Henri Nouwen Quotes: top 100 famous quotes about Henri Nouwen

Henri Nouwen Quotes & Sayings

Happy to read and share the best inspirational Henri Nouwen quotes, sayings and quotations on Wise Famous Quotes.

I've had a tremendous problem with depression in my life. I'd rather not talk about it, because it's over. But depression is real. — Henri Nouwen

Jesus changes our history from a random series of sad incidents and accidents into a constant opportunity for a change of heart. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

The word that seems best to summarize the desire of the human heart is 'communion.' ... wherever we look it is communion that we seek. — Henri Nouwen

Becoming a child is living the Beatitudes and so finding the narrow gate into the Kingdom. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

As the beloved son, I have to claim my full dignity and begin preparing myself to become the father. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Emit gratitude as though it was done — Henri J.M. Nouwen

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

The soul of the artist cannot remain hidden. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Jesus was a revolutionary, who did not become an extremist, since he did not offer an ideology, but Himself. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

coming home" meant, for me, walking step by step toward the One who awaits me with open arms and wants to hold me in an eternal embrace. I — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Waiting is a period of learning. The longer we wait, the more we hear about him for whom we are waiting. — Henri Nouwen

There is within you a lamb and a lion. Spiritual maturity is the ability to let lamb and lion lie down together. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

The farther the outward journey takes you, the deeper the inward journey must be. — Henri Nouwen

Receiving forgiveness requires a total willingness to let God be God and do all the healing, restoring, and renewing. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Prayer is not a pious decoration of life but the breath of human existence. — Henri Nouwen

Solitude, community, and ministry are certainly not just for celibates! Celibates also have a hard time keeping up. — Henri Nouwen

That's the temptation of the devil: "Turn stones into bread! Be relevant!" — Henri Nouwen

The fruits of your labors may be reaped two generations from now. Trust, even when you don't see the results. — Henri Nouwen

The art of living is to enjoy what we can see and not complain about what remains in the dark. — Henri Nouwen

Our life is ... a time in which sadness and joy kiss each other at every moment. — Henri Nouwen

The crisis of our prayer life is that our minds may be filled with ideas of God while our hearts remain far from him. — Henri Nouwen

There are as many ways to pray as there are moments in life. — Henri Nouwen

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. — Henri Nouwen

Asking people for money is giving them the opportunity to put their resources at the disposal of the Kingdom. — Henri Nouwen

As we are involved in unceasing thinking, so we are called to unceasing prayer. — Henri Nouwen

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

The measure of your solitude is the measure of your capacity for communion. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Active waiting means present fully to the moment, in the conviction that something is happening where you are and that you want to be present to it. — Henri Nouwen

we are usually surrounded by so much inner and outer noise that it is hard to truly hear our God when he is speaking to us. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

A happy life is a life for others. — Henri Nouwen

We need you to be a father who can claim for himself the authority of true compassion. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Prayer, which is breathing with the Spirit of Jesus, leads us to this immense knowledge. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Spiritual reading, therefore, is slow, deliberate, meditative reading in which we allow the words to penetrate our heart and question our spirit. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

To care for others requires an ever-increasing acceptance. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

A good death is a death in solidarity with others. To prepare ourselves for a good death, we must develop or deepen this sense of solidarity. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

To learn patience is not to rebel against every hardship. — Henri Nouwen

This brief lifetime is my opportunity to receive love, deepen love, grow in love, and give love. — Henri Nouwen

We want to live as people chosen, blessed, and broken, and thus become food for the world. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

I have always felt that if I am very personal and connected with what I myself am living, my writing will transcend ecclesial boundaries. — Henri Nouwen

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

When we face death with hope, we can live life with generosity. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

God is the father who watches and waits for his children, runs out to meet them, embraces them, pleads with them, begs and urges them to come home. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

If I were to let my life be taken over by what is urgent, I might very well never get around to what is essential. — Henri Nouwen

I often wonder if my knowledge about God has not become my greatest stumbling block to my knowledge of God. — Henri Nouwen

I have always been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted; then I realized that the interruptions were my work. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

I now see that the hands that forgive, console, heal, and offer a festive meal must become my own. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

We have to trust that our stories deserve to be told. We may discover that the better we tell our stories the better we will want to live them. — Henri Nouwen

One way to express the spiritual crisis of our time is to say that most of us have an address but cannot be found there. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

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

Ministry is the least important thing. You cannot not minister if you are in communion with God and live in community. — Henri Nouwen

Is my growing old making me any closer to Christ? Am I only getting older or am I getting more godly? — Henri Nouwen

There are many elder sons and elder daughters who are lost while still at home. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

O Lord, make this Lenten season different from the other ones.
Let me find you again. Amen. — Henri Nouwen

The real question is: how can I live so that my death will be fruitful for others? — Henri Nouwen

We cannot make it rain but we can see to it that the rain falls on prepared soil. — Henri Nouwen

God should be sought, but we cannot find God. We can only be found by him. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Every time I take a step in the direction of generosity, I know that I am moving from fear to love. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

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

Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Gratitude is the most fruitful way of deepening your consciousness that you are a Devine choice. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

God is a God of the present. God is always in the moment, be that moment hard or easy, joyful and painful. — Henri Nouwen

As Father, the only authority he claims for himself is the authority of compassion. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Precisely where I feel my poverty is where I discover God's blessing. — Henri Nouwen

We must ask ourselves how many times others would benefit more from our silence than from our words. — Henri Nouwen

Community is the fruit of our capacity to make the interests of others more important than our own. — Henri Nouwen

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

Do not hesitate to love and to love deeply. — Henri Nouwen

Reading with children is an enormous gift to them. It's a great honor to invite children to read with adults. — Henri Nouwen

Thus, our brokenness can become a gateway to new life. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

when God created man and woman in his own image, he saw that "it was very good," and, despite the dark voices, no man or woman can ever change that. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

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. — Henri Nouwen

Good families always ritualize the table. You can say, "This is a Christmas meal; this is a birthday meal." — Henri Nouwen

You can only seek God when you have already found God. The desire for God's unconditional love is the fruit of having been touched by that love. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Becoming like the heavenly Father is not just one important aspect of Jesus' teaching, it is the very heart of his message. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Although I am a committed Catholic priest, and nowhere hide that fact, my focus is very much a spiritual journey. — Henri Nouwen

truly accepting love, forgiveness, and healing is often much harder than giving it. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

When I look through God's eyes at my lost self and discover God's joy at my coming home, then my life may become less anguished and more trusting. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Grateful people learn to celebrate even amid life's hard and harrowing memories because they know that pruning is no mere punishment, but preparation. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

We are called to witness, always with our lives and sometimes with our words, to the great things God has done for us. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

As long as we have our stories there is hope. — Henri Nouwen

First, silence makes us pilgrims. Secondly, silence guards the fire within. Thirdly, silence teaches us to speak. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

In Christ we live as God's beloved before we were born and after we have died; all the circumstances in between will not negate that. Jean — Henri J.M. Nouwen

If fear is the great enemy of intimacy, love is its true friend. — Henri Nouwen

In solitude we realize that nothing human is alien to us. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Once you are in communion with God, you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear other people in whom God has also found a dwelling place. — Henri Nouwen

Life is just a little opportunity for you during a few years to say to God: 'I love you, too.' — Henri Nouwen

Today worrying means to be occupied and preoccupied with many things, while at the same time being bored, resentful, depressed, and very lonely. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

I have found it very important ... to let go of my wishes and start hoping. — Henri Nouwen

Solitude is the furnace in which transformation takes place. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Friends share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. — Henri Nouwen

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. — Henri Nouwen

Whatever happens to me in life, I must believe that somewhere, In the mess or madness of it all, There is a sacred potential - — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Jesus' whole life and mission involve accepting powerlessness and revealing in this powerlessness the limitlessness of God's love. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

What makes us human is not our mind but our heart, not our ability to think but our ability to love. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Whereas discipline without discipleship leads to rigid formalism, discipleship without discipline ends in sentimental romanticism. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Spiritual maturity is not knowing what to do with your whole life, but just knowing what to do next. — Henri Nouwen

Pay attention to the people God puts in your path if you want to discern what God is up to in your life. — Henri Nouwen

Death is not the total dissolution or our identity but the way to its fullest revelation. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved. — Henri Nouwen