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Henri Nouwen Quotes - Page 6

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

Let’s not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God.

Let’s not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God.

Hands, Looks, Loving God

Henri J. M. Nouwen (2009). “Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith”, p.12, Harper Collins

What is important is how well we love. God will make our love fruitful, whether we see that fruitfulness or not.

Important, Our Love, God Love

Prayer is first of all listening to God. It's openness. God is always speaking; he's always doing something.

Prayer, Listening, Firsts

Our greatest fulfillment lies in giving ourselves to others.

Lying, Compassion, Giving

Our lives are unique stones in the mosaic of human existence -- priceless and irreplaceable.

Unique, Mosaics, Stones

When suddenly you seem to lose all you thought you had gained, do not despair. You must expect setbacks and regressions. Don't say to yourself "All is lost. I have to start all over again." This is not true. What you have gained you have gained....When you return to the the road, you return to the place where you left it, not to where you started.

Despair, Regression, Return

Praying is no easy matter. It demands a relationship in which you allow someone other than yourself to enter into the very center of your person, to see there what you would rather leave in darkness, and to touch there what you would rather leave untouched.

Darkness, Demand, Matter

Henri J. M. Nouwen (2005). “The Dance of Life: Weaving Sorrows and Blessings Into One Joyful Step”

Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure.

Distance, Silence, Listening

Henri J. M. Nouwen (2010). “Spiritual Formation: Following the Movements of the Spirit”, p.21, Harper Collins

Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all people love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour increasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.

Forgiveness, Names, People

From the moment we claim the truth of being the beloved, we are faced with the call to become who we are.

Who We Are, Beloved, Moments

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

To live in the present, we must deeply believe that what is most important is in the here and now.

Believe, Important, Live In The Present

Community is first of all a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that we are alive not for ourselves but for one another.

Spiritual, Heart, Community

Our spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment, expecting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our own imagination or prediction. This, indeed, is a very radical stance toward life in a world preoccupied with control.

Spiritual, Imagination, Waiting

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

The beginning and the end of all Christian leadership is to give your life for others.

Christian, Giving, Ends

Henri Nouwen (2013). “The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society”, p.72, Image

When people show you their boundaries ("I can't do this for you") you feel rejected...part of your struggle is to set boundaries to your own love. Only when you are able to set your own boundaries will you be able to acknowledge, respect and even be grateful for the boundaries of others.

Struggle, Grateful, People

I want my work to create space where people can meet God, rather than give them something they can "apply" to their daily life.

Space, People, Giving

Source: archives.wineskins.org

The dance of life finds its beginnings in grief......Here a completely new way of living is revealed. It is the way in which pain can be embraced, not out of a desire to suffer, but in the knowledge that something new will be born in the pain.

Pain, Grief, Grieving

My hope is that the description of God's love in my life will give you the freedom and the courage to discover... God's love in yours.

Giving, Description, God's Love

"Here and Now: Living in the Spirit". Book by Henri Nouwen, p. 175, 1994.

How do you pray? Take the gospel of each day and spend ten minutes with it. Read it, and read it again. Walk into the world with the gospel in your heart.

Heart, Each Day, World

Source: www.liguorian.org

The joy that compassion brings is one of the best-kept secrets of humanity. It is a secret known only to a very few people, a secret that has to be rediscovered over and over again.

Compassion, Best Kept Secrets, People

The mystery of the spiritual life is that Jesus desires to meet us in the seclusion of our own heart, to make his love known to us there, to free us from our fears, and to make our own deepest self known to us Each time you let the love of God penetrate deeper into your heart it leads to a love of ourselves that enables us to give whole-hearted love to our fellow human beings. In the seclusion of our hearts we learn to know the hidden presence of God; and with that spiritual knowledge we can lead a loving life.

Spiritual, Jesus, Heart

I trust in you, Lord, but keep helping me in my moments of distrust and doubt.

Inspirational, Hurt, Doubt

Henri J. M. Nouwen (1989). “Heart Speaks to Heart: Three Prayers to Jesus”

Who can take away suffering without entering it?

Suffering, Entering

Henri Nouwen (2013). “The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society”, p.72, Image

A life without a lonely place, that is, a life without a quiet center, easily becomes destructive. When we cling to the results of our actions as our only way of self-identifiction, then we become possessive and defensive and tend to look at our fellow human beings more as enemies to be kept at a distance than as friends with whom we share the gifts of life.

Life, Lonely, Distance

True Hospitality is welcoming the stranger on her own terms. This kind of hospitality can only be offered by those who've found the center of their lives in their own hearts.

Home, Heart, Welcome

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