Dear Everyone,
I hope you had a very Merry Christmas, if you celebrate. Yesterday, I read the “Feliz Navidad” reading from Henri Nouwen’s book, and I also read Day 1 from the Twelve Days of Christmas readings. Today, I’ll continue with Day 2.
Fr. Nouwen has a unique way of both challenging and encouraging. He emphasizes community and friendship, but also humility and service. Humility is a virtue that’s absent largely from my culture and from much of history. And yet, it contributes something so important to our own spiritual discipline and to the communities we inhabit.
Fr. Nouwen also emphasized how communities are always populated with those who confound or trouble us. He also writes how a community is a place that takes us in. This latter point really struck me. So often I think of community as a place we create for others, but really, community is the place where we are welcomed, despite our own shortcomings. I am grateful for this reading community.
I welcome your comments and Advent and Christmas reflections. Have a blessed Twelve Days of Christmas,
SR
I am honoured to have had all three of my novels appear on the New York Times and USA Today Bestseller lists. I was a Semifinalist for Best Author in the 2011 and 2012 Goodreads Choice Awards. {
Quem tem uma amigo, tem tudo. Obrigada por compartilhar sempre seus pensamentos mais doces e gentis. Te amo, boss♥️
Good reflection, sometimes se forget to be good, supportive neighbors. Anyway, bit it’s good to remember at all times love your neighbors.
Merry Christmas SR.
I love what you’ve said here! I’ve been thinking a lot about humility. Influencer/social media culture, in particular, is all about learning how to be confident and recognize we’re worthy and deserve love, health, success. On the surface, it seems like a positive pursuit, but I wonder if it makes us selfish—to feel we’re owed something out of life. I admit sometimes I want recognition. The lesson of day 21 really resonates with me. I want to change—to be humble and grateful for all my blessings, especially given the state of the world right now. I’ve also been thinking a lot about how I want to do more to serve others.
Thank you, Larissa.
Happy New Year, SR
I think community is very important in our life, because a good one has a sustaining power in many ways. It helps us to stay on our feet morally, spiritually, in faith, etc. in difficult times. I remembered a passage from the Bible: “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, and hath not another to lift him up.” When difficulties come up in our life, when we get discouraged, when our faith weakens, when we lose hope, etc., it is so great to have people around us whom we can trust, who can help and support us. And when another member of the community needs OUR support, it is such a great joy to help. And yes, all this requires humility and a willingness to serve…But a good community can give us even more than that. In happy times, our shared positive experiences and feelings multiply our joy. That’s why it’s so sad when people isolate themselves from each other, because it certainly doesn’t serve their benefit… Our reading community is definitely a wonderful one. I give thanks daily for being a part of it, I give thanks for my amazing friends in it, especially the few of them with whom we have been able to get really close. In this community I have experienced kindness and total acceptance from the very beginning. And it’s a real treasure that can’t be taken for granted at all in our world.
Thanks very much, Monika.
I appreciate it.
Happy New Year, SR
Thank you so much, dear SR. Wishing you and your loved ones a very happy and blessed New Year!
Thank you, Monika.
I hope you had a great Christmas and that you have a very Happy New Year, SR