Nouwen on Lent: Strength in Dark Places

I was reading through Lent and Easter: Wisdom from Henri J. M. Nouwen. It is a great collection of Nouwen quotes for reading during Lent and Easter that I picked up a couple of years ago. I was struck again by this quote, not because I myself am in a place of struggle and pain but because so many around me are -- from those in Haiti who are now inundated with floods in the aftermath of the earthquake, to friends who have lost jobs and others who are being treated for cancer:

Your pain is deep, and it won't just go away