Thoughts on work

 

Tending to Our Work

Jesus, the hardworking carpenter, took labor seriously. So did Paul, who was proud to be able to support himself through his trade as a tentmaker. St. Benedict wrote in chapter forty-eight of his Rule that “there should be specified periods for manual labor as well as for prayerful reading” and that “when they live by the labor of their hands, as our fathers and the apostles did, then they are really monks.” Even St. Francis, the humble beggar, heard his call from God as a call to manual labor: to repair the crumbling church of San Damiano and two other small churches in the Umbrian countryside. Far from being a punishment for transgression, work is an essential part of the human vocation, part of what it means to be incarnated with material needs in a material world. Our calling is to find ways to work that align with the person we want to be and the world we want to see.

— from the book Making Room: Soul-Deep Satisfaction through Simple Living
by Kyle Kramer

Thoughts on children

 

Our Love for Our Children

We care for our children because we love them. We care for our children because in our love for them, we realize that they are unique, amazing creatures— even our identical twin daughters, who had different personalities right from the start. We care for our children because in the eyes of our love, they are beautiful, inside and out. We care for our children because in our love for them, we wonder at the people they are, and we hope for the people they are becoming. We care for our children even though they may break our heart—and in each breaking, our heart grows larger and more capable of care. Our love creates and preserves the best in them and the best in us.

— from the book Making Room: Soul-Deep Satisfaction through Simple Living
by Kyle Kramer

Thoughts on letting go

 

Why Do We Need to Let Go?

Jesus didn’t promise his early disciples a life of luxury and ease. Instead, he told them they would have to let go of pretty much everything in order to follow him. The early monastics pared their life down to the barest of essentials out in the deserts of Egypt and Syria. Beloved St. Francis of Assisi let go of his prospects as a middle-class Italian cloth merchant and pledged his allegiance to Lady Poverty instead. Why? Why does letting go seem to be such a necessary element in the equation of transformational spirituality? One answer is as simple as it is painful: because if life inevitably entails loss, and if true spirituality is about fully embracing the (often messy) reality of life, then any authentic spiritual path must make room for loss. Otherwise, spirituality really is just an opiate for the masses or a form of bypass, leading us away from life’s mystery rather than into the heart of it. 

— from the book Making Room: Soul-Deep Satisfaction through Simple Living
by Kyle Kramer

Thoughts on acceptance

 

God’s Acceptance of Us is Unlimited

Our true challenge is to return to the center, to the heart, and to find there the gentle voice that speaks to us and affirms us in a way no human voice ever could. The basis of all ministry is the experience of God’s unlimited and unlimiting acceptance of us as beloved children, an acceptance so full, so total and all-embracing, that it sets us free from our compulsion to be seen, praised, and admired and frees us for Christ, who leads us on the road of service. This experience of God’s acceptance frees us from our needy self and thus creates new space where we can pay selfless attention to others. This new freedom in Christ allows us to move in the world uninhibited by our compulsions and to act creatively even when we are laughed at and rejected, even when our words and actions lead us to death. Henri Nouwen

More thoughts on joy

 

God’s Joy

Celebration belongs to God’s Kingdom. God not only offers forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing, but wants to lift up these gifts as a source of joy for all who witness them. In all three of the parables that Jesus tells to explain why he eats with sinners, God rejoices and invites others to rejoice with him. “Rejoice with me,” the shepherd says, “I have found my sheep that was lost.” “Rejoice with me,” the woman says, “I have found the drachma I lost.” “Rejoice with me,” the father says, “this son of mine was lost and is found.” All these voices are the voices of God. God does not want to keep his joy to himself. He wants everyone to share in it. God’s joy is the joy of his angels and his saints; it is the joy of all who belong to the Kingdom. Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on celebrations

 

Celebrate in the Present

Celebrating is first of all the full affirmation of our present condition. We say with full consciousness: we are, we are here, we are now, and let it be that way. We can only really celebrate when we are present in the present. If anything has become clear, it is that we have to a large extent lost the capability to live in the present. Many so-called celebrations are not much more than a painful moment between bothersome preparations and boring after-talks. We can only celebrate if there is something present that can be celebrated. We cannot celebrate Christmas when there is nothing new born here and now; we cannot celebrate Easter when no new life becomes visible; we cannot celebrate Pentecost when there is no Spirit whatsoever to celebrate. Celebration is the recognition that something is there and needs to be made visible so that we can all say yes to it. Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on joy

 

Joy

Joy is essential to the spiritual life. Whatever we may think of or say about God, when we are not joyful, our thoughts and words cannot bear fruit. Jesus reveals to us God’s love so that his joy may become ours and that our joy may become complete. Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing—sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death—can take that love away. Joy is not the same as happiness. We can be unhappy about many things, but joy can still be there because it comes from the knowledge of God’s love for us. . . . 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. Henri Nouwen