Tag Archives: Henri Nouwen

whole: Sunday 3

I understand now that I’m not a mess but a deeply feeling person in a messy world.  I explain that now, when someone asks me why I cry so often, I say, “For the same reason I laugh so often – because I’m paying attention.” Glennon Doyle Melton FOR NOW WE SHALL SEE THROUGH AContinue reading “whole: Sunday 3”

whole: day 4

We are afraid of emptiness.  Spinoza speaks about our “horror vacui”, our horrendous fear of vacancy … It is very hard to allow emptiness to exist in our lives.  Emptiness requires a willingness not to be in control, a willingness to let something new and unexpected happen.  It requires trust, surrender, and openness to guidance. Continue reading “whole: day 4”

Sunday 4

Joy is hidden in compassion.  The word compassion literally means ‘to suffer with’.  It seems quite unlikely that suffering with another person would bring joy.  Yet being with a person in pain, offering simple presence to someone in despair, sharing with a friend times of confusion and uncertainty … such experiences can bring us deepContinue reading “Sunday 4”

day 13

You see, there is much I want. Perhaps everything: the darkness of each infinite fall, the scintillant play of each ascent. So many people live without wishes, calm of spirit, light of judgement, muted as princes. But you rejoice in every soul that thirsts and serves, rejoice in all whose hands reserve you for aContinue reading “day 13”

day 9

What I fear and desire most in this world is passion. I fear it because it promises to be spontaneous, out of my control, unnamed, beyond my reasonable self. I desire it because passion has color, like the landscape before me. It is not pale. It is not neutral. It reveals the backside of theContinue reading “day 9”

advent apertures 2019: day 10

A part of us clings to our aloneness and does not allow God to touch us where we are most in pain. Often we hide…precisely those places in ourselves where we feel guilty, ashamed, confused, and lost. Thus we do not give [God] a chance to be with us where we feel most alone. ChristmasContinue reading “advent apertures 2019: day 10”