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Henri Nouwen Quotes - Page 5

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

We are all healers who can reach out and offer health, and we are all patients in constant need of help.

We are all healers who can reach out and offer health, and we are all patients in constant need of help.

Health, Needs, Patient

Why is it important that you are with God and God alone on the mountain top? It's important because it's the place in which you can listen to the voice of the One who calls you the beloved. To pray is to listen to the One who calls you 'my beloved daughter,' 'my beloved son,' 'my beloved child.' To pray is to let that voice speak to the center of your being, to your guts, and let that voice resound in your whole being.

Daughter, Prayer, Children

Trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.

Looks, Treasure

Henri J. M. Nouwen (2009). “Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith”, p.5, Harper Collins

When we keep claiming the light, we will find ourselves becoming more and more radiant.

Light, Becoming, Becoming More

Henri J. M. Nouwen (2016). “Life of the Beloved”, p.28, Hachette UK

I am the prodigal son every time I search for unconditional love where it cannot be found.

Unconditional Love, Son, Found

Henri Nouwen (2013). “The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming”, p.39, Image

You have to dare to live through the pain and struggle. Acknowledge your anguish but do not let it pull you out of yourself. Hold on to your chosen direction, your discipline, your prayer, your work, your guides, and trust that one day love will have conquered enough of you that even the most fearful part will allow love to cast out all fear.

Prayer, Pain, Struggle

Of one thing I am sure. Complaining is self-perpetuating and counterproductive. Whenever I express my complaints in the hope of evoking pity and receiving the satisfaction I so much desire, the result is always the opposite of what I tried to get. A complainer is hard to live with, and very few people know how to respond to the complaints made by a self-rejecting person. The tragedy is that, often, the complaint, once expressed, leads to that which is most feared: further rejection.

Self, Opposites, People

Henri J.M. Nouwen (2016). “The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight”, p.80, Convergent Books

Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you.

Spiritual, Self, Listening

Life is just a little opportunity for you during a few years to say, "I love you, too."

Love You, Opportunity, Years

"A higher power is leading you; be led by the same. It knows what to do and how to do it. Trust to It".

In this crazy world, there's an enormous distinction between good times and bad, between sorrow and joy. But in the eyes of God, they're never separated. Where there is pain, there is healing. Where there is mourning, there is dancing. Where there is poverty, there is the kingdom.

Encouragement, Pain, Crazy

The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing...that is a friend who cares.

Friendship, True Friend, Grief

"Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life". Book by Henri Nouwen, 1974.

Spiritual identity means we are not what we do or what people say about us. And we are not what we have. We are the beloved daughters and sons of God.

Daughter, Spiritual, Mean

"Bread For The Journey". Book by Henri Nouwen (p. 210), 1996.

You have to listen to the one who calls you beloved. That has to be affirmed over and over again. That is prayer - listening to the voice of the one who calls you "the beloved."

Prayer, Voice, Listening

Source: www.liguorian.org

Prayer requires that we stand in God's presence with open hands, naked and vulnerable, proclaiming to ourselves and to others that without God we can do nothing. As disciples, we find not some but all of our strength, hope, courage, and confidence in God. Therefore, prayer must be our first concern.

Prayer, Hands, Naked

As those who are chosen, blessed, broken, and given, we are called to live our lives with a deep inner joy and peace. It is the life of the Beloved, lived in a world constantly trying to convince us that the burden is on us to prove that we are worthy of being loved.

Blessed, Convince Us, Broken

Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life. ...We do not take the spiritual life seriously if we do not set aside some time to be with God and listen to him.

Spiritual, Solitude, Impossible

Henri J. M. Nouwen (2016). “The Spiritual Life: Eight Essential Titles by Henri Nouwen”, p.4, HarperCollins

Jesus does not respond to our worry-filled way of living by saying that we should not be so busy with worldly affairs. He does not try to pull us away from the many events, activities, and people that make up our lives. . . . He asks us to shift the point of gravity, to relocate the center of our attention, to change our priorities. Jesus does not speak about a change of activities, a change in contacts, or even a change of pace. He speaks about a change of heart.

Jesus, Heart, Worry

Suffering invites us to place our hurts in larger hands. In Christ we see God suffering – for us. And calling us to share in God’s suffering love for a hurting world. The small and even overpowering pains of our lives are intimately connected with the greater pains of Christ. Our daily sorrows are anchored in a greater sorrow and therefore a larger hope.

Hurt, Pain, Hands

Henri Nouwen (2004). “Turn My Mourning into Dancing”, p.11, Thomas Nelson Inc

I feel strongly that the God we meet in solitude is always the God who calls us to community.

Community, Solitude, Feels

Source: archives.wineskins.org

Learning to weep, learning to keep vigil, learning to wait for the dawn. Perhaps this is what it means to be human.

Mean, Waiting, Identity

Henri Nouwen (2013). “Reaching Out”, p.35, Image

Every time I take a step in the direction of generosity, I know I am moving from fear to love.

Moving, Generosity, Steps

Henri Nouwen (2013). “The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming”, p.125, Image

When everything is dark, when we are surrounded by despairing voices, when we do not see any exits, then we can find salvation in a remembered love, a love which is not simply a recollection of a bygone past but a living force which sustains us in the present. Through memory, love transcends the limits of time and offers hope at any moment of our lives.

Memories, Dark, Grieving

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

Gratitude flows from the recognition that who we are and what we have are gifts to be received and shared.

Gratitude, Who We Are, Flow

Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared.

Life, Peace, Freedom

the real "work" of prayer is to become silent and listen to the voice that says good things about me. To gently push aside and silence the many voices that question my goodness and to trust that I will hear the voice of blessing-- that demands real effort.

Prayer, Real, Blessing

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