It is into this mystery that we enter when we pray. When God, through the humanity of Jesus, freely chose to share our own most painful experience of divine absence, God became most present to us. For more information about Henri Nouwen, his writing and the work of the Henri Nouwen Society visit: 1 Photo of children with. Nouwen Archives and Research Collection, and in all who live the spiritual values of solitude, community and ministry, to which he dedicated his life. Where God’s absence was most loudly expressed, God’s presence was most profoundly revealed. the Henri Nouwen Legacy Trust, the Henri J. While death was witnessed, life was affirmed. In that hour of darkness new light was seen. In that moment of complete emptiness all was fulfilled. When Jesus spoke these words on the cross, total aloneness and full acceptance touched each other. “My God, my God, why have you deserted me?” (Psalms 22:1).

God’s absence, on the other hand, is often so deeply felt that it leads to a new sense of God’s presence. God’s presence is so much beyond the human experience of being together that it quite easily is perceived as absence. In prayer, God’s presence is never separated from God’s absence and God’s absence is never separated from God’s presence. Here we touch the heart of prayer, since here it becomes manifest that in prayer the distinction between God’s presence and God’s absence no longer really distinguishes. God is “beyond,” beyond our heart and mind, beyond our feelings and thoughts, beyond our expectations and desires, and beyond all the events and experiences that make up our life.