O Lord, make this Lenten season different from the other ones. _x000D_ Let me find you again. Amen.
Interpretation
This quote expresses a desire for spiritual renewal and a deeper connection with God during Lent.
Henri Nouwen's quote reflects a profound yearning for a transformative experience during the Lenten season, a time traditionally associated with reflection, repentance, and spiritual growth. The plea to find God again signifies a longing for a revitalized faith and a deeper understanding of oneβs spiritual path, highlighting the importance of making this period meaningful and distinct from previous experiences.
In practice
During a church service focused on Lenten themes.
The Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. God loves us, not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love.
The immense joy in welcoming back the lost son hides in the immense sorrow that has gone before....our brokenness may appear beautiful, but our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it.
Suffering invites us to place our hurts in larger hands. In Christ we see God suffering β for us. And calling us to share in Godβs suffering love for a hurting world. The small and even overpowering pains of our lives are intimately connected with the greater pains of Christ. Our daily sorrows are anchored in a greater sorrow and therefore a larger hope.
To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, welcome, to accept.
Waiting is a dry desert between where we are and where we want to be. (Finding My Way Home)
Becoming the beloved is pulling the truth revealed to me from above down into the ordinariness of what I am, in fact, thinking of, talking about and doing from hour to hour.
Be much alone with God, and take time to get thoroughly acquainted. Converse over everything with Him. Unburden yourself wholly -every thought, feeling, wish, plan, doubt- to Him...He wants not merely to be on good terms with you, but to be intimate.
Keep your life in its constant contact with God that his surprising power may break out on the right hand and on the left. Always be in a state of expectancy, and see that you leave room for God to come in as he likes.
Adoration outside Holy Mass prolongs and intensifies what has taken place in the liturgical celebration and makes a true and profound reception of Christ possible. I . . . warmly recommend, to Pastors and to all the faithful, the practice of Eucharistic adoration
Prayer is a new, gracious, lasting will of the soul united and fast-bound to the will of God by the precious and mysterious working of the Holy Ghost.
A child of God should be a visible beatitude for joy and happiness, and a living doxology for gratitude and adoration.
It is God to whom and with whom we travel, and while He is the end of our journey, He is also at every stopping place.
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