Be surprised by joy, be surprised by the little flower that shows its beauty in the midst of a barren desert, and be surprised by the immense healing power that keeps bursting forth like springs of fresh water from the depth of our pain.
HENRI NOUWENPrayer is first of all listening to God. It’s openness. God is always speaking; he’s always doing something.
More Henri Nouwen Quotes
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The only feelings that do not heal are the ones you hide.
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I feel strongly that the God we meet in solitude is always the God who calls us to community.
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Our greatest fulfillment lies in giving ourselves to others.
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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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In a world so torn apart by rivalry, anger, and hatred, we have the privileged vocation to be living signs of a love that can bridge all divisions and heal all wounds.
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Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place.
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In our own woundedness, we can become sources of life for others.
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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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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.
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Our life is a time in which sadness and joy kiss each other at every moment.
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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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Prayer is first of all listening to God. It’s openness. God is always speaking; he’s always doing something.
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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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One of the tragedies of our life is that we keep forgetting who we are.
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Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.
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Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared.
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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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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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Every time there are losses, there are choices to be made. You choose to live your losses as passages to anger, blame, hatred, depression and resentment, or you choose to let these losses be passages to something new, something wider, and deeper.
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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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Waiting time is not wasting time. Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.
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Those who keep speaking about the sun while walking under a cloudy sky are messengers of hope, the true saints of our day.
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What makes us human is not our mind but our heart, not our ability to think but our ability to love.
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The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there.
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The greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity or power, but self-rejection.
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Prayer is not what is done by us, but rather what is done by the Holy Spirit in us.
HENRI NOUWEN