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| Woman praying in Church of the Nativity, Jerusalem |
"What is most personal proves to be most communal; what is most intimate proves to be the most public; what is most nourishing for our individual lives proves to be the best food for our lives as the people of God living in and acting on behalf of a suffering world." (Nouwen, Spiritual Formation: Following the Movements of the Spirit, K 318)
What does Nouwen mean by this?
For Nouwen, spiritual formation and transformation happens in the "deep waters of the human heart." (Prov. 20:5)
The deeper the Spirit goes in the human heart, the more persons are all the same.
That which is "most personal" about a person is what lies in the deep waters of their heart; in the deepest center of their being.
Since this is the place where all persons are the same, therefore what is mnost personal is most public, and most communal.
I have expressed this in terms of ontological dualities of human personhood.
