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Using ALL our gifts
I got this quote from the CQOD email the other day and thought it would be good to share here, not because we need to practice this more, necessarily, but more because it spoke to me of what we're trying to do as a community and as a confirmation that, slowly but surely, we're getting there:
Within the life of the church, the paths of the single and the married should not be allowed to diverge. The shared life of the Christian community must become a context in which the differing gifts can be used for each other. There is much still to be learned about this. Are the homes of married Christians an added support for the single? Is the availability of the single Christian put at the disposal of his married friends, for "babysitting" duties and the like? And what is true of the mutual support of married and single needs to be true in a wider way of the care exercised by the married and the single for each other, so that nobody's home life becomes completely cut off from support and help.
~Oliver O'Donovan (1945- ), "Marriage and the Family in The Changing World"
We may have a ways to go, but we are getting there...
| posted by #Debi | 10:13 AM | 0 comments |
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
A Great Retreat
I just wanted to say that I thought the retreat this past weekend rocked! (in a very contemplative, quiet way). :-)
The Nixons were great. It was a pleasure getting to know them better. I was certainly encouraged listening to them share about communal living, contemplative prayer, service to others, etc.
I hope we'll continue to be intentional in setting aside times like this in the future. It was really helpful to me personally, and I know I'm not alone.
| posted by Bryan | 9:49 AM | 1 comments |
Thursday, June 03, 2004
Integration of prayer and action
Since we've been discussing lately the integration of the "spiritual" life and the "ordinary" life, I found today's quote from CQOD especially fitting:
"Prayer and action, therefore, can never be seen as contradictory or mutually exclusive. Prayer without action grows in powerless pietism, and action without prayer degenerates into questionable manipulation. If prayer leads us into a deeper unity with the compassionate Christ, it will always give rise to concrete acts of service. And if concrete acts of service do indeed lead us to a deeper solidarity with the poor, the hungry, the sick, the dying, and the oppressed, they will always give rise to prayer. In prayer we meet Christ, and in him all human suffering. In service we meet people, and in them the suffering Christ."
~Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996), Compassion [1982]
| posted by #Debi | 6:46 AM | 0 comments |