Community is first of all a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that we are alive not for ourselves but for one another.
HENRI NOUWENCompassion 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.
More Henri Nouwen Quotes
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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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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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Trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.
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We cannot make it rain but we can see to it that the rain falls on prepared soil.
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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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One of the tragedies of our life is that we keep forgetting who we are.
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Our greatest fulfillment lies in giving ourselves to others.
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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.
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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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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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Every time I take a step in the direction of generosity, I know I am moving from fear to love.
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If you feel loved, you can do a thousand things. If you feel rejected, everything becomes a problem.
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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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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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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 NOUWEN