Photo courtesy of SDGimagery.com
Can fathers and mothers become friends of their children? Many children leave their parents to find freedom and independence and return to them only occasionally. When they return they often feel like children again and therefore do not want to stay long. Many parents worry about children's well-being after they have left home. When their children visit they want to be caring parents again.
But a mother can also become the daughter of her daughter and a father the son of his son. A mother can become the daughter of her son and a father the son of his daughter. Father and mother become brother and sister of their own children, and they all can become friends. It doesn't happen often, but when it does happen it is as beautiful to watch as the dawn of a new day.
For further reflection...
"Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God."[Romans 15: 7 (NIV)]
Your response...
How have your own family relationships changed over time?
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "Here and Now".The Henri Nouwen Society of Toronto, Ontario, Canada DAILY MEDITATION with Father Henri J. M. Nouwen "The Healing Touch" for Friday, 25 March 2016
Photo courtesy of SDGimagery.com
Touch, yes, touch, speaks the wordless words of love. We receive so much touch when we are babies and so little when we are adults. Still, in friendship touch often gives more life than words. A friend's hand stroking our back, a friend's arms resting on our shoulder, a friend's fingers wiping our tears away, a friend's lips kissing our forehead --- these are true consolation. These moments of touch are truly sacred. They restore, they reconcile, they reassure, they forgive, they heal.
Everyone who touched Jesus and everyone whom Jesus touched were healed. God's love and power went out from him (see Luke 6:19). When a friend touches us with free, nonpossessive love, it is God's incarnate love that touches us and God's power that heals us.
For further reflection...
She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was free from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?" "You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' " But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."[Mark 5: 26-34]
Your response...
"Human touch is as vital to our health and happiness as food or water."[Gloria Flores, Massage Therapist]
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "Bread for the Journey".The Henri Nouwen Society of Toronto, Ontario, Canada DAILY MEDITATION with Father Henri J. M. Nouwen "Friendship in the Twilight Zones of Our Heart" for Thursday, 24 March 2016
Photo courtesy of SDGimagery.com
There is a twilight zone in our own hearts that we ourselves cannot see. Even when we know quite a lot about ourselves - our gifts and weaknesses, our ambitions and aspirations, our motives and drives - large parts of ourselves remain in the shadow of consciousness.
This is a very good thing. We always will remain partially hidden to ourselves. Other people, especially those who love us, can often see our twilight zones better than we ourselves can. The way we are seen and understood by others is different from the way we see and understand ourselves. We will never fully know the significance of our presence in the lives of our friends. That's a grace, a grace that calls us not only to humility but also to a deep trust in those who love us. It is in the twilight zones of our hearts where true friendships are born.
For further reflection...
"Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him."[Luke 24: 13-16]
Your response...
Which of your friends know you better than you think you know yourself?
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "The Genesee Diary".The Henri Nouwen Society of Toronto, Ontario, Canada DAILY MEDITATION with Father Henri J. M. Nouwen "Sharing Our Solitude" for Wednesday, 23 March 2016
Photo courtesy of SDGimagery.com
A friend is more than a therapist or a 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.
For further reflection...
"Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another."[Romans 12: 15-16]
Your response...
What do you value most about your closest friend?
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "The Road to Daybreak".The Henri Nouwen Society of Toronto, Ontario, Canada DAILY MEDITATION with Father Henri J. M. Nouwen "The Ways to Self-knowledge" for Tuesday, 22 March 2016
Photo courtesy of SDGimagery.com
"Know yourself" is good advice. But to know ourselves doesn't mean to analyse ourselves. Sometimes we want to know ourselves as if we were machines that could be taken apart and put back together at will. At certain critical times in our lives it might be helpful to explore in some detail the events that led us to our crises, but we make a mistake when we think that we can ever completely understand ourselves and explain the full meaning of our lives to others.
Solitude, silence, and prayer are often the best ways to self-knowledge. Not because they offer solutions for the complexity of our lives but because they bring us in touch with our sacred center, where God dwells. That sacred center may not be analysed. It is the place of adoration, thanksgiving, and praise.
For further reflection...
"Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations."[Psalm 100: 3-5 (NIV)]
Your response...
In what ways do you remain a mystery to yourself?
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "Clowning in Rome".The Henri Nouwen Society of Toronto, Ontario, Canada DAILY MEDITATION with Father Henri J. M. Nouwen "Claiming the Sacredness of Our Being" for Monday, 21 March 2016
Photo courtesy of SDGimagery.com
Are we friends with ourselves? Do we love who we are? These are important questions because we cannot develop good friendships with others unless we have befriended ourselves.
How then do we befriend ourselves? We have to start by acknowledging the truth of ourselves. We are beautiful but also limited, rich but also poor, generous but also worried about our security. Yet beyond all that we are people with souls, sparks of the divine. To acknowledge the truth of ourselves is to claim the sacredness of our being, without fully understanding it. Our deepest being escapes our own mental or emotional grasp. But when we trust that our souls are embraced by a loving God, we can befriend ourselves and reach out to others in loving relationships.
For further reflection...
"And the second is like it: love your neighbor as you love your self."[Matthew 22: 39 (NIV)]
Your response...
"When Jesus calls us into deepening relationship, a total immersion into his ways of seeing and being, does he not call us into total acceptance and love of all that is God's, including ourselves?"[Kayla McClurg]
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "The Inner Voice of God".The Henri Nouwen Society of Toronto, Ontario, Canada DAILY MEDITATION with Father Henri J. M. Nouwen "A Still Place in the Market" Sunday, 20 March 2016
Photo courtesy of Paul Williamson www.colourbox.ca
"Be still and acknowledge that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). These are words to take with us in our busy lives. We may think about stillness in contrast to our noisy world. But perhaps we can go further and keep an inner stillness even while we carry on business, teach, work in construction, make music, or organise meetings.
It is important to keep a still place in the "marketplace." This still place is where God can dwell and speak to us. It also is the place from where we can speak in a healing way to all the people we meet in our busy days. Without that still space we start spinning. We become driven people, running all over the place without much direction. But with that stillness God can be our gentle guide in everything we think, say, or do.
For further reflection...
"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer."[Psalm 19: 14 (NIV)]
Your response...
"I discovered that I felt at home and alive in silence, which compelled me to enter my interior world and walk around there. Silence itself had become my teacher."[Karen Armstrong, The Spiral Staircase]
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "Bread for the Journey".The Henri Nouwen Society of Toronto, Ontario, Canada DAILY MEDITATION with Father Henri J. M. Nouwen "The Infinite Value of Life" for Saturday, 19 March 2016
Photo courtesy of V. Dobson
Some people live long lives, some die very young. Is a long life better than a short life? What truly counts is not the length of our lives but their quality. Jesus was in his early thirties when he was killed. Thèrése de Lisieux was in her twenties when she died. Anne Frank was a teenager when she lost her life. But their short lives continue to bear fruit long after their deaths.
A long life is a blessing when it is well lived and leads to gratitude, wisdom, and sanctity. But some people can live truly full lives even when their years are few. As we see so many young people die of cancer and AIDS let us do everything possible to show our friends that, though their lives may be short, they are of infinite value.
For further reflection...
"I praise you because I am wonderfully made... my frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."[Psalm 139: 14 - 16 (NIV)]
Your response...
In your conversations today, how can you relate to people with the new awareness that Henri describes?
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "Our Greatest Gift".
---------------------
The Henri Nouwen Society of Toronto, Ontario, Canada DAILY MEDITATION with Father Henri J. M. Nouwen "Coming Together in Poverty" for Friday, 18 March 2016
Photo courtesy of V. Dobson
There are many forms of poverty: economic poverty, physical poverty, emotional poverty, mental poverty, and spiritual poverty. As long as we relate primarily to each other's wealth, health, stability, intelligence, and soul strength, we cannot develop true community. Community is not a talent show in which we dazzle the world with our combined gifts. Community is the place where our poverty is acknowledged and accepted, not as something we have to learn to cope with as best as we can but as a true source of new life.
Living community in whatever form - family, parish, twelve-step program, or intentional community - challenges us to come together at the place of our poverty, believing that there we can reveal our richness.
For further reflection...
All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."[I Peter 5:5 (NIV)]
Your response...
Have you ever experienced a taste of the kind of community that Henri describes?
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "Gracias".
Photo courtesy of V. Dobson
There are many forms of poverty: economic poverty, physical poverty, emotional poverty, mental poverty, and spiritual poverty. As long as we relate primarily to each other's wealth, health, stability, intelligence, and soul strength, we cannot develop true community. Community is not a talent show in which we dazzle the world with our combined gifts. Community is the place where our poverty is acknowledged and accepted, not as something we have to learn to cope with as best as we can but as a true source of new life.
Living community in whatever form - family, parish, twelve-step program, or intentional community - challenges us to come together at the place of our poverty, believing that there we can reveal our richness.
For further reflection...
All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."[I Peter 5:5 (NIV)]
Your response...
Have you ever experienced a taste of the kind of community that Henri describes?
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "Gracias".
The Henri Nouwen Society of Toronto, Ontario, Canada DAILY MEDITATION with Father Henri J. M. Nouwen "Not Breaking the Bruised Reeds" for Thursday, 17 March 2016
Photo courtesy of V. Dobson
Some of us tend to do away with things that are slightly damaged. Instead of repairing them we say: "Well, I don't have time to fix it, I might as well throw it in the garbage can and buy a new one." Often we also treat people this way. We say: "Well, he has a problem with drinking; well, she is quite depressed; well, they have mismanaged their business...we'd better not take the risk of working with them." When we dismiss people out of hand because of their apparent woundedness, we stunt their lives by ignoring their gifts, which are often buried in their wounds.
We all are bruised reeds, whether our bruises are visible or not. The compassionate life is the life in which we believe that strength is hidden in weakness and that true community is a fellowship of the weak.
For further reflection...
"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze."[Isaiah 43:2 (NIV)]
Your response...
Who are regarded as "disposable" in today's society?
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "Adam".The Henri Nouwen Society of Toronto, Ontario, Canada DAILY MEDITATION with Father Henri J. M. Nouwen "The Virtue of Flexibility" for Wednesday, 16 March 2016
Photo courtesy of V. Dobson
Trees look strong compared with the wild reeds in the field. But when the storm comes the trees are uprooted, whereas the wild reeds, while moved back and forth by the wind, remain rooted and are standing up again when the storm has calmed down.
Flexibility is a great virtue. When we cling to our own positions and are not willing to let our hearts be moved back and forth a little by the ideas or actions of others, we may easily be broken. Being like wild reeds does not mean being wishy-washy. It means moving a little with the winds of the time while remaining solidly anchored in the ground. A humorless, intense, opinionated rigidity about current issues might cause these issues to break our spirits and make us bitter people. Let's be flexible while being deeply rooted.
For further reflection...
"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom."[James 3:13(NIV)]
Your response...
Do you find it easy or difficult to be "flexible while being deeply rooted?"
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "Home Tonight".---------------------
Photo courtesy of V. Dobson
Some of us tend to do away with things that are slightly damaged. Instead of repairing them we say: "Well, I don't have time to fix it, I might as well throw it in the garbage can and buy a new one." Often we also treat people this way. We say: "Well, he has a problem with drinking; well, she is quite depressed; well, they have mismanaged their business...we'd better not take the risk of working with them." When we dismiss people out of hand because of their apparent woundedness, we stunt their lives by ignoring their gifts, which are often buried in their wounds.
We all are bruised reeds, whether our bruises are visible or not. The compassionate life is the life in which we believe that strength is hidden in weakness and that true community is a fellowship of the weak.
For further reflection...
"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze."[Isaiah 43:2 (NIV)]
Your response...
Who are regarded as "disposable" in today's society?
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "Adam".The Henri Nouwen Society of Toronto, Ontario, Canada DAILY MEDITATION with Father Henri J. M. Nouwen "The Virtue of Flexibility" for Wednesday, 16 March 2016
Photo courtesy of V. Dobson
Trees look strong compared with the wild reeds in the field. But when the storm comes the trees are uprooted, whereas the wild reeds, while moved back and forth by the wind, remain rooted and are standing up again when the storm has calmed down.
Flexibility is a great virtue. When we cling to our own positions and are not willing to let our hearts be moved back and forth a little by the ideas or actions of others, we may easily be broken. Being like wild reeds does not mean being wishy-washy. It means moving a little with the winds of the time while remaining solidly anchored in the ground. A humorless, intense, opinionated rigidity about current issues might cause these issues to break our spirits and make us bitter people. Let's be flexible while being deeply rooted.
For further reflection...
"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom."[James 3:13(NIV)]
Your response...
Do you find it easy or difficult to be "flexible while being deeply rooted?"
Continue the Inspiration
Purchase your copy of Henri Nouwen's book "Home Tonight".---------------------
Visit our Bookstore:
United States
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.
DONATE
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.
DONATE
STAY CONNECTED:
Henri Nouwen Society
95 Saint Joseph Street, Room 214
Toronto, Ontario M5S 2R9, Canada
---------------------
---------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment