There are no promises of quick fixes or permanent change in Nouwen’s work. There is no need to conquer or master ourselves in The Return of the Prodigal Son. It is more a matter of changing our perception of our imperfections...
Chapter 1: The Ideals Life, or The Abundant Life? Beauty, Truth, Life, and Love:Four Essentials for the Abundant Life by J. Brent Bill
You don't have to pray, to pray.In other words, you don’t have to do the things one normally associates with prayer to actually be connecting with God in a way that’s prayer-like. Just sit still if you like.Grieving people often...
It is a natural part of human nature to attempt to avoid places of danger and risk. This is especially true in today’s risk-averse world which encourages us to be ‘safe’, to take no risks, to avoid danger whenever and...
There’s a Celtic prayer perhaps as familiar and beloved as “May the Road Rise up to Meet You,” but most people don’t know its source. At some point, in some context, you’ve very likely heard these words sung or prayed: ...
O God, early in the morning I cry to you.Help me to prayAnd to concentrate my thoughts on you;I can’t do this alone.In me there’s darkness,But with you there’s light;I’m lonely, but you don’t leave me;I’m feeble in heart, but...
And He arose and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. —Mark 4:39 Peace, be still! Let the waves of uncertainty and fear subside. Know that I am with you, and will carry you through every...
BEYOND DOUBT “Truth!” said Pilate. “What does that mean?”—John 18:38The minute the preacher named it, I knew:Thomas was a hero, not the foil. It took gutsfor him to offer his hand to Jesus’ slitside, to poke his fingers into the...
I was named for a dead priest, my father’s uncle. Some few years after surviving the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, he got “the call.” (“Vocations follow famine,” an Irish bromide holds. No less the flu?) He went to seminary...
