Henri Nouwen Society - Daily Meditation

Monday August 26, 2013 

 

Remembering the Dead

 

When we lose a dear friend, someone we have loved deeply, we are left with a grief that can paralyse us emotionally for a long time.   People we love become part of us.  Our thinking, feeling and acting are codetermined by them:  Our fathers, our mothers, our husbands, our wives, our lovers, our children, our friends ... they are all living in our hearts.  When they die a part of us has to die too.  That is what grief is about:  It is that slow and painful departure of someone who has become an intimate part of us.  When Christmas, the new year, a birthday or anniversary comes, we feel deeply the absence of our beloved companion.  We sometimes have to live at least a whole year before our hearts have fully said good-bye and the pain of our grief recedes.   But as we let go of them they become part of our "members" and as we "re-member" them, they become our guides on our spiritual journey.

 

- Henri J. M. Nouwen  

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Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, �1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible �1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.