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Henri Nouwen Quotes about Compassion

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Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not

Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure for it.

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

God, help me to see others not as enemies or as ungodly but rather as thirsty people. And give me the courage and compassion to offer your Living Water, which alone quenches deep thirst.

Henri Nouwen
Compassion, Giving, Water

Compassion can never coexist with judgement because judgement creates the distance, the distinction, which prevents us from really being with the other.

Henri Nouwen
Distance, Compassion, Judgement

Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.

Henri Nouwen
Mean, Compassion, Vulnerable
Donald P. McNeill, Douglas A. Morrison, Henri J. M. Nouwen (1982). “Compassion, a reflection on the Christian life”, Doubleday Books

Our greatest fulfillment lies in giving ourselves to others.

Henri Nouwen
Lying, Compassion, Giving

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.

Henri Nouwen
Compassion, Best Kept Secrets, People

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

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

Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.

Henri Nouwen
Mean, Compassion, Being Human
Henri J. M. Nouwen, John S. Mogabgab (2012). “A Spirituality of Living: The Henri Nouwen Spirituality Series”, p.32, Upper Room Books

Through compassion it is possible to recognize that the craving for love that people feel resides also in our own hearts, that the cruelty the world knows all too well is also rooted in our own impulses. Through compassion we also sense our hope for forgiveness in our friends' eyes and our hatred in their bitter mouths. When they kill, we know that we could have done it; when they give life, we know that we can do the same. For a compassionate person nothing human is alien: no joy and no sorrow, no way of living and no way of dying.

Henri Nouwen
Heart, Eye, Compassion

The immense joy in welcoming back the lost son hides in the immense sorrow that has gone before....our brokenness may appear beautiful, but our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it.

Henri Nouwen
Beautiful, Son, Compassion

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