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.
HENRI NOUWENListening 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.
HENRI NOUWENWe 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.
HENRI NOUWENSelf-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the Beloved.
HENRI NOUWENJoy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.
HENRI NOUWENHope means to keep living amid desperation and to keep humming in the darkness.
HENRI NOUWENMuch violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared.
HENRI NOUWENIn our own woundedness, we can become sources of life for others.
HENRI NOUWENCommunity means that people come together around the table, not just to feed their bodies, but to feed their minds and their relationships.
HENRI NOUWENThe only feelings that do not heal are the ones you hide.
HENRI NOUWENEvery time I take a step in the direction of generosity, I know I am moving from fear to love.
HENRI NOUWENMy whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered that my interruptions were my work.
HENRI NOUWENWe cannot make it rain but we can see to it that the rain falls on prepared soil.
HENRI NOUWENCommunity 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 NOUWENJoy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved.
HENRI NOUWENThe main question is not, how can we hide our wounds but how can we put our woundedness in service to others.
HENRI NOUWENWhen we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become.
HENRI NOUWEN