questions That Open Us Up To New Questions Which Lead Us Deeper Into The Unshakeable Mystery Of Existence.

Hospitality Is Not To Change People, But To Offer Them Space Where Change Can Take Place.

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.

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.

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

Knowledge Of God

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

Feelings Of Guilt Dominate Our Work As Peacemakers We Cannot Last Long. But When We Have Opened Each Other's Eyes To The Great Human Gifts Among All People We Can Indeed Make Peacemaking A Way Of Being.

When We Give Generously, With An Abundance Mentality, What We Give Away Will Multiply.

Abundance Mentality

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!'

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.

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.

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.

One Of The Most Beautiful Ways For Spiritual Formation To Take Place Is To Let Your Insecurity Lead You Closer To The Lord. Natural Hypersensitivity Can Become An Asset; It Makes You Aware Of Your Need To Be With People And It Allows You To Be More Willing To Look At Their Needs.

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.

Jesus Does Not Respond To Our Worry-filled Way Of Living By Saying That We Should Not Be So Busy With Worldly Affairs. He Does Not Try To Pull Us Away From The Many Events, Activities, And People That Make Up Our Lives. . . . He Asks Us To Shift The Point Of Gravity, To Relocate The Center Of Our Attention, To Change Our Priorities. Jesus Does Not Speak About A Change Of Activities, A Change In Contacts, Or Even A Change Of Pace. He Speaks About A Change Of Heart.

Someday I Would Love To Write About Vincent Van Gogh - His Paintings And Letters Continue To Inspire Me Very Much. But It Remains Hard To Find The Time And Inner Rest To Write.

The Soul Of The Artist Cannot Remain Hidden.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Main Question Is Not, How Can We Hide Our Wounds...but How Can We Put Our Woundedness In Service To Others.

Service To Others

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

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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

Writing Is Not Just A Job. It Helps Me To Pray. It's A Way Of Being.

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.

A Friend Is More Than A Therapist Or Confessor, Even Though A Friend Can Sometimes Heal Us And Offer Us God's Forgiveness. A Friend Is That Other Person With Whom We Can Share Our Solitude, Our Silence, And Our Prayer. A Friend Is That Other Person With Whom We Can Look At A Tree And Say, "isn't That Beautiful," Or Sit On The Beach And Silently Watch The Sun Disappear Under The Horizon. With A Friend We Don't Have To Say Or Do Something Special. With A Friend We Can Be Still And Know That God Is There With Both Of Us.

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.

I Kept Running Around It In Large Or Small Circles, Always Looking For Someone Or Something Able To Convince Me Of My Belovedness. Self-rejection Is The Greatest Enemy Of The Spiritual Life Because It Contradicts The Sacred Voice That Calls Us The "beloved". Being The Beloved Expresses The Core Truth Of Our Existence.

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.

If You Start With Community And Want To Be Faithful To Community, You Have To Realize That What Binds You Together Is Not Mutual Compatibility Or Common Tasks, But God. In Order To Stay In Touch With That Call To Community, We Always Have To Return To Solitude.

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

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

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.

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.

[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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

Solitude Is The Place Where We Can Connect With Profound Bonds That Are Deeper Than The Emergency Bonds Of Fear And Anger.

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

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.

Silence Is A Very Concrete, Practical, And Useful Discipline In All Our Ministerial Tasks. It Can Be Seen As A Portable Cell Taken With Us From The Solitary Place Into The Midst Of Our Ministry. Silence Is Solitude Practiced In Action.

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

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

Unconditional Love

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Meaningful Life

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)

The Mystery Of The Spiritual Life Is That Jesus Desires To Meet Us In The Seclusion Of Our Own Heart, To Make His Love Known To Us There, To Free Us From Our Fears, And To Make Our Own Deepest Self Known To Us Each Time You Let The Love Of God Penetrate Deeper Into Your Heart It Leads To A Love Of Ourselves That Enables Us To Give Whole-hearted Love To Our Fellow Human Beings. In The Seclusion Of Our Hearts We Learn To Know The Hidden Presence Of God; And With That Spiritual Knowledge We Can Lead A Loving Life.

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

The Evangelical Movement Has Become Just A Bit Victimized By A Success-oriented Culture, Wanting The Church - Like The Corporation - To Be Successful.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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 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.

Your Heart Is Greater Than Your Wounds.

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.

Forgiveness Changes The Way We Remember. It Converts The Curse Into A Blessing. Forgiveness Indeed Heals Memories . . .

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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 Feel The Problems I Have Are Meant To Purify Me.

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.

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.

You Are A Christian Only So Long As You Constantly Pose Critical Questions To The Society You Live In, So Long As You Stay Unsatisfied With The Status Quo, And Keep Saying That A New World Is Yet To Come.

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

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.

Solitude Does Not Pull Us Away From Our Fellow Human Beings But Instead Makes Real Fellowship Possible.

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

The Way Of Jesus Is Radically Different. It Is The Way Not Of Upward Mobility But Of Downward Mobility. It Is Going To The Bottom, Staying Behind The Sets And Choosing The Last Place! Why Is The Way Of Jesus Worth Choosing? Because It Is The Way To The Kingdom, The Way Jesus Took, And The Way That Brings Everlasting Life.

The Church Is Not An Institution Forcing Us To Follow Rules But A Community Inviting Us To Still Our Hunger And Thirst At Its Table.

Hunger And Thirst

Ministers Are Tempted To Join The Ranks Of Those Who Consider It Their Primary Task To Keep Other People Busy … But Our Task Is The Opposite Of Distraction … How To Keep Them From Being So Busy That They Can No Longer Hear The Voice Of God Who Speaks In Silence.

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

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.

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.

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

To Give Someone A Blessing Is The Most Significant Affirmation We Can Offer.

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.

Emit Gratitude As Though It Was Done

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.

The Spiritual Life Is A Reaching Out To Our Innermost Self, To Our Fellow Human And To Our God.

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.

It Is To This Silence [contemplative Prayer] That We All Are Called.

O Lord, Make This Lenten Season Different From The Other Ones. Let Me Find You Again. Amen.

It Is Not Easy To Enter Into The Silence And Reach Beyond The Many Boisterous And Demanding Voices Of Our World And To Discover There The Small Intimate Voice Saying: 'you Are My Belived Child, On You My Favor Rests.'

As Long As We Have Our Stories There Is Hope.

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.

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.

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.

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

Solitude Is The Furnace Of Transformation.

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.

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