Henri Nouwen

"Latin America offers us the image of the suffering Christ. The poor we see every day, the stories about deportation, torture, (rape, prostitution, trafficking, abuse), and murder we hear every day reveal to us the suffering Christ hidden within us. When we allow this image of the suffering Christ within us to grow into its full maturity, then ministry to the poor and oppressed becomes a real possibility; because then we can indeed hear, see, and touch him within us as well as among us. Thus prayer becomes ministry and ministry becomes prayer. Once we have seen the suffering of Christ within us, we will see him wherever we see people in pain. Thus we come to experience that the fist commandment to love God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind, resembles indeed the second: "You must love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 22:39-40)." - Henri Nouwen, Gracias