Prayer is not what is done by us, but rather what is done by the Holy Spirit in us.
HENRI NOUWENLearning to weep, learning to keep vigil, learning to wait for the dawn. Perhaps this is what it means to be human.
More Henri Nouwen Quotes
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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.
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We are all healers who can reach out and offer health, and we are all patients in constant need of help.
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Trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.
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Our greatest fulfillment lies in giving ourselves to others.
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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.
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Solitude is the furnace of transformation. Without solitude we remain victims of our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of the false self.
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We cannot make it rain but we can see to it that the rain falls on prepared soil.
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Community means that people come together around the table, not just to feed their bodies, but to feed their minds and their relationships.
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Compassion can never coexist with judgement because judgement creates the distance, the distinction, which prevents us from really being with the other.
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This brief lifetime is my opportunity to receive love, deepen love, grow in love, and give love.
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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.
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Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place.
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The only feelings that do not heal are the ones you hide.
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Hope means to keep living amid desperation and to keep humming in the darkness.
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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.
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Our humanity comes to its fullest bloom in giving. We become beautiful people when we give whatever we can give: a smile, a handshake, a kiss, an embrace, a word of love, a present, a part of our life…all of our life.
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Once we deeply trust that we ourselves are precious in God’s eyes, we are able to recognize the preciousness of others and their unique places in God’s heart.
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For Jesus, there are no countries to be conquered, no ideologies to be imposed, no people to be dominated. There are only children, women and men to be loved.
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We are called to be fruitful – not successful, not productive, not accomplished. Success comes from strength, stress, and human effort. Fruitfulness comes from vulnerability and the admission of our own weakness.
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Those we most love cause us not only great joy but also great pain. LOVE is stronger than fear, life stronger than death, hope stronger than despair. We have to trust that the risk of loving is always worth taking.
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Dear God, I am so afraid to open my clenched fists! Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to? Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands? Please help me to gradually open my hands and to discover that I am not what I own, but what you want to give me.
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My whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered that my interruptions were my work.
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I often wonder if my knowledge about God has not become my greatest stumbling block to my knowledge of God.
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The greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity or power, but self-rejection.
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The church is not an institution forcing us to follow rules but a community inviting us to still our hunger and thirst at its table.
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Dare to love and to be a real friend. The love you give and receive is a reality that will lead you closer and closer to God as well as those whom God has given you to love.
HENRI NOUWEN