Ministry is a very confronting service. It does not allow people to live with illusions of immortality and wholeness. It keeps reminding… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share Image
It is precisely in times of spiritual dryness that we must hold on to our spiritual discipline so that we can grow… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share Image
Community is first of all a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that we are alive not for… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share Image
Solitude is an essential element for the spiritual health of a child. If we only stimulate our children - keep them busy… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share Image
Theological formation is the gradual and often painful discovery of God's incomprehensibility. You can be competent in many things, but you cannot… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share Image
“The spiritual life is a gift. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who lifts us up into the kingdom of… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share Image
You are a Christian only so long as you constantly pose critical questions to the society you live in, so long as… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share Image
To receive spiritual direction is to recognize that God does not solve our problems or answer all our questions, but leads us… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share Image
All the great spiritual leaders in history were people of hope. Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Mary, Jesus, Rumi, Gandhi, and Dorothy Day all… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share Image
The way of Jesus is radically different. It is the way not of upward mobility but of downward mobility. It is going… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share Image
However, community is first of all a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that we are alive not… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share Image
People who have known the joy of God point each other to flashes of light here and there, and remind each other… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share Image
It is not that the university as such is against spiritual formation. It is just that often the university does not know… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share Image
We are not the healers, we are not the reconcilers, we are not the givers of life. We are sinful, broken, vulnerable people who… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share
The more we touch the intimate love of God which creates, sustains, and guides us, the more we recognize the multitude of fruits that… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share
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… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share
...we all want to hear stories, from the moment we are born to the moment we die. Stories connect our little lives with the… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share
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… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share
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… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share
This sounds very simple and maybe even trite, but very few people know that they are loved without condition or limits. — Henri Nouwen Copy Share
“The more preoccupied we are with security the more visible the force of death becomes, whether in the form of a pistol beside our… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share
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… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share
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. — Henri Nouwen Copy Share
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… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share
In a world so torn apart by rivalry, anger, and hatred, we have the privileged vocation to be living signs of a love that… — Henri Nouwen Copy Share
Where true inner freedom is, there is God. And where God is, there we want to be. — Henri Nouwen Copy Share
