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Henri Nouwen Quotes - Page 10

All Quotes Abundance Age Art Being Human Boundaries Brokenness Challenges Children Choices Christ Church Community Compassion Darkness Desire Discipline Effort Evil Expectations Feelings Focus Friendship Giving Glory Grace Gratitude Grief Grieving Growth Hatred Healing Heart Home Hospitality Humanity Hurt Identity Inspirational Intimacy Jesus Journey Joy Kissing Letting Go Life Listening Loneliness Love Lying Memories Opportunity Pain Past Poverty Prayer Property Quality Reading Reality Rejection Running Safety Silence Solitude Son Sorrow Soul Struggle Suffering Teaching Temptation Tragedy Transformation Unity Vocation Waiting War Weakness Writing

Peace is first of all the art of being.

Peace is first of all the art of being.

Art, Complacency, Firsts

Today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God's house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God.

Jesus, Believe, Doors

Henri J. M. Nouwen (2008). “A Restless Soul: Meditations from the Road”

Gratitude goes beyond the 'mine' and 'thine' and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.

Thanksgiving, Thankful, Spiritual

Henri Nouwen (2013). “The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming”, p.85, Image

Ministry in no way is a privilege...it is the core of the Christian life. No Christian is a Christian without being a minister.

Christian, Way, Privilege

The real enemies of our life are the 'oughts' and the 'ifs.' They pull us backward into the unalterable past and forward into the unpredictable future. But real life takes place in the here and now.

Real, Past, Enemy

Henri J.M. Nouwen (2017). “You Are the Beloved: Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living”, Convergent Books

Christian community is the place where we keep the flame of hope alive among us and take it seriously so that it can grow and become stronger in us.

Christian, Flames, Community

Where true inner freedom is, there is God. And where God is, there we want to be.

Want, God Is There

Prayer and action...can never be seen as contradictory or mutually exclusive. Prayer without action grows into powerless pietism, and action without prayer degenerates into questionable manipulation.

Prayer, Manipulation, Degenerates

Henri J. M. Nouwen (2017). “You are the Beloved: Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living”, Hachette UK

For many, religion has to do with what we are allowed to do and not allowed to do. In the end, that doesn't bear fruit.

Fruit, Bears, Ends

Source: www.liguorian.org

Do not tell everyone your story. You will only end up feeling more rejected. People cannot give you what you long for in your heart. The more you expect from people's response to your experience of abandonment, the more you will feel exposed to ridicule.

Heart, Long, People

Henri Nouwen (2010). “The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom”, p.4, Image

Solitude is the furnace of transformation.

Solitude, Transformation, Furnaces

Henri J. M. Nouwen (2016). “The Spiritual Life: Eight Essential Titles by Henri Nouwen”, p.18, HarperCollins

Prayer is the way to both the heart of God and the heart of the world - precisely because they have been joined through the suffering of Jesus Christ Praying is letting one's own heart become the place where the tears of God's children merge and become tears of hope.

Jesus, Prayer, Children

Ministers are powerless people who have nothing to boast of except their weaknesses. But when the Lord whom they serve fills them with His blessing they will move mountains and change the hearts of people wherever they go.

Moving, Heart, Blessing

Where are you getting your affection? Who's touching you? Who's holding you? Who makes you feel alive? Who says, "You are a beautiful person, you are the beloved of God, don't forget it"? That's an important discipline.

Beautiful, Touching You, Discipline

Source: www.liguorian.org

Prayer is the beginning and the end, the source and the fruit, the core and the content, the basis and the goal of all peacemaking.

Prayer, Goal, Fruit

Henri J. M. Nouwen (2005). “Peacework: Prayer, Resistance, Community”, Edicoes Loyola

Our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it.

Compassion, Surround, Brokenness

Henri Nouwen (2013). “The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming”, p.35, Image

When we give generously, with an abundance mentality, what we give away will multiply.

Giving, Abundance Mentality, Abundance

Christian life is not a life divided between times for action and times for contemplation. No. Real social action is a way of contemplation, and real contemplation is the core of social action.

Christian, Real, Godly

The journey from teaching about love to allowing myself to be loved proved much longer than I realised.

Love, Teaching, Journey

Henri Nouwen (2013). “The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming”, p.14, Image

Real greatness is often hidden, humble, simple, and unobtrusive. It is not easy to trust ourselves and our actions without public affirmation. We must have strong self-confidence combined with deep humility.

Strong, Real, Humility

To give someone a blessing is the most significant affirmation we can offer.

Blessing, Giving, Affirmation

Henri Nouwen (2013). “Discernment: Reading the signs of daily life”, p.169, SPCK

The difference between rich and poor is not that the rich sin is more than the poor, that the rich find it easier to call sin a virtue.

Differences, Sin, Rich

When you're on the bus or subway or in your car, why busy your mind with all the garbage of advertisements? Why fill your mind with television and radio? Somehow you have to decide what your mind will receive. I don't mean you shouldn't ever go to movies or watch television, but control what enters your mind and heart. It's not just a question of pushing bad things out but also a question of holding on to something really good.

Heart, Mean, Car

Source: www.liguorian.org

Solitude is the place of purification and transformation, the place of the great struggle and the great encounter.

Struggle, Solitude, Encounters

Henri J. M. Nouwen (2016). “The Spiritual Life: Eight Essential Titles by Henri Nouwen”, p.20, HarperCollins

To receive spiritual direction is to recognize that God does not solve our problems or answer all our questions, but leads us closer to the mystery of our existence where all questions cease.

Spiritual, Doe, Answers

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