“I think we need to see how much painful it is to start acting responsible.”
“In solitude we discover that our life is not a possession to be defended, but a gift to be shared.”
Henri Nouwen “Out of Solitude”
‘We can’t go around measuring our goodness by what we don’t do, by what we deny ourselves, by what we resist and who we exclude; I think we got to measure goodness by what we embrace, by what we create, and who we include.’
The Father from the movie Chocolate (2000)
I have waged this war against myself for many years.
It was terrible.
But now I am disarmed.
I am no longer frightened of anything
because love banishes fear.
I am disarmed of the need to be right
and to justify myself by disqualifying others.
I am no longer on the defensive
holding onto my riches.
I just want to welcome and to share.
I don’t hold onto my ideas and projects.
If someone shows me something better –
No, I shouldn’t say better but good –
I accept them without any regrets.
I no longer seek to compare.
What is good, true and real is always for me the best.
That is why I have no fear.
When we are disarmed and dispossessed of self
If we open our hearts to the God-Man
who makes all things new
then He takes away past hurts
and reveals a new time
where everything is possible.
Patriarch Athenagoras of Costantinople from ¨Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John, 2004¨ for Jean Vanier
I hope I can make these words my own…
