nouwen 4: God's Unconditional Love

What can we say about God's love? We can say that God's love is unconditional. God does not say, "I love you, if..." There are no "ifs" in God's heart. God's love for us does not depend on what we say or do, on our looks or intelligence, on our success or popularity. God's love for us existed before we were born and will exist after we have died. God's love is from eternity to eternity and is not bound to any time-related events or circumstances. Does that mean that God does not care what we do or say? No, because God's love wouldn't be real if God didn't care. To love without condition does not mean to love without concern. God desires to enter into relationship with us and wants us to love God in return- Bread for Life

To love without condition does not mean to love without concern. Such a profound statement. May we all feel the unconditional love of God resting upon us. May that unconditional love give us a deep peace that only can happen through knowing that we are fully accepted.

have a great weekend.

nouwen 3: an invitation

The invitation to a life of prayer is the invitation to live in the midst of this world without being caught in the net of wounds and needs. The word "prayer" stands for a radical interruption of the vicious chain of interlocking dependencies leading to violence and war and for an entering into a totally new dwelling place. It points to a new way of speaking, a new way of breathing, a new way of being together, a new way of knowing, yes, a whole new way of living.

It is not easy to express the radical change that prayer represents, since for many the word "prayer" is associated with piety, talking to God, thinking about God, morning and evening exercises, sunday services, grace before meals, sentences from the Bible, and many other things. All of these have something to do with prayer, but when i speak about prayer...I speak first of all about moving away from the dwelling place of those who hate peace into the house of God...Prayer is the center of the Christian life. It is the only necessary thing (luke 10:42). It is living with God here and now.

- Prayer and Peacemaking

Prayer... this is a hard one for me... my life has become my prayer, but prayer is more than that. I seek in this season to get to a place of deeper prayer, a place of deeper living.

henri nouwen- The road to daybreak

The Three Monks of Tolstoy

Three Russian monks lived on a faraway island. Nobody ever went there, but one day their bishop decided to make a pastoral visit. When he arrived he discoverd that the monks didn't even know the lords prayer. So he spent all his time and energy teaching them the "our father" and then left satisfied with his pastoral work. But when his ship had left the the island and was back in the open sea, he suddenly noticed he three hermits walking on the water-in fact, they were running after the ship! When they reached it they cried, "Dear Father, we have forgotten the prayer you taught us." The bishop, overwhelmed by what he was seeing and hearing said, "But, dear brothers, how then do you pray?" they answered, "Well, we just say, Dear God, there are three of us and there are three of you, have mercy on us!" The bishop, awestruck by their sanctity and simplicity, said, "Go back to your island and be at peace." ~the road to daybreak

We always believe that our way is best. May we listen more than we speak. May we see with the fullness of our beings and not simply with our eyes.

oh lord, my god and savior, jesus christ, i keep asking you to give me the grace of conversion. Day and night i hope for only one thing: that you show your mercy to me and let me experience your presence in my heart. Let me come to a genuine act of repentance, to an honest humble prayer, and to a free spontaneous generosity. I see so clearly the road to follow! i understand so well what is necessary for me to come to you. I can speak and teach eloquently about life in you. But my heart hesitates my inner and deepest self still holds back, wanting to bargain, wanting to say "yes, but..."

O lord, do i keep forgetting that you love me, that you are waiting for me with open arms? as a father with tears in his eyes, you see how your son is destroying the very life you gave him. Yet as a father you know, too, that you cannot force me to come back to you. Only when i freely come to you when i freely shake off the false cares and troubles and freely confess my false ways and freely pray for mercy, only then can you freely give me your love.

hear my prayer, o lord, hear my plea, hear my desire to return to you. do not leave me alone in my struggle, free me from bondage and save me from eternal damnation and show me the beauty of your face. Come, lord jesus, come. Amen

~ Henri Nouwen


I love in moments of speechlessness before God when there are those who have come before you and uttered the words you can not find. Thank your dear henri