Thoughts on patience

 

God's Patience

Humans do not have the patience or the humility of God. We want things done as fast as possible to achieve our immediate goals. Spiritual power, however, is the ability to influence events and others through our very being. Evolved people change others interiorly through who they are, and through their sharing of wisdom, rather than through mere external pressure. It is a slower process, but much more long-lasting.

— from the book Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality by Richard Rohr, OFM

Thoughts on being vs doing

 

Let God Gaze at You

We really are socially contagious human beings, but we settle for “human doings.” It is at the being level that life is most vitally transferred. It’s no surprise that we Catholics speak of Eucharist as the “Real Presence.” It is on that level that life and energy are transferred. That’s what has happened to each of us when we first fall in love—and that’s why falling in love is so exciting. Suddenly, the very eyes of the other receiving me, delighting in me, enjoying me, and looking at me—make me feel like me, and my best me! For believers, that is also what happens when they apprehend the Real Presence in the Eucharist. We move to a deeper level of Being ourselves when we genuinely receive the being and the gaze of the self-giving Jesus. It reminds me of what they told me in some Hindu temples in India: “You come here not to gaze at God, but to let God gaze at you.”

— from the book Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality by Richard Rohr, OFM

Thoughts on writing

 

Writing Reveals What is Alive in Us

Writing is a process in which we discover what lives in us. The writing itself reveals to us what is alive in us. The deepest satisfaction of writing is precisely that it opens up new spaces within us of which we were not aware before we started to write. To write is to embark on a journey whose final destination we do not know. Thus, writing requires a real act of trust. We have to say to ourselves: “I do not yet know what I carry in my heart, but I trust that it will emerge as I write.” Writing is like giving away the few loaves and fishes one has, trusting that they will multiply in the giving. Once we dare to “give away” on paper the few thoughts that come to us, we start discovering how much is hidden underneath these thoughts and gradually come in touch with our own riches. Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on poverty

 

God Shines Through Others

When we allow others to do things for us, God’s goodness shines through them. Poverty is not so much about want or need; it is about relationship. Poverty impels us to reflect on our lives in the world from the position of weakness, dependency and vulnerability. It impels us to empty our pockets—not of money— but the pockets of our hearts, minds, wills—those places where we store up things for ourselves and isolate ourselves from real relationship with others. Poverty calls us to be vulnerable, open and receptive to others, to allow others into our lives and to be free enough to enter into the lives of others. While Clare calls us to be poor so that we may enter into relationship with the poor Christ, they also ask us to be poor so as to enter into relationship with our poor brothers and sisters in whom Christ lives.

— from the book Clare of Assisi: A Heart Full of Love by Ilia Delio, OSF

Thoughts on pain

 

God Is Good, Even When You’re in Pain

By Rick Warren — 08/11/2021

“‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the LORD. ‘And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.’" Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT) There probably have been many times that you’ve prayed for something, and God didn’t answer the way you wanted, or you feel like he didn’t answer at all. Does that mean prayer doesn’t work? No—because you’ve seen it work too many times. Does it mean that God isn’t good? No, God is good, whether you’re in pain or not. Does it mean that you should give up on prayer? No! God is not a vending machine, and prayer is not a painkiller. He has not guaranteed us a pain-free life. When you’re in pain and you pray but don’t see the answers, don’t give up. Your job is to keep praying and keep trusting God, because you know that everything he does and allows in your life, he will use for good. God is a good, good Father, even when you’re in pain. If a doctor cuts you open during surgery, that’s going to cause some pain. But if that surgery saves your life, you wouldn’t say the doctor was bad; you’d recognize that the painful work saved your life. When God doesn’t immediately end your pain, he is saying to you in that moment, “This pain may feel like too much. But my grace is sufficient for you.” I’ve had a lot of pain in my life. And, in fact, almost everything I’ve learned in life, I’ve learned through pain. That’s because God is more interested in making me a man of character than he is in making me comfortable. God is more interested in making you a man or woman of character than he is in making you comfortable. If you never had any pain or difficulty in your life, you would never grow to maturity. You don’t know God is all you need until God is all you’ve got. “‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the LORD. ‘And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT). God wants good for your life, even more than you do. Will you trust him?

Thoughts on solitude

 

Witnesses to the Light

Solitude molds self-righteous people into gentle, caring, forgiving persons who are so deeply convinced of their own great sinfulness and so fully aware of God’s even greater mercy that their life itself becomes ministry. In such a ministry there is hardly any difference left between doing and being. When we are filled with God’s merciful presence, we can do nothing other than minister because our whole being witnesses to the light that has come into the darkness. Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on success

 

We Are Called To Be Fruitful

You have to be really aware of the difference between fruitfulness and success because the world is always talking to you about your success. Society keeps asking you: “Show me your trophies. Show me, how many books have you written? Show me, how many games did you win? Show me, how much money did you make? Show me. . . .” And there is nothing wrong with any of that. I am saying that finally that’s not the question. The question is: “Are you going to bear fruit?” And the amazing thing is that our fruitfulness comes out of our vulnerability and not just out of our power. Actually it comes out of our powerlessness. If the ground wants to be fruitful, you have to break it open a little bit. The hard ground cannot bear fruit; it has to be raked open. And the mystery is that our illness and our weakness and our many ways of dying are often the ways that we get in touch with our vulnerabilities. You and I have to trust that they will allow us to be more fruitful if lived faithfully. Precisely where we are weakest and often most broken and most needy, precisely there can be the ground of our fruitfulness. That is the vision that means that death can indeed be the final healing—because it becomes the way to be so vulnerable that we can bear fruit in a whole new way. Like trees that die and become fuel, and like leaves that die and become fertilizer, in nature something new comes out from death all the time. So you have to realize that you are part of that beautiful process, that your death is not the end but in fact it is the source of your fruitfulness beyond you in new generations, in new centuries. Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on reaching out

 

Looking in the Wrong Direction

At times reaching out for God can be something like searching for your own identity: It is futile and self-defeating. In both cases it is better to reach out to other people and serve their needs. In so doing you will find God if you are seeking God, and you will find yourself as well. Those who are forgetful of themselves are inevitably the ones we most admire and love. They are in possession of themselves and we know it. And yet we perversely seek for God where we are least ourselves, in our own self-centeredness.

— from the book Song of the Sparrow: New Poems and Meditations by Murray Bodo, OFM

Thoughts on your inner hermitage

 

Your Inner Hermitage

Try to keep a little hermitage in the center of your being, where you can continue your prayer even during a busy day. A simple prayer such as “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner” can give you much consolation and strength when you allow it to remain present in your inner hermitage. It is the way to let the Spirit of God pray in you. Henri Nouwen