Monday, December 18, 2023

Nouwen Meditation: Choosing Life

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In 1995, Brian Stiller hosted the weekly television series Cross Currents, and recorded an exclusive interview with Henri Nouwen at his L’Arche Daybreak home. The uncut conversation in video form has never been made available  until now! We are thrilled to feature part one of this intimate and inspiring interview as our Christmas gift to you!


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DAILY MEDITATION | DECEMBER 18, 2023

Choosing Life

In the first reading of the Eucharist today I heard: “I am offering you life or death. . . . Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live in the love of Yahweh, your God, obeying his voice, holding fast to him” (Deuteronomy 30:19–20).


How do I choose life? I am becoming aware that there are few moments without the opportunity to choose, since death and life are always before me. One aspect of choosing life is choosing joy. Joy is life-giving but sadness brings death. A sad heart is a heart in which something is dying. A joyful heart is a heart in which something new is being born.



I think that joy is much more than a mood. A mood invades us. We do not choose a mood. We often find ourselves in a happy or depressed mood without knowing where it comes from. The spiritual life is a life beyond moods. It is a life in which we choose joy and do not allow ourselves to become victims of passing feelings of happiness or depression.

Henri J. M. Nouwen
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You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.


PSALM 4:7 (NIV)

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Text excerpts taken from "You are the Beloved"

by Henri J.M. Nouwen

© 2017 by The Henri Nouwen Legacy Trust.

Published by Convergent Books.

Photo from shutterstock.com.

Scripture reading contributed by L. Yeskoo.


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