Have you been there, where you don’t feel the emotions? I think that is where we live most of our relationships. It’s not like I go through every moment of every day overcome with love for my wife, but I love her all the same. So the feeling is a consolation. It is wonderful when it is there, but it doesn’t have to be for love to be a reality.
The Great Commandment is Love the Lord your God with all…. And love your neighbor as yourself. The love of self entails soul-care and psychology – delving into ourselves on the road of imperfection to wholeness. The love of God implies theology and prayer and the love of neighbor service and ministry. All three are bound up in our spirituality. They all inform and change each other. Growth in one area will aid growth in another.
There is also an aspect of love that has been impressed on me since my silent retreat in October when I spent time experimenting with centering prayer. Love can be exercised. I felt something new in focusing my love on God. I felt like my love, my heart wasn’t big enough – that love would have to be exercised. I have since noticed the same thing toward others: my wife, children, and neighbors. There is hope in the darkness when the sense of love is absent. Like any atrophied muscle it can be exercised. I think Nouwen offers essential ways to grow in love. In Reaching Out
, he talks about movement from illusion to prayer, loneliness to solitude, and hostility to hospitality.
, he talks about movement from illusion to prayer, loneliness to solitude, and hostility to hospitality. Disciplines like prayer where I can meet with God and my subconscious and find healing, or solitude where I can shed my false isolation from loving community, build me up. They integrate into a whole life that effervesces with ministry.
Michael Ford 
talks about how ministry followed Nouwen. He didn’t go off looking for ministry, but people were drawn to him. When immersed in ministry when he should have been resting, Nouwen claims:
talks about how ministry followed Nouwen. He didn’t go off looking for ministry, but people were drawn to him. When immersed in ministry when he should have been resting, Nouwen claims:Ministry happens. I have done nothing here while on sabbatical to do ministry. I didn’t come here to get people who mostly don’t go to church to join me in prayer and the Eucharist. I just started to pray and invited one person to join me, and these others—neighbors and friends—simply came (198).
Great thoughts. I can definitely be stretched and encouraged by them.
ReplyDeleteThis last week we on campus we discussed how the Latin origin of the word Passion, "Passio" means suffering and was first used to reference the last week of Jesus' life. Oh how the use of the word has changed.
It's easy for a person they are passionate about something because they enjoy a rush of intense emotion when they interact with it. I'm more impressed by a person who has such deep love and devotion toward another person or object that they are willing to endure suffering for them or it.
to say. Bummer that there is no edit on comment.
ReplyDeleteGood word - especially in light of the season.
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