Life is just a little opportunity for you during a few years to say, “I love you, too.”
HENRI NOUWEN
HENRI NOUWEN
Henri Nouwen on life
Henri Nouwen68 quotes“Life is just a little opportunity for you during a few years to say, “I love you, too.””
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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.
Henri NouwenHenri Nouwen If you feel loved, you can do a thousand things. If you feel rejected, everything becomes a problem.
Henri NouwenHenri Nouwen 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.
Henri NouwenHenri 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 NouwenHenri Nouwen Those who keep speaking about the sun while walking under a cloudy sky are messengers of hope, the true saints of our day.
Henri NouwenHenri Nouwen Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place.
Henri NouwenHenri Nouwen 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 NouwenHenri Nouwen 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.
Henri NouwenHenri Nouwen Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved.
Henri NouwenHenri Nouwen We need to be angels for each other, to give each other strength and consolation. Because only when we fully realize that the cup of life is not only a cup of sorrow but also a cup of joy will we be able to drink it.
Henri NouwenHenri Nouwen 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.
Henri NouwenHenri Nouwen 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.
Henri NouwenHenri Nouwen 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.
Henri NouwenHenri Nouwen We are all healers who can reach out and offer health, and we are all patients in constant need of help.
Henri NouwenHenri Nouwen 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.
Henri NouwenHenri Nouwen Hope means to keep living amid desperation and to keep humming in the darkness.
Henri NouwenHenri Nouwen
Original quotes
From our community writers
Since you are gone, I collect the stars each night building my own night sky, so I have something to hold onto forever.
Laura ChouetteLaura Chouette Can anybody hear me? Are my words going to waste I need to believe there was a purpose to all the pain?
Allie MillerAllie Miller The universe hears what you say, but it knows what you mean.
Brianna PastorBrianna Pastor Enough of this. The next one I love will return my passion.
Iestyn TudorIestyn Tudor It’s unconditional; their chemistry is unconditional – forever.
Ophelia ScarlettOphelia Scarlett I love you so much that it hurts and that’s the problem I love you so much that it hurts.
Olivia CliffordOlivia Clifford Let’s always bloom, savor and delight others with our beauty.
Mariya FedulovaMariya Fedulova Shadows follow me the way a vulture stalks death. One small step ahead.
Danielle MontgomeryDanielle Montgomery
Meet the writers
More on life
It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime.
Khaled HosseiniKhaled Hosseini You never know what’s going to happen or when things might change but you still have to keep going because life isn’t going to stop for you.
Jasmine KangJasmine Kang I have loved my work, I have loved people and my play, but always I have been uplifted by the thought that what I have done well will live long and justify my life, that what I have done ill or never finished can now be handed on to others for endless days to be finished, perhaps better than I could have done.
W. E. B. Du BoisW. E. B. Du Bois For God so loved the World that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus ChristJesus Christ I am a sore loser. I’ve always been like that ever s’nce I started playin’ sports and just life in general. I hate to lose and I play to win.
Snoop DoggSnoop Dogg Damn life is so short.
AkonAkon Life is about growing and evolving. I feel like my life has been in stages, and the stages I went through when I was younger allowed me to grow into the man I am today.
Snoop DoggSnoop Dogg The American way of life is not sustainable. It doesn’t acknowledge that there is a world beyond America.
Arundhati RoyArundhati Roy