Prayer is first of all listening to God. It’s openness. God is always speaking; he’s always doing something.
HENRI NOUWENWe 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.
More Henri Nouwen Quotes
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This brief lifetime is my opportunity to receive love, deepen love, grow in love, and give love.
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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.
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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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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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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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The fruits of your labors may be reaped two generations from now. Trust, even when you don’t see the results.
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The only feelings that do not heal are the ones you hide.
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Hope means to keep living amid desperation and to keep humming in the darkness.
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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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Spiritual maturity is not knowing what to do with your whole life, but just knowing what to do next.
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The spiritual life is a life beyond moods. It is a life in which we choose joy and do not allow ourselves to become victims of passing feelings of happiness or depression.
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The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there.
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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.
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Dare to love and to be a real friend. The love you give and receive is a reality that will lead you closer and closer to God as well as those whom God has given you to love.
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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.
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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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I feel strongly that the God we meet in solitude is always the God who calls us to community.
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For Jesus, there are no countries to be conquered, no ideologies to be imposed, no people to be dominated. There are only children, women and men to be loved.
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Those we most love cause us not only great joy but also great pain. LOVE is stronger than fear, life stronger than death, hope stronger than despair. We have to trust that the risk of loving is always worth taking.
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Our life is a time in which sadness and joy kiss each other at every moment.
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We are all healers who can reach out and offer health, and we are all patients in constant need of help.
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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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I often wonder if my knowledge about God has not become my greatest stumbling block to my knowledge of God.
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Prayer is not what is done by us, but rather what is done by the Holy Spirit in us.
HENRI NOUWEN