"...transfigure my small resources and make them sacred..."

     "...One image has been with me ever since I saw Pamplona Alta in Lima. It is the image of living as a hermit in the midst of the poor. That image must have been vague and subconscious, since I never wrote or spoke about it. But when a visiting priest from the St. Louis, Missouri, diocese said to me: "I am living in a poor sector of La Paz as a hermit among the people," I immediately understood him. Yes- indeed, just to pray for, with, and among the poor spoke to me as a true missionary vocation. Wouldn't that be an authentic way of entering into solidarity with those who have nothing to lose?

     "True prayer always includes becoming poor. When we pray we stand naked and vulnerable in front of Our Lord and show Him our true condition. If one were to do this not just for oneself, but in the name of the thousands of surrounding poor people, wouldn't that be 'mission' in the true sense of being sent into the world as Jesus Himself was sent into the world? To lift up your hands to the Lord and show Him the hungry children who play on the dusty streets, the tired women who carry their babies on their backs to the marketplace, the men who try to forget their misery by drinking too much beer on the weekends, the jobless teenagers and the homeless squatters, together with their laughter, friendly gestures, and gentle words- wouldn't that be true service?"

-Henri Nouwen, October 24, 1981, Cochabamba, Bolivia.
From ¡Gracias!: A Latin American Journal.