Today’s post is a response to the section in the book titled “Nurtured by Short Prayers”. Where did I get the idea that I need to pray many words? I could try to blame the psalms, but until recently I’d never tried praying the psalms. It probably comes from all the emphasis on our need…
The Prayer of the Heart
I think this is the core of what Nouwen wants his readers to consider. He wants to encourage us to develop a new practice, a new way of praying. We know how to pray with our minds and we do it often. The argument of this section is that we do not know how to…
The Prayer of the Mind
I was raised in a church tradition that emphasized the intellectual aspect of faith. Emotions were scary and uncontrollable and we connected heart with emotions, so avoided discussion of the heart. The dominating idea has been that everything can be understood and that what can be understood can be controlled. – The Way of the…
Prayer
But solitude and silence are for prayer. … They did not think of silence as not speaking, but as listening to God. – The Way of the Heart by Henri Nouwen (page 53) Everything we’ve looked at up to this point has been leading to this. Unfortunately, Nouwen makes his case for this from something…
Silence Concluded
The final question concerning our ministry of silence is not whether we say much or little, but whether our words call forth the caring silence of God himself. It is to this silence that we all are called: words are the instrument of the present world, but silence is the mystery of the future world….
Silence and Organizing
Abba Poemen said: “A man may seem to be silent, but if his heart is condemning others he is babbling ceaselessly. But there may be another who talks from morning till night and yet he is truly silent.” – The Way of the Heart by Henri Nouwen (page 47) I missed something in my first…
Silence and Counseling
When a word from Scripture is spoken by a counselor at that particular moment when the parishioner is able to hear it, it can indeed shatter huge walls of fear and open up unexpected perspectives. – The Way of the Heart by Henri Nouwen We all counsel. Someone asks for advice and we provide it….
Silence and Preaching
This seems like an oxymoron. How do silence and preaching go together? If it is true that the word of Scripture should lead us into the silence of God, then we must be careful to use that word not simply as an interesting or motivating word, but as a word that creates the boundaries within…
Anxiety
But isn’t the whole purpose of all ministry to reveal that God is not a God of fear but a God of love? And couldn’t this be accomplished by gently and carefully converting the empty silence into a full silence, the anxious silence into a peaceful silence, and the restless silence into a restful silence,…
Create
Words can only create communion and thus new life when they embody the silence from which they emerge. As soon as we begin to take hold of each other by our words, and use words to defend ourselves or offend others, the word no longer speaks of silence. But when the word calls forth the…