goosebumps

tonight's advent vespers at central lutheran church (a giant church in downtown minneapolis) answered my prayers of the day. the reading for the recessional, over the fourth, hummed, verse of silent night, in the dark, with all the choristers all around us holding read candles. the lights were out. the girls were finally attentive and interested - a good end to a fairly long performance:

this is henri nouwen.
"what makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistihble? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life... The long painful history of the church is the history of people ever and again tempted to choose power over love, control over the cross, being a leader over being led. Those who resisted this temptation to the end, and thereby give us hope, are the true saints."

and jean vanier.
Only communities of love can confront the hatred, division, and suffering of this world. How beautiful it is, how good to live as brothers and sisters in unity in a world where there is hatred, in order to become doctors of love and peace (in the name of Jesus).