Beloved

The spiritual life starts at the place where you can hear God’s voice. Where somehow you can claim that long before your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your school, your church touched you, loved you, and wounded you — long before that, you were held safe in an eternal embrace. You were seen with eyes of perfect love long before you entered into the dark valley of life.

—Henri J. M. Nouwen, Lecture given at Scarritt-Bennett Center, Nashville, TN, 1991