The Inner Source - a Henri Nouwen Lecture

Lecture 3, 1 December 2001
by Anselm Grün, Germany

Excerpt from THE SPIRITUAL PATH AS PATH TO HEALING

"Many people nowadays complain about stress, burnout and exhaustion. For me stress is always a spiritual problem. We try and manage by using our own strength. Prayer is the path to the inner spring. Inside us the spring of the Holy Spirit flows over. If I am in contact with this spring, if I work from within it, I can perform many tasks without getting exhausted. My internal spring is eternal, because it is spiritual.

"Many people are exhausted because they have a harmful lifestyle. They work with the motto: "Hopefully I do everything well. Hopefully I don't make any mistakes. Hopefully we won't get into conflict". With such life patterns we are soon out of breath and burned out. According to Evagrius Ponticus prayer leads us to the inner place of contemplation and peace. Evagrius calls this place "God's place" because God himself lives there, and "Jerusalem", because it is a place of peace. The mystic tells us that there is already a place in us where there is complete peace, where God is already in us. But we are separated from this quiet place, separated by the internal and external noise of our worries and problems which lie like a thick layer of concrete between our heart and this internal place of peace and quiet.

"Prayer penetrates this concrete layer and enters this internal place. In this place where God lives, other people don't have entry and we are not touched by opinions and condemnation, neither by desires and expectations, rejection and hurt. There we are whole and complete. In spite of our fears, we may experience that in our inner self we are whole and complete. That experience is indestructible. The pain only touches our emotions, but not our true identity, not the inner reflection God has formed of us.

"Prayer is the way to the inner place of wellbeing. In the Eastern church especially, the Jesus prayer is the path to the depth of the heart where Christ himself lives. It is a place of gentleness and compassion, of love and freedom. Our own guilt has no entry. In this place we are blameless and pure, without sin. On December 8 the church tells us this in our celebrations of Mary of Immaculate Conception, who is an example for us through Jesus Christ who delivered us."

Fireproofing?

I watched Fireproof some time ago. The film detailed the Christian - and natural - struggles of human relationships. Between husband and wife, child and parent, and between friends too.

How do we 'fireproof' our relationships in a Godly manner?

A friend posted on Facebook this note:

The most-intimate relationship is marriage between a husband and a wife.
Unfortunately, relationships today are under more cultural and interpersonal pressure and stress than ever before in our history. But it doesnít have to be that way. Together, we can make a long-term difference for healthy relationships and marriages Ö starting with yours!

What can you do to make a difference?
http://www.fireproofmymarriage.com/

If people actually knew the amount of sacrifice and humility needed to make marriage work - and how much we need to make God the centre of it, not ourselves - we might not be so quick to jump into one.

The allure of loving someone and being loved is sometimes to great for us to see that a relationship - and marriage - is given to us by God to reveal who we truly are, and how we continually lay down ourselves and let God increase.

But God is gentle and loving. It will be what we can bear.

So, sometimes before we can be fireproofed, we need to let the fire come and rarefy everything. What's left of the cinders - something refined, something pure, and something simple that God can use.

So, I see, that's what it means to say, 'God, here I am. Take all of me.'

It actually means all. And wow, the best is yet to come, cos His blessings will come in a torrent, once we're ready to receive it, with our empty hands.

Unclench your fists, and let go of what your eyes can see. Open your hands, and see that, no matter what you add to them, they will ultimately be empty.

Thank you, God, for your everlasting love.

Real art

“The real art of conversation is not only to say the right things at the right time but to leave the wrong things unsaid at the tempting moment.”