Through prayer we can carry in our heart all human pain and sorrow, all conflicts and agonies, all torture and war, all hunger, loneliness and misery, not because of some great psychological or emotional capacity, but because God's heart has become one with ours.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the power of prayer to connect us with the suffering of humanity through a shared divine compassion.
Henri Nouwen's quote reflects on the profound impact of prayer, suggesting that through this spiritual practice, individuals can empathize with the pain and struggles faced by humanity. It articulates the idea that our hearts can resonate with the collective suffering—such as war, hunger, and loneliness—not due to our own emotional strength, but because our hearts are united with God's, allowing us to share in and bear the weight of these tribulations together.
In practice
In a conference on spirituality, one might use this quote to inspire a discussion on the role of prayer in connecting with human suffering.
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 – for us. And calling us to share in God’s 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.
We are asleep. Our Life is a dream. But we wake up sometimes, just enough to know that we are dreaming.
Debt, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slavedriver.
Money's a horrid thing to follow, but a charming thing to meet.
It’s not bad people I fear so much as good people. When a person is sure that he is good, he is nearly hopeless; he gets cruel- he believes in punishment.
I am stealing the golden vessels of the Egyptians to build a tabernacle to my God from them, far far away from the boundaries of Egypt. If you forgive me, I shall rejoice; if you are enraged with me, I shall bear it. See, I cast the die, and I write the book. Whether it is to be read by the people of the present or of the future makes no difference: let it await its reader for a hundred years, if God himself has stood ready for six thousand years for one to study him.
To live as one likes is plebian the noble man aspires to order and law.
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