I can't believe I haven't read Henri Nouwen's The Diary of Genesee: Report from a Trappist Monastery until now....I never thought I could love Nouwen anymore than I already do until I read these reflections on his temporary monastic life.
"How to live for the glory of God and not my own glory?" is the pivotal question Nouwen continuously asks himself during his time at Genesee.
Abbot John Eudes tells Nouwen that he must first realize that we are all the glory of God. That is such a strange-sounding yet incredibly refreshing statement. We are the glory of God.
We live because we share God's breath, God's life, God's glory. The question isn't so much, "How to live for the glory of God?" but, "How to live who we are, how to make true our deepest self?"
"You are the place where God chose to dwell, you are the topos tou theou (God's place) and the spiritual life is nothing more or less than to allow that space to exist where God can dwell, to create the space where his glory can manifest itself."
