Sunday, October 27, 2019

True prayer always includes becoming poor (Henri Nouwen)


  True prayer always includes becoming poor.  When we pray, we stand naked and vulnerable in front of Our Lord and show him our true condition.  If one were to do this not just for oneself, but in the name of the thousands of surrounding poor people, wouldn’t that be mission in the true sense of being sent into the world as Jesus himself was sent into the world?  To lift up your hands to the Lord and show him the hungry children who play on the dusty streets, the tired women who carry their babies on their backs to the marketplace, the men who try to forget their misery by drinking too much beer on the weekends, the jobless teenagers and the homeless squatters, together with their laughter, friendly gestures and gentle words, wouldn’t that be true service?  If God really exists, if he truly cares, if he never leaves his people alone, who is there to remind him of his promises?  Who is there to cry out:  How long will you frown on your people’s plea? … Turn again, we implore, look down from heaven and see.  Visit this vine and protect it, the vine your right hand has planted. Let your face shine on us, and we shall be saved” (Psalm 80)?  I feel that in a world rushing to the abyss, the need for calling God to the task, for challenging him to make his love felt among the poor, is more urgent than ever.

--Henri Nouwen, ¡Gracias!


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