grief--- nouwen

It might sound strange to consider grief as a way to compassion. But
it is. Grief asks me to allow the sins of the world -- my own included
-- to pierce my heart and make me shed tears, many tears, for them.
There is no compassion without many tears.

When I consider the immense waywardness of God's children, our lust,
our greed, our violence, our anger, our resentment, and when I look at
them through the eyes of God's heart, I cannot but weep and cry out in
grief.

This grieving is praying. There are so few mourners left in this
world. But grief is the discipline of the heart that sees the sin of
the world, and knows itself to be the sorrowful price of freedom
without which love cannot bloom.

I am beginning to see that much of praying is grieving. This grief is
so deep not just because the human sin is so great, but also -- and
more so -- because the divine love is so boundless.


Nouwen