When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Road to Daybreak: A Spiritual Journey
Broken People
God isn’t looking for brilliant men and women, nor is he depending upon eloquent men or women, nor is he determined to use only talented Christians in sending His Gospel out into the world. God is looking for broken people, for those who have judged themselves in the light of the cross of Christ. When He wants anything done, He takes up men and women who have come to an end of themselves, and whose trust and confidence is not in themselves but in God. H. A. Ironside (1876-1951)
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. (p.26)
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal…. But it is with immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbor, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ… is truly hidden. (p.46)
The Venerable Bede
Christ is the morningstar who when the night of this world is past, brings to his saints the promise of the light of life and opens everlasting day. The Venerable Bede in 1128, Apocalypsum on the wall of the Galilee Chapel, Durham Cathedral
Psalm 84
How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young—a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion. Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty; listen to me, God of Jacob. Look on our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one. Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Lord Almighty, blessed are those who trust in you. As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
John Knox
August 2 we visited John Knox's house in Edinburgh. It is believed he lived in this house for a few months and may have died here. Some believe it was claimed to be his home so that it could be kept as a historical site. Either way it is a meaningful memorial to a man who made a lasting difference in religion, politics and society. There was great division and bloodshed in the 16th century over his ideas; it's sad to think about now looking back. Many aspects of his theology are still argued over, others we take for granted. On the walls were plaques with paragraphs that described the impact of his life (italics) and some of his quotes:
The Protestant Reformers had ambitious plans for education. Each church was to have a primary or elementary school. Each town would have a schoolmaster "as is able at least to teach Grammar and the Latin tongue." The universities were to be reorganized and "replenished with those that are apt to learn."
Seeing that God hath determined that His church here on earth shall be taught not by angels but by men, it is necessary to be most careful for the virtuous education and godly upbringing of the youth of this realm. John Knox
The Reformers attacked oppression of the poor by the landed aristocracy and the Church. A system of poor relief was proposed for those unable to work or care for themselves, but vagrancy and begging, both rife in Scotland, were punished. "Every serval kirk," states the first book of discipline, "must provide for the poor within itself, for foul and horrible it is that the poor are universally so condemned and despised. We are not patrons for stubborn and idale beggars who running from place to place make a craft of their begging. Them the civil magistrate ought to punish. But God commands his people to be careful for the widow and fatherless, the aged, impotent or lamed, who neither can nor may travail for their substance."
In the name of the eternal God and of His son Christ Jesus have respect to your poor brethren, the labourers and manurers of the ground. These have been so oppressed that their living has been dolorous and bitter. Ye must have compassion upon your brethren. John Knox
In 1560 the Scottish Parliament rejected the authority of the Pope over the Scottish Church. Parliament also approved the Protestant "Scots Confession" as a national statement of belief. The Scots Confession put the authority of the Bible before that of the Church. Through the "Word of God" people should experience directly "God's free grace and mercy offered unto the penitent in Christ Jesus."
Let Christ's evangel be truly and openly preached in every kirk and assembly of this realm, and let all doctrine repugnant to the same be utterly suppressed. John Knox
John Knox died in Edinburgh on 24th November 1572 as the siege of Edinburgh Castle was entering its last phase. Although he lived to see the Protestant religion established in Scotland, Knox's vision of a reformed society was not carried through. The nobility that supported the revolution of 1560 believed the Protestant Church should be subordinate to the monarchy and to parliament. They refused to endorse Knox's "First Book of Discipline." Knox regarded this as hypocrisy and as a "treacherous defection. Two-thirds of the Catholic Church's wealth was retained by the former clergy and the nobility, and the remaining third was divided between the Queen and the new Church. Know described this settlement as "two parts freely given to the devil, and the third divided between God and the devil." In the long run many of John Knox's ideas were taken up, though in changed historical circumstances. This has led to numerous misunderstandings about Knox's own life and ideas. No one in Scottish history has received so much hero-worship and so much denigration as John Knox.
And so I end. Rendering my troubled and sorrowful spirit in the hands of the Eternal God earnestly trusting at His good pleasure to be freed from the cares of this miserable life and to rest with Christ Jesus my only hope and life. John Knox
From ‘the community for myself’ to ‘myself for the community’
A community is only truly a body when the majority of its members is making the transition from 'the community for myself' to 'myself for the community', when each person's heart is opening to all the others, without any exception. This is the movement from egoism to love, from death to resurrection; it is the Easter, a passage, the Passover of the Lord. It is also the passing from a land of slavery to a promised land, the land of inner freedom.
A community isn't just a place where people live under the same roof; that is a lodging house or a hotel. Nor is a community a work-team. Even less is it a nest of vipers! It is a place where everyone – or, let's be realistic, the majority! – is emerging from the shadows of egocentricity to the light of a real love.
Love is neither sentimental nor a passing emotion. It is the recognition of a covenant, of a mutual belonging. It is listening to others, being concerned for them and feeling empathy with them. It is to see their beauty and to reveal it to them.
Jean Vanier, Growth and Community
Jean Vanier is the founder of the world famous l'Arche community for the mentally handicapped adults and their helpers made famous by Henri Nouwen's writings.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)