Giving and Receiving Consolation by Henri Nouwen

Consolation is a beautiful word. It means “to be” (con-) “with the lonely one” (solus). To offer consolation is one of the most important ways to care. Life is so full of pain, sadness, and loneliness that we often wonder what we can do to alleviate the immense suffering we see. We can and must offer consolation. We can and must console the mother who lost her child, the young person with AIDS, the family whose house burned down, the soldier who was wounded, the teenager who contemplates suicide, the old man who wonders why he should stay alive.

To console does not mean to take away the pain but rather to be there and say, “You are not alone, I am with you. Together we can carry the burden. Don’t be afraid. I am here.” That is consolation. We all need to give it as well as to receive it.

emphasis mine

Black History Month – Day 9

“I Believe” Mahalia Jackson

Black History Month – Day 8

“What a Wonderful World”

Care, the Source of All Cure by Henri Nouwen

Care is something other than cure. Cure means “change.” A doctor, a lawyer, a minister, a social worker-they all want to use their professional skills to bring about changes in people’s lives. They get paid for whatever kind of cure they can bring about. But cure, desirable as it may be, can easily become violent, manipulative, and even destructive if it does not grow out of care. Care is being with, crying out with, suffering with, feeling with. Care is compassion. It is claiming the truth that the other person is my brother or sister, human, mortal, vulnerable, like I am.

When care is our first concern, cure can be received as a gift. Often we are not able to cure, but we are always able to care. To care is to be human.

emphasis mine

Black History – Day 7

Louis Armstrong – Good song for any Sunday. Let’s hope it’s prophetic today.

Dressed In Gentleness by Henri Nouwen

Once in a while we meet a gentle person. Gentleness is a virtue hard to find in a society that admires toughness and roughness. We are encouraged to get things done and to get them done fast, even when people get hurt in the process. Success, accomplishment, and productivity count. But the cost is high. There is no place for gentleness in such a milieu.

Gentle is the one who does “not break the crushed reed, or snuff the faltering wick” (Matthew 12:20). Gentle is the one who is attentive to the strengths and weaknesses of the other and enjoys being together more than accomplishing something. A gentle person treads lightly, listens carefully, looks tenderly, and touches with reverence. A gentle person knows that true growth requires nurture, not force. Let’s dress ourselves with gentleness. In our tough and often unbending world our gentleness can be a vivid reminder of the presence of God among us.

Emphasis mine

Black History Month – Day 6

Bessie Smith, “Empress of the Blues”

1929

Black History Month – Day 5

Martin Luther King Jr. was the best known and most influential black preacher of them all. Listen to him now.

Black History Month – Day 4

“There is no prophetic witness without the possibility of confrontation, but if there is a consistency about your witness then there’s also a confidence about the long-term possibilities for human community that will come out of it. One constantly weighs the long-term projection against the short-term fallout. The immediate response can be anger, hostility or getting called on the carpet; I’m accustomed to that” — Dr. Alton B. Pollard III in Faith and Leadership

And he concludes, “The divine is very much about the collective presence of humanity. It is creation that is groaning. It is the cries of the people, the cries of those who have been victimized. Most of us are candidates for victimization — because of our skin color, because of where we grew up, because our diction doesn’t sound palatable enough or because we come from the wrong side of the ocean. Somebody’s going to make fun of me because I wear glasses, or because I don’t have any hair, or too much hair. We are all in one way or other candidates for victimization and the question is, do we remember what it is like to be on the receiving end? If we remember, then we will be careful to be compassionate with our sister and our brother no matter how they may receive us.”

emphasis mine

Black History Month – Day 3

More Langston Hughes

April Rain Song

Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain