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 NOUWENOur life is a time in which sadness and joy kiss each other at every moment.
More Henri Nouwen Quotes
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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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Life is just a little opportunity for you during a few years to say, “I love you, too.”
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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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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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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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Hope means to keep living amid desperation and to keep humming in the darkness.
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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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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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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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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.
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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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The main question is not, how can we hide our wounds but how can we put our woundedness in service to others.
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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.
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Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the Beloved.
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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.
HENRI NOUWEN






