Our Greatest Gift Quotes

“Our society suggests that caring and living are quite separate and that caring belongs primarily to professionals who have received special training. Although training is important, and although certain people need preparation to practice their profession with competence, caring is the privilege of every person and is at the heart of being human. When we look at the original meaning of the word profession and realize that the term refers, first of all, to professing one's own deepest conviction, then the essential spiritual unity between living and caring becomes clear.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Our Greatest Gift: A Meditation on Dying and Caring

“Recently, a friend told me a story about twins talking to each other in the womb. The sister said to the brother, 'I believe there is life after birth.' Her brother protested vehemently, 'No, no, this is all there is. This is a dark and cozy place, and we have nothing else to do but to cling to the cord that feeds us.' The little girl insisted, 'There must be something more than this dark place. There must be something else, a place with light where there is freedom to move.' Still, she could not convince her twin brother.
After some silence, the sister said hesitantly, "I have something else to say, and I'm afraid you won't believe that, either, but I think there is a mother.' Her brother became furious. 'A mother!' he shouted. 'What are you talking about? I have never seen a mother, and neither have you. Who put that idea in your head? As I told you, this place is all we have. Why do you always want more? This is not such a bad place, after all. We have all we need, so let's be content.'
The sister was quite overwhelmed by her brother's response and for a while didn't say anything more. But she couldn't let go of her thoughts, and since she had only her twin brother to speak to, she finally said, 'Don't you feel these squeezes every once in a while? They're quite unpleasant and sometimes even painful.' 'Yes,' he answered. 'What's special about that?' 'Well,' the sister said, 'I think that these squeezes are there to get us ready for another place, much more beautiful than this, where we will see our mother face to face. Don't you think that's exciting?'
The brother didn't answer. He was fed up with the foolish talk of his sister and felt that the best thing would be to simply ignore her and hope that she would leave him alone.
This story may help us to think about death in a new way. We can live as if this life were all we had, as if death were absurd and we had better not talk about it; or we can choose to claim our divine childhood and trust that death is the painful but blessed passage that will bring us face-to-face with God.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Our Greatest Gift: A Meditation on Dying and Caring

“We are fearful people. We are afraid of conflict, war, an uncertain future, illness, and most of all, death. This fear takes away our freedom and gives our society the power to manipulate us with threats and promises. When we can reach beyond our fears to the One who loves us with a love that was there before we were born and will be there after we die, then oppression, persecution, and even death will be unable to take our freedom.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Our Greatest Gift: A Meditation on Dying and Caring

“There is a strange paradox here: dependence on people often leads to slavery, but dependence on God leads to freedom. When we know that God holds us safely - whatever happens - we don't have to fear anything or anyone but can walk through life with great confidence. This is a radical perspective; we are accustomed to thinking of the ways in which people are oppressed and exploited as signs of their dependence and therefore perceive of true freedom only as the result of independence. We can think about this in another way, however. When we claim our most intimate dependence on God not as a curse but as a gift, then we can discover the freedom of the children of God. This deep inner freedom allows us to confront our enemies, throw off the yoke of oppression, and build social and economic structures that allow us to live as brothers and sisters, as children of the one God whose name is love. This, I believe, is the way in which Jesus spoke about freedom. It is the freedom rooted in being a child of God.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Our Greatest Gift: A Meditation on Dying and Caring

“Dying is always suffering, because dying always puts us in the place where others do to us whatever they decide to do, good or bad.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Our Greatest Gift: A Meditation on Dying and Caring