Beloved

"Friend, all I want to say to you is “You are Beloved,” and all I hope is that you can hear these words spoken to you with all the tenderness and force that love can hold. My only desire is to make these words as spoken to you with all the tenderness and force that love can hold. My only desire is to make these words reverberate in every corner of your being— “You are Beloved.”

Yes, there is that voice, the voice that speaks from above and from within and that whispers softly or declares loudly: “You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests.” It certainly is not easy to hear that voice in a world filled with voices that shout: “You are no good, you are ugly; you are worthless; you are despicable, you are nobody—unless you demonstrate the opposite.”

These negative voices are so loud and so persistent that it is easy to believe them. That’s the great trap. It is the trap of self-rejection…

Not seldom, self-rejection is simply seen as the neurotic expression of an insecure person. But neurosis is often the psychic manifestation of a much deeper human darkness: the darkness of not feeling truly welcome in human existence. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the “Beloved.” Being the Beloved expresses the true core of our existence."

-- Henri Nouwen, Life of the Beloved