Compassion can never coexist with judgement because judgement creates the distance, the distinction, which prevents us from really being with the other.
HENRI NOUWENYou have to listen to the one who calls you beloved. That has to be affirmed over and over again. That is prayer – listening to the voice of the one who calls you “the beloved.”
More Henri Nouwen Quotes
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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.
HENRI NOUWEN -
The greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity or power, but self-rejection.
HENRI NOUWEN -
Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the Beloved.
HENRI NOUWEN -
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.
HENRI NOUWEN -
I feel strongly that the God we meet in solitude is always the God who calls us to community.
HENRI NOUWEN -
The main question is not, how can we hide our wounds but how can we put our woundedness in service to others.
HENRI NOUWEN -
Your heart is greater than your wounds.
HENRI NOUWEN -
When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become.
HENRI NOUWEN -
You have to listen to the one who calls you beloved. That has to be affirmed over and over again. That is prayer – listening to the voice of the one who calls you “the beloved.”
HENRI NOUWEN -
Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure.
HENRI 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 NOUWEN -
Pay attention to the people God puts in your path if you want to discern what God is up to in your life.
HENRI NOUWEN -
Forgiveness changes the way we remember.
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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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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.
HENRI NOUWEN






