579 Quotes by Henri J.M. Nouwen

For me, God is the one who calls me the Beloved, and I have a desire to express to others how I try to become more fully who I already am.

Our tendency is to run from the painful realities or try to change them as soon as possible. But cure without care makes us into rulers, controllers, manipulators.

Life in the Spirit of Jesus is therefore a life in which Jesus’ coming into the world – his incarnation, his death, and resurrection – is lived out by those who have entered into the same obedient relationship to the Father which marked Jesus’ own life. Having become sons and daughters as Jesus was Son, our lives become a continuation of Jesus’ mission.

In their poverty, the mentally handicapped reveal God to us and hold us close to the gospel.

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

Compassion is the fruit of solitude and the basis of all ministry.

When we learn to move through suffering, rather than avoid it, then we greet it differently. We become willing to let it teach us. We even begin to see how God can use it for some larger end.

As long as we have our stories there is hope.

Silence is a very concrete, practical, and useful discipline in all our ministerial tasks. It can be seen as a portable cell taken with us from the solitary place into the midst of our ministry. Silence is solitude practiced in action.