SO GOOD QUOTES

Our first and foremost task is faithfully to care for the inward fire so that when it is really needed it can offer warmth and light to lost travelers. Nobody expressed this with more conviction than the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh:

“There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passersby only see a wisp of smoke coming through the chimney, and go along their way.  Look here, now what must be done?  Must one tend the inner fire, have salt in oneself, wait patiently yet with how much impatience the hour when somebody will come and sit down–maybe to stay? Let him who believes in God wait for the hour that will come sooner or later.”

Vincent van Gogh speaks here with the mind and heart of the Desert Fathers. He knew about the temptation to open all the doors so that passersby could see the fire and not just the smoke coming through the chimney. But he also realized that if this happened, this fire would die and nobody would find warmth and new strength. His own life is a powerful example of faithfulness to the inner fire. During his life nobody came to sit down at his fire, but today thousands have found comfort and consolation in his drawings, paintings, and letters.

—Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers