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God is a God of the present and reveals to those who are willing to listen carefully to the moment in which they live the steps they are to take toward the future. “Do not worry about tomorrow,” Jesus says. “Tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own”
“What decisions have you been making lately and how are they a reflection of the way you sense the future?”
Somehow I have to trust that God is at work in me and that the way I am being moved to new inner and outer places is part of a larger movement of which I am only a very small part.
“Did becoming older bring me closer to Jesus?”
the term “burnout” was a convenient psychological translation for a spiritual death.
“Go and live among the poor in spirit, and they will heal you.”
it forced me to rediscover my true identity.
I am telling you all this because I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self.
“One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
One of the main sufferings experienced in the ministry is that of low
self-esteem. Many priests and ministers today increasingly perceive themselves as h...
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“We can take care of ourselves. We do not need God, the church, or a priest. We are in control. And if we are not, then we have to work harder to get in control.
Beneath all the great accomplishments of our time there is a deep current of despair.
Medical technology and the tragic increase in abortions may radically diminish the number of mentally handicapped people in our society, but it is already becoming apparent that more and more people are suffering from profound
moral and spiritual handicaps without having any idea of where to look for healing.
dare to claim their irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation that allows them to enter into a deep solidarity with the anguish underlying all the glitter of success, and to bring the light of Jesus there.
“Do you love me?” And a third time he asked: “Do you love me?” (John
We have to hear that question as being central to all of our Christian ministry because it is the question that can allow us to be, at the same time, irrelevant and truly self-confident.
He whose only concern had been to announce the unconditional love of God had only one question to ask, “Do you love me?”
every time fear, isolation, or despair begins to invade the human soul, this is not something that comes from God.
“Let us love,” he says, “because God loved us first” (1 John 4:19).
The love that often leaves us doubtful, frustrated, angry, and resentful is the second love, that is to say, the affirmation, affection, sympathy, encouragement, and we receive from our parents, teachers, spouses, and friends. We all know how limited, broken, and very fragile that love
These are all the shadow side of the second love and reveal the darkness that never completely leaves the human heart.
God in whom there are no shadows. Jesus’ heart is the incarnation of the shadow-free first love of God.
The desire to be relevant and successful will gradually disappear, and our only desire will be to say with our whole being to our brothers and sisters of the human race, “You are loved. There is no reason to be afraid. In love God created your inmost self and knit you together in your mother’s womb” (see Psalm 139:13).
we have to be mystics. A mystic is a person whose identity is deeply rooted in God’s first love.
discipline of dwelling in the presence of the One who keeps asking us, “Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?”
This is the discipline of contemplative prayer.
The central question is, Are the leaders of the future truly men and women of God, people with an ardent desire to dwell in God’s presence, to listen to God’s voice, to look at God’s beauty, to touch God’s incarnate Word, and to taste fully God’s infinite goodness?
Christian leaders cannot simply be persons who have well-informed opinions about the burning issues of our time. Their leadership must be rooted in the permanent, intimate relationship with the incarnate Word, Jesus, and they need to find there the source for their words, advice, and guidance.
when we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain flexible without being relativistic, convinced without being rigid, willing to confront without being offensive, gentle and forgiving without being soft, and true witnesses without being manipulative.
The second temptation to which Jesus was exposed was precisely the temptation to do something spectacular, something that could win him great applause.
When you look at today’s church, it is easy to see the prevalence of individualism among ministers and priests.
There too the dominant image is that of the self-made man or woman who can do it all alone.
he makes it clear that ministry is a communal and mutual experience.
Jesus sends the twelve out in pairs
We are called to proclaim the Gospel together, in community.
I have found over and over again how hard it is to be truly faithful to Jesus when I am alone.
whenever we minister together, it is easier for
people to recognize that we do not come in our own name, but in the name of the Lord Jesus who sent us.
He wants Peter to feed his sheep and care for them, not as “professionals” who know their clients’ problems and take care of them, but as vulnerable brothers and sisters who know and are known, who care and are cared for, who forgive and are being forgiven, who love and are being loved.
Laying down your life means making your own faith and doubt, hope and despair, joy and sadness, courage and fear available to others as ways of getting in touch with the Lord of life.
The mystery of ministry is that we have been chosen to make our own limited and very conditional love the gateway for the unlimited and unconditional love of God.
begins to show authoritarian and dictatorial traits. The world in which we
live—a world of efficiency and control—has
the leader is a vulnerable servant who needs the people as much as they need their leader.
Just as the future leaders must be mystics deeply steeped in contemplative prayer, so also must they be persons always willing to confess their own brokenness and ask for forgiveness from those to whom they minister.
I have the impression that priests and ministers are the least confessing people in the Christian community.
How can priests or ministers feel really loved and cared for when they have to hide their own sins and failings from the people to whom they minister
When ministers and priests live their ministry mostly in their heads and relate to the Gospel as a set of valuable ideas to be announced, the body quickly takes revenge by screaming loudly for affection and intimacy.
