We cannot make it rain but we can see to it that the rain falls on prepared soil.
HENRI NOUWENWhat makes us human is not our mind but our heart, not our ability to think but our ability to love.
More Henri Nouwen Quotes
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The fruits of your labors may be reaped two generations from now. Trust, even when you don’t see the results.
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Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.
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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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Every time I take a step in the direction of generosity, I know I am moving from fear to love.
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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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You don’t think your way into a new kind of living. You live your way into a new kind of thinking.
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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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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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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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The greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity or power, but self-rejection.
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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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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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Our life is a time in which sadness and joy kiss each other at every moment.
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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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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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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.
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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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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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Forgiveness changes the way we remember.
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It is in solitude that we discover that being is more important than having and that we are worth more than the results of our efforts. In solitude we discover that our life is not a possession to be defended but a gift to be shared.
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Trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.
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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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I trust in you, Lord, but keep helping me in my moments of distrust and doubt.
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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.
HENRI NOUWEN