Henri Nouwen Quotes

Quotes about:

• When I trust deeply that today God is truly with me and holds me safe in a divine embrace, guiding every one of my steps I can let go of my anxious need to know how tomorrow will look, or what will happen next month or next year. I can be fully where I am and pay attention to the many signs of God's love within me and around me.

  Henri Nouwen

  Letting Go, Years, Needs

  667 Copy quote

• Nobody escapes being wounded. We are all wounded people, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. The main question is not, 'How can we hide our wounds?' so we don't have to be embarrassed, but 'How can we put our woundedness in the service of others?' When our wounds cease to be a source of shame, and become a source of healing, we have become wounded healers.

  Henri Nouwen

  Healing, People, Shame

  693 Copy quote
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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.

  Henri Nouwen

  People, Attention, Want

  Henri Nouwen (2013). “Discernment: Reading the signs of daily life”, p.97, SPCK

  501 Copy quote

• Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. 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.

  Henri Nouwen

  Lonely, Hurt, Pain

  Henri J. M. Nouwen (2017). “You are the Beloved: Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living”, Hachette UK

  729 Copy quote

• Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone's face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love?' These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will be many fruits, here in this world and the life to come.

  Henri Nouwen

  Letting Go, Real, Healing

  662 Copy quote

• When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. 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 and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.

  Henri Nouwen

  Life, Motivational, Friendship

  "Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life". Book by Henri Nouwen, 1974.

  803 Copy quote

• Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to God and have found in God our refuge and our safety and that nothing, not even death, can take God away from us.

  Henri Nouwen

  Love, War, Emotional

  "You are the Beloved: Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living".

  631 Copy quote

• Hope is willing to leave unanswered questions unanswered and unknown futures unknown. Hope makes you see God's guiding hand not only in the gentle and pleasant moments but also in the shadows of disappointment and darkness.

  Henri Nouwen

  Disappointment, Hands, Darkness

  Henri Nouwen (2004). “Turn My Mourning into Dancing”, p.60, Thomas Nelson Inc

  466 Copy quote

• This is what life is about. It is being sent on a trip by a loving God, who is waiting at home for our return and is eager to watch the slides we took and hear about the friends we made. When we travel with the eyes and ears of the God who sent us, we will see wonderful sights, hear wonderful sounds, meet wonderful people ... and be happy to return home.

  Henri Nouwen

  Home, Eye, Sight

  590 Copy quote

• What makes us human is not our mind but our heart, not our ability to think but our ability to love.

  Henri Nouwen

  Heart, Thinking, Mind

  398 Copy quote

• 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.

  Henri Nouwen

  Heart, Eye, Unique

  19 Copy quote

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

  Henri Nouwen

  Knowing, Joy

  Henri J.M. Nouwen (2017). “You Are the Beloved: Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living”, Convergent Books

  21 Copy quote

• 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.

  Henri Nouwen

  Bridges, Hatred, Division

  129 Copy quote

• You don't think your way into a new kind of living. You live your way into a new kind of thinking.

  Henri Nouwen

  Inspirational, Thinking, Way

  235 Copy quote

• It is in solitude that we discover that being is more important than having and that we are worth more than the results of our efforts.
  In solitude we discover that our life is not a possession to be defended but a gift to be shared.

  Henri Nouwen

  Effort, Solitude, Important

  Henri J. M. Nouwen (2017). “You are the Beloved: Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living”, Hachette UK

  436 Copy quote

• Friendship is one of the greatest gifts a human being can receive. It is a bond beyond common goals, common interests, or common histories. It is a bond stronger than sexual union can create, deeper than a shared fate can solidify, and even more intimate than the bonds of marriage or community. Friendship is being with the other in joy and sorrow, even when we cannot increase the joy or decrease the sorrow. It is a unity of souls that gives nobility and sincerity to love. Friendship makes all of life shine brightly.

  Henri Nouwen

  Fate, Giving, Goal

  Henri J. M. Nouwen (2009). “Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith”, p.7, Harper Collins

  468 Copy quote

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

  Henri Nouwen

  Rain, Fall, Soil

  22 Copy quote

• Where is peace to be found? The answer is surprising but clear. In weakness. Why there? Because in our weakness, our familiar ways of controlling and manipulating our world are being stripped away, and we are forced to let go from doing much, thinking much, and relying on our self-sufficiency. Right there where we are most vulnerable, the peace that is not of this world is mysteriously hidden.

  Henri Nouwen

  Letting Go, Thinking, Our World

  12 Copy quote

• 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.

  Henri Nouwen

  Love, Real, Giving

  Henri Nouwen (2010). “The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom”, p.81, Image

  210 Copy quote

• Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later, and somewhere else. Let's be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.

  Henri Nouwen

  Real, Somewhere Else, Live In The Moment

  "Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith".

  455 Copy quote

• ...marriage is foremost a vocation. Two people are called together to fulfill a mission that God has given them. Marriage is a spiritual reality. That is to say, a man and a woman come together for life, not just because they experience deep love for each other, but because they believe that God loves each of them with an infinite love and has called them to each other to be living witnesses of that love. To love is to embody God's infinite love in a faithful communion with another human being.

  Henri Nouwen

  Spiritual, Believe, Reality

  105 Copy quote

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

  Henri Nouwen

  Feelings, Heal

  26 Copy quote

• This brief lifetime is my opportunity to receive love, deepen love, grow in love, and give love.

  Henri Nouwen

  Opportunity, Deep Love, Giving

  Henri J. M. Nouwen (2017). “You are the Beloved: Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living”, Hachette UK

  45 Copy quote

• Our life is full of brokenness - broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live with that brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful except by returning again and again to God's faithful presence in our lives.

  Henri Nouwen

  Relationship, Broken, Expectations

  280 Copy quote

• Waiting time is not wasting time. Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.

  Henri Nouwen

  Spiritual, Expectations, Waiting

  70 Copy quote

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