I feel strongly that the God we meet in solitude is always the God who calls us to community.
HENRI NOUWENThose who keep speaking about the sun while walking under a cloudy sky are messengers of hope, the true saints of our day.
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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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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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.”
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Let’s not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God.
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Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure.
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Compassion can never coexist with judgement because judgement creates the distance, the distinction, which prevents us from really being with the other.
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Pay attention to the people God puts in your path if you want to discern what God is up to in your life.
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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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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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Our greatest fulfillment lies in giving ourselves to others.
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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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We 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.
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Your heart is greater than your wounds.
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The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing that is a friend who cares.
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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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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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I trust in you, Lord, but keep helping me in my moments of distrust and doubt.
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We 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.
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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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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.
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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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Life is just a little opportunity for you during a few years to say, “I love you, too.”
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One of the tragedies of our life is that we keep forgetting who we are.
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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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Community means that people come together around the table, not just to feed their bodies, but to feed their minds and their relationships.
HENRI NOUWEN