Turn My Mourning into Dancing: Finding Hope in Hard Times

by Henri J.M. Nouwen

The Christian faith suggests another image: two hands resting together, parallel, in a prayerful gesture, pointing beyond themselves and moving freely in relation to one another. Only in this way can a relationship be truly lasting, because only in this way is mutual love experienced, love that participates in the greater and prior love to which it points. In this way we become persons to one another, in the literal sense of the word’s roots: “sounding through” (per means “through” and sonare suggests the idea of sound). So we “sound through” a love greater than ourselves and one that we can pass along but not clutch. We become people who reveal to each other the divine love that embraces us and keeps us together while offering ample space to move freely.