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Religion Quotes by Henri Nouwen

53 Religion quotes by Henri Nouwen

All Religion quotes Henri Nouwen’s page

Henri Nouwen writes about seeing God in gratitude, how thanks can stretch our small selves toward a larger world. He says the spiritual life belongs in the middle of everyday moments, not apart from them, and that true community grows from a heart that knows we live for each other.

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Joy is based on the spiritual knowledge that, while the world in which we live is shrouded in darkness, God has overcome…

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Although I am a committed Catholic priest, and nowhere hide that fact, my focus is very much a spiritual journey.

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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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Spiritual maturity is not knowing what to do with your whole life, but just knowing what to do next.

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For many, religion has to do with what we are allowed to do and not allowed to do. In the end, that…

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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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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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One way to express the spiritual crisis of our time is to say that most of us have an address but cannot…

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To be a minister means above all to become powerless, or in more precise terms, to speak with our powerlessness to the…

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For Jesus, there are no countries to be conquered, no ideologies to be imposed, no people to be dominated. There are only…

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Spiritual identity means we are not what we do or what people say about us. And we are not what we have.…

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To be baptized means to make the passage with the people of Israel and with Jesus from slavery to freedom and from…

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Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves…

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The spiritual life is a life beyond moods. It is a life in which we choose joy and do not allow ourselves…

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As we read spiritually about spiritual things, we open our hearts to God's voice. Sometimes we must be willing to put down…

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The question is not: How many people take you seriously? How much are you going to accomplish? Can you show some results?…

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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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I am beginning now to see how radically the character of my spiritual journey will change when I no longer think of…

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It's not easy to sit and trust that in solitude God will speak to you - not as a magical voice but…

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Just as people can watch spellbound a circus artist tumbling through the air in a phosphorized costume, so they can listen to…

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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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Compassion- which means, literally, "to suffer with"- is the way to the truth that we are most ourselves, not when we differ…

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However, community is first of all a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that we are alive not…

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The way of Jesus is radically different. It is the way not of upward mobility but of downward mobility. It is going…

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“The church itself is a spiritual director. It tries to connect your story with God's story. Just to be a true part…

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A little criticism makes me angry, and a little rejection makes me depressed. A little praise raises my spirits, and a little…

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“There seems to be a mountain of obstacles preventing people from being where their hearts want to be. It is so painful…

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Ministry is the least important thing. You cannot not minister if you are in communion with God and live in community.

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The church is not an institution forcing us to follow rules but a community inviting us to still our hunger and thirst…

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Friendship has always belonged to the core of my spiritual journey.

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Jesus didn't live alone. He had Peter, John, and James around him. There were the Twelve and the other disciples. They formed…

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I have an increasing sense that the most important crisis of our time is spiritual and that we need places where people…

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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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Ministers are powerless people who have nothing to boast of except their weaknesses. But when the Lord whom they serve fills them…

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The evangelical movement has become just a bit victimized by a success-oriented culture, wanting the church - like the corporation - to…

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You are a Christian only so long as you constantly pose critical questions to the society you live in, so long as…

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Theological formation is the gradual and often painful discovery of God's incomprehensibility. You can be competent in many things, but you cannot…

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“The spiritual life is a gift. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who lifts us up into the kingdom of…

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It is not that the university as such is against spiritual formation. It is just that often the university does not know…

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To receive spiritual direction is to recognize that God does not solve our problems or answer all our questions, but leads us…

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More by Henri Nouwen

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.