Too many of us are lonely ministers practicing a lonely ministry.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the solitude experienced by individuals in roles of service, suggesting that many feel isolated despite their efforts to connect with others.
Henri Nouwen highlights the paradox of loneliness among those who are dedicated to helping others, particularly ministers and caregivers. Despite their roles designed for connection and community engagement, they may find themselves feeling isolated in their mission, revealing the importance of genuine human connection even in vocations centered on service. This quote calls attention to the emotional aspects of ministry and the need for ministers to reach out and form authentic relationships to avoid loneliness.
In practice
In a sermon about community support, you might say, 'As Henri Nouwen pointed out, too many of us are lonely ministers practicing a lonely ministry.'
The Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. God loves us, not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love.
The immense joy in welcoming back the lost son hides in the immense sorrow that has gone before....our brokenness may appear beautiful, but our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it.
Suffering invites us to place our hurts in larger hands. In Christ we see God suffering β for us. And calling us to share in Godβs suffering love for a hurting world. The small and even overpowering pains of our lives are intimately connected with the greater pains of Christ. Our daily sorrows are anchored in a greater sorrow and therefore a larger hope.
To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, welcome, to accept.
Waiting is a dry desert between where we are and where we want to be. (Finding My Way Home)
Becoming the beloved is pulling the truth revealed to me from above down into the ordinariness of what I am, in fact, thinking of, talking about and doing from hour to hour.
How true, how true" said the Sour Kangaroo, "And from now on, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm going to protect them with you!" And the Young Kangaroo in her pouch said "Me too!
While the primary function of formal Buddhist meditation is to create the possibility of the experience of "being," my work as a therapist has shown me that the demands of intimate life can be just as useful as meditation in moving people toward this capacity. Just as in formal meditation, intimate relationships teach us that the more we relate to each other as objects, the greater our disappointment. The trick, as in meditation, is to use this disappointment to change the way we relate.
The very ingredients that nurture love - mutuality, reciprocity, protection, worry, responsibility for the other - are sometimes the very ingredients that stifle desire.
The truest mark of your success in life will be the quality of your marriage
God is more interested in your future and your relationships than you are.
My dear fellow, the truth isnβt quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl. What extraordinary ideas you have about the way to behave to a woman!
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