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.
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.
More Henri Nouwen Quotes
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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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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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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.
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The greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity or power, but self-rejection.
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Our greatest fulfillment lies in giving ourselves to others.
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Spiritual maturity is not knowing what to do with your whole life, but just knowing what to do next.
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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.
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Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place.
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Those who keep speaking about the sun while walking under a cloudy sky are messengers of hope, the true saints of our day.
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In a world so torn apart by rivalry, anger, and hatred, we have the privileged vocation to be living signs of a love that can bridge all divisions and heal all wounds.
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When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become.
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The only feelings that do not heal are the ones you hide.
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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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Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life. We do not take the spiritual life seriously if we do not set aside some time to be with God and listen to him.
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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.
HENRI NOUWEN