464 Quotes by Henri Nouwen

The more I think about the human suffering in our world and my desire to offer a healing response, the more I realize how crucial it is not to allow myself to become paralyzed by feelings of helplessness and guilt. More important than ever is to be very faithful to my vocation to do well the few things I am called to do and hold on to the joy and peace they bring me. I must resist the temptation to let the forces of darkness pull me into despair and make me one more of their many victims.

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

What makes us human is not our mind but our heart, not our ability to think but our ability to love.

Fundraising is a very rich and beautiful activity. It is a confident, joyful and hope-filled expression of ministry. In ministering to each other, each from the riches that he or she possesses, we work together for the full coming of God's Kingdom.

We have to trust that our stories deserve to be told. We may discover that the better we tell our stories the better we will want to live them.

The Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. God loves us, not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love.

Our life is full of brokenness - broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live with that brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful except by returning again and again to God's faithful presence in our lives.

Gratitude flows from the recognition that who we are and what we have are gifts to be received and shared.

Our glory is hidden in our pain, if we allow God to bring the gift of himself in our experience of it.