WHO IS OUR GENUINE FRIEND?
Have been reflecting about friends and friendship lately. I guess, I have come to the point of my developmental years that I am so concerned about what Erick Erickson called "Intimacy Stage," which may be a stage close to late adulthood? Wow, may be not that far yet, although getting close. But surely, I have been around and have been to many places and have met some many people that have befriended me and that i have befriended.
Whether the friendship has been mutually recognized and lived out, I could not tell for sure. What I know well, is that there is always something pure and powerful about friendship that I have desired to appropriate or write about, much more, that I have longed to embrace, even though I have found, been awed, humbled and transformed by these number of personal friendships.
I thought, I would like to mention and share the special quotations that have deeply resonated with me and that have come very close to my ideal notion of friendship. Hopefully, in writing them down, I would have the imagination and the inspiration to express this reality closer to what some theologians have already articulated about and what the mystics have deeply experienced in their lives. That is, God has continually been inviting us to be closer and has always been drawing us to that ultimate level of Intimacy and Oneness with God and with the whole of creation.
Have been reflecting about friends and friendship lately. I guess, I have come to the point of my developmental years that I am so concerned about what Erick Erickson called "Intimacy Stage," which may be a stage close to late adulthood? Wow, may be not that far yet, although getting close. But surely, I have been around and have been to many places and have met some many people that have befriended me and that i have befriended.
Whether the friendship has been mutually recognized and lived out, I could not tell for sure. What I know well, is that there is always something pure and powerful about friendship that I have desired to appropriate or write about, much more, that I have longed to embrace, even though I have found, been awed, humbled and transformed by these number of personal friendships.
I thought, I would like to mention and share the special quotations that have deeply resonated with me and that have come very close to my ideal notion of friendship. Hopefully, in writing them down, I would have the imagination and the inspiration to express this reality closer to what some theologians have already articulated about and what the mystics have deeply experienced in their lives. That is, God has continually been inviting us to be closer and has always been drawing us to that ultimate level of Intimacy and Oneness with God and with the whole of creation.
PROFOUND QUOTATIONS ON FRIENDSHIP
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art....
It has no survival value;
rather it is one of those things
that give value to survival.
rather it is one of those things
that give value to survival.
~ C.S. Lewis
A friend is one of the nicest things you can have,
A friend is one of the nicest things you can have,
and one of the best things you can be.
Douglas Pagels
Douglas Pagels
I went out to find a friend,
But could not find one there,
Then I went out to be a friend,
And there were friends everywhere!
But could not find one there,
Then I went out to be a friend,
And there were friends everywhere!
Anonymous
DEEPER PERSONAL FRIENDSHIP PERSPECTIVES
'Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.
Walk beside me and be my friend.'
Albert Camus
'A real friend is one who walks in
when the rest of the world walks out.'
Charles Colton
"A friend
is someone who can take both the chaff and the wheat;
and
with the breath of kindness remove the chaff."
G. Campbell Morgan
" If one falls down, his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!
Many people today know the painful loneliness of having no truly best friends".
Eccl. 4:10
"Greater love has no one than this,
that he lay down his life for his friends"
John 15:13
"I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business.
Instead, I have called you friends,
for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you"
John 15:15.
"The friend who can be silent with us
in a moment of despair or confusion,
who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement,
who can tolerate not knowing...not healing...not curing
...that is the friend who cares."
- Henri Nouwen -
A Friend is a Present you give Yourself!
A Friend is a Present you give Yourself!
- Anonymous -
It is my prayer that we may all deeply experience this Loving Mystery that always draw us closer to God in our daily lives. May God, who continually mold us in his image and likeness, always leave us in awe and wonder as we show more transparency in our relationships with God and with one another!
