Father Ron Rolheiser

He taught us how to pray while not knowing how to pray. That’s a comment sometimes made about Henri Nouwen.

The movie “Million Dollar Baby” tells the story of a young woman who becomes a professional boxer. Young, strong, and physically very attractive she captures your heart as, against all odds, she eventually rises to the top in her sport. But then the story turns tragic; she is unfairly hit by an opponent and ends up paralyzed, her body broken and with it her health and attractiveness. And her condition is permanent, there is no cure. She chooses to end her life through euthanasia.

At the risk of being simplistic, I want to say something about prayer in a very simple way.

Discernment isn’t an easy thing. Take this dilemma: When we find ourselves in a situation that’s causing us deep interior anguish, do we walk away, assuming that the presence of such pain is an indication that this isn’t the right place for us, that something’s terminally wrong here?

There is such a thing as a good death, a clean one, a death that, however sad, leaves behind a sense of peace. I have been a witness to it many times. Sometimes this is recognized explicitly when someone dies, sometimes unconsciously. It is known by its fruit.