Authors:

Henri Nouwen Quotes - Page 12

All Quotes Abundance Age Art Being Human Boundaries Brokenness Show more...
One of the most beautiful ways for spiritual formation to take place is to let your insecurity lead you closer to the Lord. Natural hypersensitivity can become an asset; it makes you aware of your need to be with people

One of the most beautiful ways for spiritual formation to take place is to let your insecurity lead you closer to the Lord. Natural hypersensitivity can become an asset; it makes you aware of your need to be with people and it allows you to be more willing to look at their needs.

Henri Nouwen
Beautiful, Spiritual, People

When we break bread and give it to each other, fear vanishes and God becomes very close.

Henri Nouwen
Giving, Bread, Break

I am deeply convince that the necessity of prayer, and to pray unceasingly, is not as much based on our desire for God as on God's desire for us. It is God's passionate pursuit of us that calls us to prayer.

Henri Nouwen
Prayer, Desire, Passionate

In God's eyes the most significant is often the most hidden.

Henri Nouwen
Eye, Significant

The pain that comes from deep love makes your love more fruitful. It is like a plow that breaks the ground to allow the seed to take root.

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

Any dance of celebration must weave both the sorrows and the blessings into a joyful step....To heal is to let the Holy Spirit call me to dance, to believe again, even amid my pain, that God will orchestrate and guide my life.

Henri Nouwen
Pain, Believe, Blessing

When we have nothing to cling to as our own and cease thinking of ourselves as people who must defend privileges, we can open ourselves freely to others with the faithful expectation that our strength will manifest itself in our shared weakness.

Henri Nouwen
Thinking, People, Expectations

Do not hesitate to love and to love deeply.

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

When we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain flexible without being relativistic, convinced without being rigid, willing to confront without being offensive, gentle and forgiving without being soft, and true witnesses without being manipulative.

Henri Nouwen
Christian, Inspiration, Forgiving

I'm learning that the blessing is located in our poor people, in people who are weak; they are the ones we should stay close to, not because they need us but because we need to receive from them the blessing.

Henri Nouwen
Blessing, People, Needs
Source: www.liguorian.org

The Church will always be renewed when our attention shifts from ourselves to those who need our care. The blessing of Jesus always comes to us through the poor. The most remarkable experience of those who work with the poor is that, in the end, the poor give more than they receive. They give food to us.

Henri Nouwen
Jesus, Blessing, Giving

As we read spiritually about spiritual things, we open our hearts to God's voice. Sometimes we must be willing to put down the book we are reading and just listen to what God is saying to us through our words.

Henri Nouwen
Spiritual, Book, Reading
Henri Nouwen (2009). “Home Tonight: Further Reflections on the Parable of the Prodigal Son”, p.73, Image

Every time you reject yourself, you idealize others

Henri Nouwen
Rejects
Henri Nouwen (2010). “The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom”, p.86, Image

If you meet God in solitude, you discover the God you meet is the God who embraces all people.

Henri Nouwen
People, Solitude, Embrace
Source: archives.wineskins.org

It is freeing to become aware that we do not have to be victims of our past and can learn new ways of responding. Forgiveness is love practiced among people who love poorly. It sets us free without wanting anything in return.

Henri Nouwen
Past, People, Way

A life without a lonely place, that is, without a quiet center, becomes destructive.

Henri Nouwen
Lonely, Quiet, Gifts Of Life

In a strange way the spiritual life isn't "useful" or "successful." But it is meant to be fruitful. And fruitfulness comes out of brokenness.

Henri Nouwen
Spiritual, Successful, Way
Source: archives.wineskins.org

I have found it very important in my own life to try to let go of my wishes and instead to live in hope. I am finding that when I choose to let go of my sometimes petty and superficial wishes and trust that my life is precious and meaningful in the eyes of God something really new, something beyond my own expectations begins to happen for me. (Finding My Way Home)

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

It is precisely in times of spiritual dryness that we must hold on to our spiritual discipline so that we can grow into new intimacy with God.

Henri Nouwen
Spiritual, Discipline, Intimacy

The Question is not how much are you going to accomplish? Or can you show some results? But are you in love with Jesus? In our world of brokeness and despair, there is an enormous need for men and women who know the heart of God; a heart that forgives, cares, reaches out and wants to heal.

Henri Nouwen
Jesus, Heart, Men

Perhaps nothing helps us make the movement from our little selves to a larger world than remembering God in gratitude. Such a perspective puts God in view in all of life, not just in the moments we set aside for worship or spiritual disciplines. Not just in the moments when life seems easy.

Henri Nouwen
Spiritual, Gratitude, Self
Henri Nouwen (2004). “Turn My Mourning into Dancing”, p.16, Thomas Nelson Inc

Prayer is the center of the Christian life. It is the only necessary thing. It is living with God, here and now.

Henri Nouwen
Christian, Prayer, Here And Now
"Peacework: Prayer, Resistance, Community".

It is by chance that we met, by choice that we became friends.

Henri Nouwen
Choices, Chance, Mets

When you recognize the festive and the still moments as moments of prayer, then you gradually realize that to pray is to live.

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

Each individual human being can claim the Spirit of Jesus as the guiding spirit of his or her life. In that Spirit we can speak and act freely and confidently with the knowledge that the same Spirit that inspired Jesus is inspiring us.

Henri Nouwen
Spiritual, Jesus, Inspired

You May Also Like: