QUOTATION: Gratitude

Acts of gratitude make one grateful because, step by step, they reveal that all is grace.

--Henri Nouwen

QUOTATION: Love

Often we speak about love as if it is a feeling. But if we wait for a feeling of love before loving, we may never learn to love well.

--Henri Nouwen

QUOTATION: Worldliness

At issue here is the question: "To whom do I belong? God or to the world?" Many of my daily preoccupations suggest that I belong more to the world than to God. A little criticism makes me angry, and a little rejection makes me depressed. A little praise raises my spirits, and a little success excites me. It takes very little to raise me up or thrust me down. Often I am like a small boat on the ocean, completely at the mercy of its waves. All the time and energy I spend in keeping some kind of balance and preventing myself from being tipped over and drowning shows that my life is mostly a struggle for survival: not a holy struggle, but an anxious struggle resulting from the mistaken idea that it is the world that defines me.

--Henri Nouwen

QUOTATION: The World's Love

As long as I keep running about asking: "Do you love me? Do you really love me?" I give all power to the voices of the world and put myself in bondage because the world is filled with "ifs." The world says: "Yes, I love you if you are good-looking, intelligent, and wealthy. I love you if you have a good education, a good job, and good connections. I love you if you produce much, sell much, and buy much." There are endless "ifs" hidden in the world's love. These "ifs" enslave me, since it is impossible to respond adequately to all of them. The world's love is and always will be conditional. As long as I keep looking for my true self in the world of conditional love, I will remain "hooked" to the world-trying, failing,and trying again. It is a world that fosters addictions because what it offers cannot satisfy the deepest craving of my heart.

-- Henri Nouwen

QUOTATION: The Spiritual Life

A spiritual life without prayer is like the Gospel without Christ.

--Henri Nouwen

QUOTATION: Studying Theology

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

--Henri Nouwen

QUOTATION: The Difference Between Loneliness and Solitude

Loneliness is painful; Solitude is peaceful. Loneliness makes us cling to others in desperation; solitude allows us to respect others in their uniqueness and create community.

--Henri Nouwen

QUOTATION: Christian Leadership

The Christian leader cannot simply be persons who have well informed opinions about the burning issues of our time.

--Henri Nouwen

QUOTATION: To Console

To console does not mean to take away the pain but rather to be there and say, "You are not alone, I am with you."

--Fr. Henri Nouwen

QUOTATION: Becoming a New Person

YOU cannot make yourself different. JESUS came to give you a new heart, a new spirit, a new mind, and a new body.

--Fr. Henri Nouwen

QUOTATION: The Hidden Life of Jesus

The largest part of Jesus' life was hidden. Jesus lived with his parents in Nazareth, "under their authority" (Luke 2:51), and there "increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and with people" (Luke 2:52). When we think about Jesus we mostly think about his words and miracles, his passion, death, and resurrection, but we should never forget that before all of that Jesus lived a simple, hidden life in a small town, far away from all the great people, great cities, and great events. Jesus' hidden life is very important for our own spiritual journeys. If we want to follow Jesus by words and deeds in the service of his Kingdom, we must first of all strive to follow Jesus in his simple, unspectacular, and very ordinary hidden life.

--Fr. Henry Nouwen

QUOTATION: Self-Rejection

One of the greatest dangers in the spiritual life is self-rejection.

--Henri Nouwen

QUOTATION: Refusal to Forgive

By not forgiving, I chain myself to a desire to get even, thereby losing my freedom.

--Henri Nouwen

QUOTATION: When We Are Crushed

When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become.

--Henri Nouwen, Can You Drink the Cup?

QUOTATION: Compassion

Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure for it.

--Henri Nouwen

QUOTATION: Discernment

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

QUOTATION: Feelings and the Spiritual Life

Are we condemned to be passive victims of our moods? Must we simply say: “I feel great today” or “I feel awful today,” and require others to live with our moods?

Although it is very hard to control our moods, we can gradually overcome them by living a well-disciplined spiritual life. This can prevent us from acting out of our moods. We might not “feel” like getting up in the morning because we “feel” that life is not worth living, that nobody loves us, and that our work is boring. But if we get up anyhow, to spend some time reading the Gospels, praying the Psalms, and thanking God for a new day, our moods may lose their power over us.

--Fr. Henri Nouwen

QUOTATION: Hidden Life for God

If we don't have a hidden life with God, our public life for God cannot bear fruit.

--Henri Nouwen

QUOTATION: Worldly Desires

As long as our hearts keep vacillating among the many wants of the world, we cannot move forward in life with inner peace and joy.

--Fr. Henri Nouwen

QUOTATION: Suffering

To refuse suffering is to refuse personal growth.

--Fr. Henri Nouwen