Читать книгу Best Loved Prayers and Words of Wisdom - Martin Manser - Страница 41

Caring friendship

Henri Nouwen was a Dutch Catholic priest who wrote widely on the spiritual life. After teaching for many years he left America for Canada, where he lived as pastor in a community for men and women with learning disablities.

We tend to look at caring as an attitude of the strong toward

the weak, of the powerful toward the powerless, of the haves

toward the have-nots ... Still, when we honestly ask ourselves

which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find

that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or

cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our

wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be

silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay

with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate

not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the reality

of our powerlessness, that is the friend who cares.

Henri Nouwen (1932–1996)