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 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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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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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 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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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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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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Waiting time is not wasting time. Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.
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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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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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I often wonder if my knowledge about God has not become my greatest stumbling block to my knowledge of God.
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Our life is a time in which sadness and joy kiss each other at every moment.
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Our greatest fulfillment lies in giving ourselves to others.
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In our own woundedness, we can become sources of life for 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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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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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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