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Henri Nouwen Society - Daily Meditation

Friday August 23, 2013 

 

The Quality of Life

 

It is very hard to accept an early death.  When friends die who are seventy, eighty, or ninety years old, we may be in deep grief and miss them very much, but we are grateful that they had long lives.  But when a teenager, a young adult, or a person at the height of his or her career dies, we feel a protest rising from our hearts:  "Why?  Why so soon?  Why so young?  It is unfair."

 

But far more important than our quantity of years is the quality of our lives.  Jesus died young.  St. Francis died young.  St. Th�r�se of Lisieux died young, Martin Luther King, Jr., died young.  We do not know how long we will live, but this not knowing calls us to live every day, every week, every year of our lives to its fullest potential.

 

- 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.