The Great Journey

The Great Journey Henri J. M. Nouwen From the moment we claim the truth of being the Beloved, we are faced with the call to become who we are. Becoming the Beloved is the great spiritual journey we have to make. As long as "being the Beloved" is little more than a beautiful thought or a lofty idea..., nothing really changes. What is required is to become the Beloved in the commonplaces of my daily existence and, bit by bit, to close the gap that exists between what I know myself to be and the countless specific realities of everyday life. Source: Life of the Beloved Add your thoughts at inward/outward This message is a daily service of inward/outward. Was this message forwarded to you? Click here to sign up. No longer interested in receiving these readings? Click here to unsubscribe. Having trouble unsubscribing? Email Church of the Saviour Office: churchofthesaviour.office@gmail.com

Daily Meditation: Jesus' Loneliness

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Tuesday July 31, 2012        Jesus' Loneliness   When Jesus came close to his death, he no longer could experience God's presence.  He cried out:  "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  (Matthew 27:47).  Still in love he held on to the truth that God was with him and said:  "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit"  (Luke 23:46).   The loneliness of the cross led Jesus to the resurrection.  As we grow older we are often invited by Jesus to follow him into this loneliness, the loneliness in which God is too close to be experienced by our limited hearts and minds.  When this happens, let us pray for the grace to surrender our spirits to God as Jesus did.     Comment on this Daily Meditation.   Visit our website for inspiration, resources, news, events, community. Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.

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News from the Henri Nouwen Society

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This is classic Nouwen - you can hear the whisper that you are beloved and the gentle invitation to do something small and beautiful for God in the world. - Shane Claiborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution   I always knew I was in the presence of a spiritual master when I was with Henri Nouwen. Here are some simple, wise words that will allow the master to continue to teach.   - Richard Rohr, O.F.M., author of Everything Belongs   Dr. Michael Christensen at the Henri J.M. Nouwen Archives and Research Collection at the University of St. Michael's College, Toronto, working on the third and final book in the series, Spiritual Discernment, due for release in 2013.         Jessica Barr, Archives Assistant and Dr. Michael Christensen        Photo Credits  Henri Nouwen by Kevin Dwyer   Photos taken in the Nouwen Archives by M. Wright  Reflect and Connect  Subscribe to free Nouwen Daily Meditations.   Online book discussions: We will reflect on Creative Ministry during Advent. Please join us!  Spiritual Formation  Following the Movements of the Spiritual Life by Henri J.M. Nouwen with Michael Christensen and Rebecca Laird Dear Charles, Henri Nouwen, the world-renowned spiritual guide and counselor, understood the spiritual life as a journey of faith and transformation that is deepened by accountability, community, and relationships. Though he counseled many people during his lifetime, his principles of spiritual formation were never written down. Michael Christensen and Rebecca Laird have taken his famous course at Yale and Harvard in spiritual formation and supplemented it with his unpublished writings to create the definitive series on Nouwen's thoughts on the Christian life.    The first in the series, Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith was released by Harper SanFrancisco in 2006. The second in the series, Spiritual Formation: Following the Movements of the Spirit, is now available. Spiritual Formation showcases Nouwen's life-long effort to re-construct the five classical stages of spiritual development as movements in the journey of faith. The five classical stages are these: 1. Awakening (our desire) 2. Purgation (purifying our passions) 3. Illumination (of God) 4. Dark Night (of the Soul) 5. Unification (with God) Readings, stories, questions for personal reflection, and guided journal inquiry as articulated by Nouwen will provide readers with an experience in spiritual formation with the well-known author, priest, and guide.  Spiritual Formation also features a unique visio divina (praying with sacred images) to help focus our prayers. All of Henri Nouwen's books can be purchased at www.HenriNouwen.org. nl     Author and Editors   HENRI J. M. NOUWEN (1932-1996) authored Bread for the Journey, With Open Hands, Reaching Out, The Wounded Healer, Making All Things New, and many other bestsellers. He taught at Harvard, Yale, and Notre Dame universities before becoming the senior pastor of L'Arche Daybreak in Richmond Hill (north of Toronto, Canada), a community where men and women with intellectual disabilities and their assistants create a home for one another. MICHAEL J. CHRISTENSEN, PH.D., is national director of Communities of Shalom at Drew University, where he teaches spirituality and practical theology. He studied with Henri Nouwen at Yale Divinity School. REBECCA LAIRD, M.A., D. MIN., is the associate professor of Christian ministry at Point Loma Nazarene University where she teaches spiritual formation and Christian ministry. Blessings on your summer! May it be a time of rest and renewal, peace and harmony.    Maureen Wright, Resource Coordinator Henri Nouwen Society admin@henrinouwen.org 1-866-226-2158 (toll free)

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A Piece of the Puzzle

A Piece of the Puzzle Anne Wilson Schaef I imagine the universe as an enormous puzzle. Each of us is a unique and vital piece of that puzzle. No one else has our genes, our life experience; no one is us. We are unique! When we are fully ourselves we are that piece. In an Addictive System, we are trained not to be ourselves. We lose touch with ourselves. We reference ourselves externally. We deny who we are. This leaves a hole in the puzzle and a hole in the universe that no one else can fill. Source: When Society Becomes an Addict Add your thoughts at inward/outward This message is a daily service of inward/outward. Was this message forwarded to you? Click here to sign up. No longer interested in receiving these readings? Click here to unsubscribe. Having trouble unsubscribing? Email Church of the Saviour Office: churchofthesaviour.office@gmail.com

Daily Meditation: Two Kinds of Loneliness

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Monday July 30, 2012       Two Kinds of Loneliness   In the spiritual life we have to make a distinction between two kinds of loneliness.  In the first loneliness, we are out of touch with God and experience ourselves as anxiously looking for someone or something that can give us a sense of belonging, intimacy, and home.  The second loneliness comes from an intimacy with God that is deeper and greater than our feelings and thoughts can capture.      We might think of these two kinds of loneliness as two forms of blindness.  The first blindness comes from the absence of light, the second from too much light.   The first loneliness we must try to outgrow with faith and hope. The second  we must be willing to embrace in love.     Comment on this Daily Meditation.   Visit our website for inspiration, resources, news, events, community. Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.

Forward this Daily Meditation to a friend! This email was sent to cbgamb@gmail.com, by email_lists@henrinouwen.org Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. Henri Nouwen Society | PO Box 220522 | St. Louis | MO | 63122 | USA Henri Nouwen Society | John M. Kelly Library, 3rd Fl. | 113 St. Joseph Street | Toronto | ON | M5S 1J4 | Canada

Daily Meditation: Spiritual Dryness

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Sunday July 29, 2012      Spiritual Dryness   Sometimes we experience a terrible dryness in our spiritual life.  We feel no desire to pray, don't experience God's presence, get bored with worship services, and even think that everything we ever believed about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is little more than a childhood fairy tale.      Then it is important to realise that most of these feelings and thoughts are just feelings and thoughts, and that the Spirit of God dwells beyond our feelings and thoughts.  It is a great grace to be able to experience God's presence in our feelings and thoughts, but when we don't, it does not mean that God is absent.  It often means that God is calling us to a greater faithfulness.  It is precisely in times of spiritual dryness that we must hold on to our spiritual discipline so that we can grow into new intimacy with God.     Comment on this Daily Meditation.   Visit our website for inspiration, resources, news, events, community. Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.

Forward this Daily Meditation to a friend! This email was sent to cbgamb@gmail.com, by email_lists@henrinouwen.org Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. Henri Nouwen Society | PO Box 220522 | St. Louis | MO | 63122 | USA Henri Nouwen Society | John M. Kelly Library, 3rd Fl. | 113 St. Joseph Street | Toronto | ON | M5S 1J4 | Canada

In Need of a Transfusion

In Need of a Transfusion Madeleine L'Engle It is only when we know ourselves wounded, know that we have lost blood, that we are aware that we need a transfusion.... The transfusion is for someone who has experienced the warning wonder of pain, and the acceptance of the loss of blood, either physically or spiritually. There are days when I go to the altar and I am less aware of my need for a transfusion than I am on other days. That is all right. But I am always aware that I am tapping into the source of a tremendous power of love. It is not a magic power. As far as I am concerned the experts can worry about words such as transubstantiation. When you need a blood transfusion you don't worry about things like that. The transfusion of love is not always a comfortable one, because such love may push me into letting go some cozy ideas, push me into a new way of looking at God, and therefore at myself. What am I looking for? Sometimes God opens my eyes so that I see something totally unexpected, something which may cause pain and loss. And then I need to be transfused. This is always a reminder that God loves us, just as we are. We don't have to perfect ourselves by adherence to the letter of the law.... Jesus was not shocked by the woman who was ritually unclean, or the man who collected taxes for the Romans, or even the woman taken in adultery. But he was shocked and grieved by hardness of heart. We are blessed, indeed, to be able to feel pain, our body's warning system that something is wrong, and that we need help. Source: A Stone for a Pillow Read more and add your thoughts at inward/outward This message is a daily service of inward/outward. Was this message forwarded to you? Click here to sign up. No longer interested in receiving these readings? Click here to unsubscribe. Having trouble unsubscribing? Email Church of the Saviour Office: churchofthesaviour.office@gmail.com

Daily Meditation: Putting Our Temperaments in the Service of God

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Saturday July 28, 2012     Putting Our Temperaments in the Service of God   Our temperaments - whether flamboyant, phlegmatic, introverted, or extroverted - are quite permanent fixtures of our personalities.  Still, the way we "use" our temperaments on a daily basis can vary greatly.  When we are attentive to the Spirit of God within us, we will gradually learn to put our temperaments in the service of a virtuous life.  Then flamboyancy gives great zeal for the Kingdom, phlegmatism helps to keep an even keel in times of crisis, introversion deepens the contemplative side, and extroversion encourages creative ministry.   Let's live with our temperaments as with gifts that help us deepen our spiritual lives.     Comment on this Daily Meditation.   Visit our website for inspiration, resources, news, events, community. Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.

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Bethsaida

Bethsaida Nancy Compton Williams Step into the troubled waters the angel left for you-- the trembling unknown, the unchartered depth. The body descending blurs in the refraction of sacred Light. Source: The Penwood Review Add your thoughts at inward/outward This message is a daily service of inward/outward. Was this message forwarded to you? Click here to sign up. No longer interested in receiving these readings? Click here to unsubscribe. Having trouble unsubscribing? Email Church of the Saviour Office: churchofthesaviour.office@gmail.com

Daily Meditation: A Window on Our Spiritual Lives

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Friday July 27, 2012     A Window on Our Spiritual Lives   Even though our emotional and spiritual lives are distinct, they do influence one another profoundly.  Our feelings often give us a window on our spiritual journeys.  When we cannot let go of jealousy, we may wonder if we are in touch with the Spirit in us that cries out "Abba."  When we feel very peaceful and "centered," we may come to realise that this is a sign of our deep awareness of our belovedness.   Likewise our prayer lives, lived as faithful response to the presence of the Spirit within us, may open a window on our emotions, feelings, and passions and give us some indication of how to put them into the service of our long journey into the heart of God.     Comment on this Daily Meditation.   Visit our website for inspiration, resources, news, events, community. Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.

Forward this Daily Meditation to a friend! This email was sent to cbgamb@gmail.com, by email_lists@henrinouwen.org Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. Henri Nouwen Society | PO Box 220522 | St. Louis | MO | 63122 | USA Henri Nouwen Society | John M. Kelly Library, 3rd Fl. | 113 St. Joseph Street | Toronto | ON | M5S 1J4 | Canada

Daily Meditation: The Dynamics of the Spiritual Life

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Thursday July 26, 2012    The Dynamics of the Spiritual Life   Our emotional lives and our spiritual lives have different dynamics.  The ups and downs of our emotional life depend a great deal on our past or present surroundings.  We are happy, sad, angry, bored, excited, depressed, loving, caring, hateful, or vengeful because of what happened long ago or what is happening now.   The ups and downs of our spiritual lives depend on our obedience - that is, our attentive listening - to the movements of the Spirit of God within us.  Without this listening our spiritual life eventually becomes subject to the windswept waves of our emotions.     Comment on this Daily Meditation.   Visit our website for inspiration, resources, news, events, community. Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.

Forward this Daily Meditation to a friend! This email was sent to cbgamb@gmail.com, by email_lists@henrinouwen.org Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. Henri Nouwen Society | PO Box 220522 | St. Louis | MO | 63122 | USA Henri Nouwen Society | John M. Kelly Library, 3rd Fl. | 113 St. Joseph Street | Toronto | ON | M5S 1J4 | Canada