Henri Nouwen Quotes

We cannot make it rain but we can see to it that the rain falls on prepared soil.

If you feel loved, you can do a thousand things. If you feel rejected, everything becomes a problem.

The only feelings that do not heal are the ones you hide.

One of the tragedies of our life is that we keep forgetting who we are

...real care means the willingness to help each other in making our brokenness into the gateway to joy.

Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved.

It's an incredible mystery of God's love that the more you know how deeply you are loved, the more you will see how deeply your sisters and your brothers in the human family are loved.

Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.

Gratitude flows from the recognition that who we are and what we have are gifts to be received and shared.

Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared.

Our lives are unique stones in the mosaic of human existence -- priceless and irreplaceable.

I want my work to create space where people can meet God, rather than give them something they can "apply" to their daily life.

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.

Forgiveness changes the way we remember. It converts the curse into a blessing. Forgiveness indeed heals memories . . .

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."

To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude.

Christmas is believing that the salvation of the world is God's work, and not mine.

Reading with children is an enormous gift to them. It's a great honor to invite children to read with adults.

Waiting is a period of learning. The longer we wait, the more we hear about him for whom we are waiting.

The farther the outward journey takes you, the deeper the inward journey must be.

The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.

Peace is first of all the art of being.

The mystery of ministry is that we have been chosen to make our own limited and very conditional love the gateway for the unlimited and unconditional love of God.

Our efforts to disconnect ourselves from our own suffering end up disconnecting our suffering from God's suffering for us. The way out of our loss and hurt is in and through.

A life without a lonely place, that is, without a quiet center, becomes destructive.

The pain that comes from deep love makes your love more fruitful. It is like a plow that breaks the ground to allow the seed to take root.

True Hospitality is welcoming the stranger on her own terms. This kind of hospitality can only be offered by those who've found the center of their lives in their own hearts.

The joy that compassion brings is one of the best-kept secrets of humanity. It is a secret known only to a very few people, a secret that has to be rediscovered over and over again.

Hiddenness is the place of purification. In hiddenness we find our true selves.

From the moment we claim the truth of being the beloved, we are faced with the call to become who we are.

Which questions guide our lives? Which questions do we make our own? Which questions deserve our undivided and full personal commitment? Finding the right questions is crucial to finding the answers.

Ministry in no way is a privilege...it is the core of the Christian life. No Christian is a Christian without being a minister.

To give someone a blessing is the most significant affirmation we can offer.

Our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it.

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.

We need to remind each other that the cup of sorrow is also the cup of joy, that precisely what causes us sadness can become the fertile ground for gladness.

Life is not a possession to be defended, but a gift to be shared.

Our first responsibility in the midst of violence is to prevent it from destroying us.

Fear is the great enemy of intimacy. Fear makes us run away from each other or cling to each other but does not create true intimacy.

Christian community is the place where we keep the flame of hope alive among us and take it seriously so that it can grow and become stronger in us.

The question is not: How many people take you seriously? How much are you going to accomplish? Can you show some results? but: Are you in love with Jesus?

Every time I take a step in the direction of generosity, I know I am moving from fear to love.

Is my growing old making me any closer to Christ? Am I only getting older or am I getting more godly?

Somewhere we know that without silence, words lose their meaning.

What is important is how well we love. God will make our love fruitful, whether we see that fruitfulness or not.

The beatitudes say, "Blessed are the poor". They don't say, "Blessed are those who care for the poor."

Prayer and action...can never be seen as contradictory or mutually exclusive. Prayer without action grows into powerless pietism, and action without prayer degenerates into questionable manipulation.

Yes, it's a competitive world, but where is your heart?

Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing-sicknes s, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death--can take that love away.

Joy and laughter are the gifts of living in the presence of God and trusting that tomorrow is not worth worrying about.