Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Nouwen prayer

Teach Me to Pray
by Henri Nouwen

Every day I see again that only you can teach me to pray,
only you can set my heart at rest.
Only you can let me dwell in your presence.

No book, no concept or theory will ever bring me close to you
unless you yourself are the one who lets them become the doors to you.

But Lord, let me at least remain open to your initiative.
Let me wait patiently and attentively for the hour when you will come
and break through the walls I have erected.

Create new doors.
Teach me, O Lord, to pray.

The photo both intrigues and repels me.
If Jesus broke through a wall in this manner,
his first words, after picking me up from the floor,
would definitely have to be,
"Fear Not"

2 comments:

Brad said...

Dear friend,

He doesn't to do it like this. He is in you, in each of us, and each of us in Him. So the walls are all inside - or maybe it's more like a sort of fog we create. He is inside our walls if we'll just see Him.

Love, Brad

ROBERTA said...

Yes Brad, that's very true. But Jesus did walk through a wall to visit his disciples, and that would have frightened me if i had been there, especially if i believed that he was dead. (Plus, i'm fascinated with these bizarre photos that i find:)