Henri J. M. Nouwen's close encounter with death reveals to him fresh understandings of God's love and the need to recognize how your death will affect those around you. Here's a passage on the spiritual practice of love.
"Dr. Prasad was very honest and direct. She told me all she knew. I, myself, however, kept feeling that dying was quite possible and that I had to prepare myself and my friends for it. Somewhere, deep in me, I sensed that my life was in real danger. And so I let myself enter into a place I had never been before: the portal of death. I wanted to know that place, to 'walk around' it, and make myself ready for a life beyond life. It was the first time in my life that I consciously walked into this seemingly fearful place, the first time I looked forward to what might be a new way of being. I tried to let go of my familiar world, my history, my friends, my plans. I tried to look not back, but ahead. I kept looking at that door that might open to me and show me something beyond anything I had ever seen.
"What I experienced then was something I had never experienced before: pure and unconditional love. Better still, what I experienced was an intensely personal presence, a presence that pushed all my fears aside and said, 'Come, don't be afraid. I love you.' A very gentle, nonjudgmental presence, a presence that simply asked me to trust and trust completely. I hesitate to speak simply about Jesus, because of my concern that the Name of Jesus might not evoke the full divine presence that I experienced. It was not a warm light, a rainbow, or an open door that I saw but a human yet divine presence that I felt, inviting me to come closer and to let go of all fears."
