For this time we read the Prologue, Introduction, and Chapter 1. What follows are thoughts and questions to start discussion. Please don't feel to the need to respond to all, or even any. If there are other points you would like to discuss please feel free. For next week we will read Chapters 2 & 3.
Introduction:
*Nouwen describes the movement in his life from the ornate chalice of his ordination to the simpler glass cups of the l'Arche Daybreak Community. What might the cup of your life look like? Has that changed over time?
*In telling about his enthusiasm for ministry balanced against his naiveté, Nouwen describes a moment of mixed excitement and fear. Is this like, or unlike, moments in your relationship with God?
*Have you ever considered Jesus' question, "Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?" What does that question mean to you? What could it mean for us to drink the cup? What might that cup contain?
Chapter 1:
*Nouwen writes that first we must hold the cup, saying, "It belongs to the essence of being human that we contemplate our life, think about it, discuss it, evaluate it, and form opinions about it. Half of living is reflecting on what is being lived?" Do you feel that contemplation and reflection are that important? Do you ever take time to consider life -- your own, those around you, others?
*"Poverty and wealth, success and failure, beauty and ugliness aren't just the facts of life. They are realities that are lived very differently by different people, depending on the way they are placed in the larger scheme of things," says Nouwen. How is your uniqueness affecting the way in which you live out who you are?
Introduction:
*Nouwen describes the movement in his life from the ornate chalice of his ordination to the simpler glass cups of the l'Arche Daybreak Community. What might the cup of your life look like? Has that changed over time?
*In telling about his enthusiasm for ministry balanced against his naiveté, Nouwen describes a moment of mixed excitement and fear. Is this like, or unlike, moments in your relationship with God?
*Have you ever considered Jesus' question, "Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?" What does that question mean to you? What could it mean for us to drink the cup? What might that cup contain?
Chapter 1:
*Nouwen writes that first we must hold the cup, saying, "It belongs to the essence of being human that we contemplate our life, think about it, discuss it, evaluate it, and form opinions about it. Half of living is reflecting on what is being lived?" Do you feel that contemplation and reflection are that important? Do you ever take time to consider life -- your own, those around you, others?
*"Poverty and wealth, success and failure, beauty and ugliness aren't just the facts of life. They are realities that are lived very differently by different people, depending on the way they are placed in the larger scheme of things," says Nouwen. How is your uniqueness affecting the way in which you live out who you are?
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