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Many human relationships are like the interlocking fingers of two hands. Our loneliness makes us cling to each other, and this mutual clinging makes us suffer immensely because it does not take our loneliness away. But the harder we try, the more desperate we become. Many of these "interlocking" relationships fall apart because they become suffocating and oppressive. Human relationships are meant to be like two hands folded together. They can move away from each other while still touching with the fingertips. They can create space between themselves, a little tent, a home, a safe place to be.
True relationships among people point to God. They are like prayers in the world. Sometimes the hands that pray are fully touching, sometimes there is distance between them. They always move to and from each other, but they never lose touch. They keep praying to the One who brought them together.
For further reflection...
"These are the [ones] who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts but do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt."[Jude 19-22 (NIV)]
Your response...
"Love doesn't mean doing extraordinary or heroic things. It means knowing how to do ordinary things with tenderness."[Jean Vanier, Community and Growth]
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "The Inner Voice of Love".
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The Henri Nouwen Society of Toronto, Ontario, Canada DAILY MEDITATION with Father Henri J. M. Nouwen "Reflecting God's perfect love" for Friday, 4 March 2016
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God's love for us is everlasting. That means that God's love for us existed before we were born and will exist after we have died. It is an eternal love in which we are embraced. Living a spiritual life calls us to claim that eternal love for ourselves so that we can live our temporal loves - for parents, brothers, sisters, teachers, friends, spouses, and all people who become part of our lives - as reflections or refractions of God's eternal love. No fathers or mothers can love their children perfectly. No husbands or wives can love each other with unlimited love. There is no human love that is not broken somewhere.
When our broken love is the only love we can have, we are easily thrown into despair, but when we can live our broken love as a partial reflection of God's perfect, unconditional love, we can forgive one another our limitations and enjoy together the love we have to offer.
For further reflection...
"But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love... Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert. By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. You gave them your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst."[Nehemiah 9: 17, 19-20 (NIV)]
Your response...
That which gives us true freedom and true happiness is the compassionate love of Christ.[Pope Francis]
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "The Return of the Prodigal Son".
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Photo courtesy of SDGimagery.com
God's love for us is everlasting. That means that God's love for us existed before we were born and will exist after we have died. It is an eternal love in which we are embraced. Living a spiritual life calls us to claim that eternal love for ourselves so that we can live our temporal loves - for parents, brothers, sisters, teachers, friends, spouses, and all people who become part of our lives - as reflections or refractions of God's eternal love. No fathers or mothers can love their children perfectly. No husbands or wives can love each other with unlimited love. There is no human love that is not broken somewhere.
When our broken love is the only love we can have, we are easily thrown into despair, but when we can live our broken love as a partial reflection of God's perfect, unconditional love, we can forgive one another our limitations and enjoy together the love we have to offer.
For further reflection...
"But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love... Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert. By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. You gave them your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst."[Nehemiah 9: 17, 19-20 (NIV)]
Your response...
That which gives us true freedom and true happiness is the compassionate love of Christ.[Pope Francis]
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "The Return of the Prodigal Son".
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The Henri Nouwen Society of Toronto, Ontario, Canada DAILY MEDITATION with Father Henri J. M. Nouwen "God's faithfulness and ours" for Thursday, 3 March 2016
Photo courtesy of SDGimagery.com
When God makes a covenant with us, God says: "I will love you with an everlasting love. I will be faithful to you, even when you run away from me, reject me, or betray me." In our society we don't speak much about covenants; we speak about contracts. When we make a contract with a person, we say: "I will fulfill my part as long as you fulfill yours. When you don't live up to your promises, I no longer have to live up to mine." Contracts are often broken because the partners are unwilling or unable to be faithful to their terms.
But God didn't make a contract with us; God made a covenant with us, and God wants our relationships with one another to reflect that covenant. That's why marriage, friendship, life in community are all ways to give visibility to God's faithfulness in our lives together.
For further reflection...
"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people."[Hebrews 8: 10-11 (NIV)]
Your response...
Instead of "I think, therefore, I am" or "I shop at WalMart and Macy's, therefore I am" or "I have a job, therefore I am," the model here is "I am loved by God, therefore I am."[Paul Louis Metzger, Connecting Christ]
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "Life of the Beloved".
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Photo courtesy of SDGimagery.com
When God makes a covenant with us, God says: "I will love you with an everlasting love. I will be faithful to you, even when you run away from me, reject me, or betray me." In our society we don't speak much about covenants; we speak about contracts. When we make a contract with a person, we say: "I will fulfill my part as long as you fulfill yours. When you don't live up to your promises, I no longer have to live up to mine." Contracts are often broken because the partners are unwilling or unable to be faithful to their terms.
But God didn't make a contract with us; God made a covenant with us, and God wants our relationships with one another to reflect that covenant. That's why marriage, friendship, life in community are all ways to give visibility to God's faithfulness in our lives together.
For further reflection...
"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people."[Hebrews 8: 10-11 (NIV)]
Your response...
Instead of "I think, therefore, I am" or "I shop at WalMart and Macy's, therefore I am" or "I have a job, therefore I am," the model here is "I am loved by God, therefore I am."[Paul Louis Metzger, Connecting Christ]
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "Life of the Beloved".
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The Henri Nouwen Society of Toronto, Ontario, Canada DAILY MEDITATION with Father Henri J. M. Nouwen "God's Covenant" for Wednesday, 2 March 2016
Photo courtesy of SDGimagery.com
God made a covenant with us. The word covenant means "coming together." God wants to come together with us. In many of the stories in the Hebrew Bible, we see that God appears as a God who defends us against our enemies, protects us against dangers, and guides us to freedom. God isGod-for-us. When Jesus comes a new dimension of the covenant is revealed. In Jesus, God is born, grows to maturity, lives, suffers, and dies as we do. God is God-with-us. Finally, when Jesus leaves he promises the Holy Spirit. In the Holy Spirit, God reveals the full depth of the covenant. God wants to be as close to us as our breath. God wants to breathe in us, so that all we say, think and do is completely inspired by God. God is God-within-us. Thus God's covenant reveals to us to how much God loves us.
For further reflection...
"Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit."[I John 4: 11-13 (NIV)]
Your response...
Are there signs or reminders of God's love that you see in your life?
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "Letters to Marc About Jesus".
---------------------
Photo courtesy of SDGimagery.com
God made a covenant with us. The word covenant means "coming together." God wants to come together with us. In many of the stories in the Hebrew Bible, we see that God appears as a God who defends us against our enemies, protects us against dangers, and guides us to freedom. God isGod-for-us. When Jesus comes a new dimension of the covenant is revealed. In Jesus, God is born, grows to maturity, lives, suffers, and dies as we do. God is God-with-us. Finally, when Jesus leaves he promises the Holy Spirit. In the Holy Spirit, God reveals the full depth of the covenant. God wants to be as close to us as our breath. God wants to breathe in us, so that all we say, think and do is completely inspired by God. God is God-within-us. Thus God's covenant reveals to us to how much God loves us.
For further reflection...
"Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit."[I John 4: 11-13 (NIV)]
Your response...
Are there signs or reminders of God's love that you see in your life?
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "Letters to Marc About Jesus".
---------------------
The Henri Nouwen Society of Toronto, Ontario, Canada DAILY MEDITATION with Father Henri J. M. Nouwen "God's powerlessness" for Tuesday, 1 March 2016
Photo courtesy of SDGimagery.com
Jesus is God-with-us, Emmanuel. The great mystery of God becoming human is God's desire to be loved by us. By becoming a vulnerable child, completely dependent on human care, God wants to take away all distance between the human and the divine.
Who can be afraid of a little child that needs to be fed, to be cared for, to be taught, to be guided? We usually talk about God as the all-powerful, almighty God on whom we depend completely. But God wanted to become the all-powerless, all-vulnerable God who completely depends on us. How can we be afraid of a God who wants to be "God-with-us" and needs us to become "Us-with-God"?
For further reflection...
"After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him."[Matthew 2: 9-11 (NIV)]
Your response...
Jesus is the God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair.[Blaise Pascal, Pensées]
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "Walk with Jesus".
Photo courtesy of SDGimagery.com
Jesus is God-with-us, Emmanuel. The great mystery of God becoming human is God's desire to be loved by us. By becoming a vulnerable child, completely dependent on human care, God wants to take away all distance between the human and the divine.
Who can be afraid of a little child that needs to be fed, to be cared for, to be taught, to be guided? We usually talk about God as the all-powerful, almighty God on whom we depend completely. But God wanted to become the all-powerless, all-vulnerable God who completely depends on us. How can we be afraid of a God who wants to be "God-with-us" and needs us to become "Us-with-God"?
For further reflection...
"After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him."[Matthew 2: 9-11 (NIV)]
Your response...
Jesus is the God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair.[Blaise Pascal, Pensées]
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "Walk with Jesus".
---------------------
Visit our Bookstore:
United States
Visit our Bookstore:
United States
United Kingdom
Join us for the Lent 2016 discussion of Henri Nouwen's book "In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership".
Visit our new website for inspiration, resources, news, events, community.
LEARN MORE
Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Scripture chosen by L. Yeskoo.
STAY CONNECTED:
Henri Nouwen Society
Join us for the Lent 2016 discussion of Henri Nouwen's book "In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership".
Visit our new website for inspiration, resources, news, events, community.
LEARN MORE
Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Scripture chosen by L. Yeskoo.
STAY CONNECTED:
Henri Nouwen Society
95 Saint Joseph Street, Room 214
Toronto, Ontario M5S 2R9, Canada
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