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Life Quotes by Henri Nouwen

94 Life quotes by Henri Nouwen

All Life quotes Henri Nouwen’s page

Henri Nouwen reminds us that we are broken and vulnerable, needing care just like anyone else. He says the spiritual life is lived in everyday moments, not apart from them, and that solitude helps us see that being matters more than having. He also calls life a gift to be shared, not a possession to defend.

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A happy life is a life for others.

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Life is not entertainment. Life is not distraction.

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Life is a gift, not to possess, but to share.

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

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There are as many ways to pray as there are moments in life.

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Life is a gift to be grateful for and not a property to cling to.

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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.

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

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The spiritual life is a reaching out to our innermost self, to our fellow human and to our God.

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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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Life is just a little opportunity for you during a few years to say to God: 'I love you, too.'

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I've had a tremendous problem with depression in my life. I'd rather not talk about it, because it's over. But depression is…

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My hope is that the description of God's love in my life will give you the freedom and the courage to discover...…

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

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The real enemies of our life are the 'oughts' and the 'ifs.' They pull us backward into the unalterable past and forward…

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God is your safety and your home. You are well embraced." Start living the multi-formity of life from this place. If you…

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Discipline in the spiritual life is the concentrated effort to create the space and time where God can become our master and…

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Living in a community with very wounded people, I came to see that I had lived most of my life as a…

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In solitude we become aware that we were together before we came together and that life is not a creation of our…

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Any dance of celebration must weave both the sorrows and the blessings into a joyful step…To heal is to let the Holy…

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In a strange way the spiritual life isn't "useful" or "successful." But it is meant to be fruitful. And fruitfulness comes out…

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Who am I? Where have I come from? Where am I going?-are not questions with an answer but questions that open us…

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God is faithful to God's promises. Before you die, you will find acceptance and the love you crave. It will not come…

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Perhaps nothing helps us make the movement from our little selves to a larger world than remembering God in gratitude. Such a…

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When everything is dark, when we are surrounded by despairing voices, when we do not see any exits, then we can find…

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Let's start with Jesus' answer: "Look for the kingdom first and all else will come together." Life is fragmenting, fragmented. I have…

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People have filled an enormously important role in my life - more than books! For me, it's not the formal advising or…

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Jesus does not respond to our worry-filled way of living by saying that we should not be so busy with worldly affairs.…

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The mystery of the spiritual life is that Jesus desires to meet us in the seclusion of our own heart, to make…

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Jesus' whole life and mission involve accepting powerlessness and revealing in this powerlessness the limitlessness of God's love. Here we see what…

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Joy is what makes life worth living, but for many joy seems hard to find. They complain that their lives are sorrowful…

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We just have to recognize life for what it is: a gift to be grateful for, not a property to cling to,…

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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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Pay attention to the people God puts in your path if you want to discern what God is up to in your…

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Our life is...a time in which sadness and joy kiss each other at every moment.

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

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As a general remark, I would say we must move from the moral to the mystical life.

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By giving words to these intimate experiences I can make my life available to others.

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The art of living is to enjoy what we can see and not complain about what remains in the dark.

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

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We are not the healers, we are not the reconcilers, we are not the givers of life. We are sinful, broken, vulnerable people who…

The more we touch the intimate love of God which creates, sustains, and guides us, the more we recognize the multitude of fruits that…

Feelings of guilt dominate our work as peacemakers we cannot last long. But when we have opened each other's eyes to the great human…

...we all want to hear stories, from the moment we are born to the moment we die. Stories connect our little lives with the…

I have found it very important...to let go of my wishes and start hoping.

Simply being with someone is difficult because it asks of us that we share in the other's vulnerability, enter with him or her into…

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

Jesus says, "Keep your heart on the kingdom first. Keep your heart on God's love. Keep focused on the fact that you are God's…

This sounds very simple and maybe even trite, but very few people know that they are loved without condition or limits.

“The more preoccupied we are with security the more visible the force of death becomes, whether in the form of a pistol beside our…

If you feel a great loneliness and a deep longing for human contact, you have to be extremely discerning...and ask yourself whether this situation…

I choose L'Arche; L'Arche chooses me. I would be dead if I weren't here. I need people to love me and care for me.

The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now, is that I am the chosen child of God, precious in God's eyes, called…

In a world so torn apart by rivalry, anger, and hatred, we have the privileged vocation to be living signs of a love that…

Where true inner freedom is, there is God. And where God is, there we want to be.