Dear Friends,

 We hope that you are safe and well.

Today's meditation features Henri Nouwen inviting us to "Live Our Wounds." It reminds us of his famous concept of our being wounded healers: as we heal from and accept our wounds, we often find that they can be at the service of others, both in terms of our understanding others more from the inside out and in terms of being more compassionate to others--let alone the ways it gives us words of comfort or challenge for ourselves and others and the ways it helps us be in solidarity with them.

One postscript to yesterday's meditation on gratitude: we wanted to thank Jane Olivier for sending it along to us to pass on to you in God's economy of abundance: in sharing our inspirations and life wisdom we are all made rich.

We invite you to join us as we commit ourselves to working tirelessly to end systemic and structural racism in our society, in the church, in healthcare, in the workplace--wherever it shows up so that everyone may come to have more abundant life. May this meditation nourish our contemplative-active hearts and sustain all of us in action.

In the spirit of our philosophy of co-creating community and our awareness that the Spirit speaks through each of us, we invite you to share your meditations with us as well. We truly believe that it is God's economy of abundance: when we share our blessings, our thoughts, our feelings, we are all made richer.

We hope and pray that you find peace, healing, hope and the infusion of joy in your life!

With our love and care,

Ron and Jean

MEDITATION 487: Henri Nouwen: "Live Your Wounds"

DAILY MEDITATION | OCTOBER 9, 2021

Live Your Wounds

You have been wounded in many ways. The more you open yourself to being healed, the more you will discover how deep your wounds are. . . . The great challenge is living your wounds through instead of thinking them through. It is better to cry than to worry, better to feel your wounds deeply than to understand them, better to let them enter into your silence than to talk about them. The choice you face constantly is whether you are taking your hurts to your head or to your heart. In your head you can analyze them, find their causes and consequences, and coin words to speak and write about them. But no final healing is likely to come from that source. You need to let your wounds go down to your heart. Then you can live through them and discover that they will not destroy you. Your heart is greater than your wounds.

Henri J. M. Nouwen

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The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

PSALM 34:18 (NIV)