Henri Nouwen
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Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen, (Nijkerk, January 24, 1932 - Hilversum, September 21, 1996) was a Dutch Catholic priest and writer who authored 40 books on the spiritual life. His books are widely-read today by both Protestants and Catholics alike. The Wounded Healer, In the Name of Jesus, Clowning in Rome, The Life of the Beloved and The Way of the Heart are just a few of the more widely recognized titles. After nearly two decades of teaching at the Menninger Foundation Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, and at the University of Notre Dame, Yale University and Harvard University, he left to share his life with mentally handicapped people at the L'Arche community of Daybreak in Toronto, Canada. He died in September of 1996 from a sudden heart attack.
One of his most famous works is Inner Voice of Love, his diary between December 1987 to June 1988 during one of his most serious bouts with clinical depression. Phillip Yancey wrote about Nouwen, "For me, a single image captures him best: the energetic priest, hair in disarray, using his restless hands as if to fashion a homily out of thin air, celebrating an eloquent birthday Eucharist for an unresponsive child-man so damaged that many parents would have had him aborted. A better symbol of the incarnation, I can hardly imagine." Quotes “When I think of the many lecture invitations I declined with the argument that I had no time to prepare, I see now how I looked at every speaking engagement-be it a lecture, a sermon or commencement address-as a new performance that calls for new preparation. As if I had to entertain a demanding audience that could not tolerate any poor performance. No wonder that this attitude leads to exhaustion and fatigue…now I see that I was all mixed up. The question is not, do I have time to prepare? But do I live in a state of preparedness.”
-Henri Nouwen “In recent years, I have become more and more aware of my own tendency to think that the value of my presence depends on what I say or do. And yet it is becoming clearer to me every day that this preoccupation with performing in fact prevents me from letting God speak through me in any way he wants, and so keeps me from making connections prior to any special word or deed….over the years we have developed the idea that being present to people in all their needs is our greatest and primary vocation. The Bible does not seem to support this. Jesus’ primary concern was to be obedient to his Father, to live constantly in his presence. Only then did it become clear to him what his task was in his relationship with people.” -Henri Nouwen “In the middle of sentences loaded with action-healing suffering people, casting out devils, responding to impatient disciples, traveling from town to town and preaching from synagogue to synagogue-we find these quite words “in the morning long before dawn, Jesus got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there.” In the center of the breathless activities we hear a restful breathing. Surrounded by hours of moving we find a moment of quite stillness…the more I read this nearly silent sentence locked between the loud words of action, the more I have the sense that the secret place of Jesus’ ministry is hidden in that lonely place where he went to pray, early in the morning, long before dawn.” -Henri Nouwen “In solitude we can slowly unmask the illusion of our possessiveness and discover in the center of our own self that we are not what we can conquer, but what is given to us. In solitude we can listen to the voice of him who spoke to us before we could speak a word, who healed us before we could make any gesture to help, who set us free long before we could free others, and who loved us long before we could give love to anyone. It is in this solitude that we discover that being is more important than having, and that we are worth more than the result of our effort. In solitude we discover that our life is not a possession to be defended, but a gift to be shared” -Henri Nouwen Source: Out of Solitude Solitude is the furnace of transformation. Without solitude we remain victims of our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of the false self. Jesus himself entered this furnace, and there he was tempted with the three compulsions of the world: to be relevant (“turn stones into loaves), to be spectacular (“throw yourself down”), and to be powerful (“I will give you all these kingdoms”). There he affirmed God as the only source of his identity (“You must worship the LORD your God and serve him alone”). Solitude is the place of the great struggle and the great encounter—the struggle against the compulsions of the false self, and the encounter with the loving God who offers himself as the substance of the new self.” -Henri Nouwen “In solitude I get rid of my scaffolding: no friends to talk with, no telephone calls to make…The task is to persevere in my solitude, to stay in my cell until all my seductive visitors get tired of pounding on my door and leave me alone.” -Henri Nouwen Source: The way of the heart “More and more, the desire grows in me simply to walk around, greet people, enter their homes, sit on their doorsteps, play ball, throw water, and be known as someone who wants to live with them. It is a privilege to have the time to practice this simple ministry of presence. Still, it is not as simple as it seems. My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups, and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets. It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause, and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress. But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn’t be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own and to let them know with words, handshakes, and hugs that you do not simply like them, but you truly love them.” -Henri Nouwen “For a person of prayer is, in the final analysis, the person who is able to recognize in others the face of the Messiah and make visible what was hidden, make touchable what was unreachable. The person of prayer is a LEADER precisely because through their articulation of God’s work WITHIN THEM, they can lead others out of confusion to clarification, through their compassion, they can guide them out of closed circuits of their in-groups to the wide world of humanity, and through their critical contemplation they can convert their destructiveness into creative work for the new world to come.” -Henri Nouwen Giving yourself to others is only possible when you have been fully received…only when you know yourself as unconditionally loved-that is fully received by God-can you give gratuitously. Giving without wanting anything in return is trusting that all of your needs will be provided by the one who loves you unconditionally. It is trusting that you do not need to protect your own security but can give yourself completely to the service of others…you cannot give yourself to others if you do not own yourself, and you can only truly own yourself when you have been fully received in unconditional love. Often what looks like love is really a cry for affection or support. When you know yourself as fully loved you will be grateful for what is given to you without clinging to it, and joyful for what you can give without bragging about it. You will be a free person….Free to love! -Henri Nouwen The goal of our life is not people it is God. Only in him shall we find the rest we seek. It is therefore to solitude that we must return, not alone, but with all those we embrace through our ministry. This return continues until the time when the same Lord who sent us into the world calls us back to be with Him in never-ending communion. -Henri Nouwen The goal of education and formation of the ministry is continually to recognize the Lord’s voice, his face, and his touch in every person we meet -Henri Nouwen “They want love so bad its killing them, (Discussing sad stories of sexual promiscuity), looking for the deepest need for communion with God they turn to sexual relationships and are dying of diseases like aids.” -Henri Nouwen Long before any human being saw us, we are seen by God’s loving eyes. Long before anyone heard us cry or laugh, we are heard by our God who is all ears for us -Henri Nouwen Here is the mystery of my life is unveiled, I am loved so much that I am left free to leave home. The blessing is here from the beginning. I have left and keep leaving it. But the father is always looking for me with outstretched arms to receive me back and to whisper again in my ear, “You are my Beloved on you my favor rests” -Henri Nouwen The farther I run away from the place God dwells, the less I am able to hear the voice that calls me the Beloved, and the less I hear the voice, the more entangled I become in the manipulations and power games of the world. -Henri Nouwen There is so much fear in us. Fear of people, fear of God, and much raw, undefined, free-floating anxiety. I wonder if fear is not our main obstacle to prayer. When we enter into the presence of God start to sense that huge reservoir of fear in us, we want to run away into the many distractions which our busy world offers us so abundantly. But we should not be afraid of our fears. We can confront them, give words to them, and lead them into the presence of the one who says, “Do not be afraid, it is I.” Our inclination is to show our Lord only what we feel comfortable with. But the more we dare to reveal our whole trembling self, the more we will be able to sense that God’s love, which is perfect love, casts out all fears. -Henri Nouwen Spiritual life is the life of God’s Spirit within us, both as individuals and as a community. Therefore the point of spiritual formation is to discern where something is happening. The reason for this is that there is a real tendency in us to think of the spiritual life as a life that will begin when we have certain feelings, think certain thoughts, or gain certain insights. The problem, however, is not how to make the spiritual life happen, but to see where it actually is happening. We work on the premise that God acts in this world, in the lives of individuals and communities. God is doing something. Our task is to become aware of where and how God is presently acting and to recognize that indeed it is God who is acting. Our task is to help people see that in fact they are involved in the spiritual life already… -Henri Nouwen Obedience means listening to and really hearing how much God loves us. Obedience means, therefore, slowly allowing God’s Spirit to draw us to places some of which we might rather avoid. For God is a demanding God. God’s love is a demanding love. God demands a lot of us, but he demands it out of love. -Henri Nouwen I think that real teaching and preaching should create community, create a joyful recognition of being a part of the same human condition. So I feel quite often that the purpose of teaching or lecturing or preaching is indeed to bring people together. It’s a form of convening. As a minister you are a convener. -Henri Nouwen I have noticed one thing in particular: increasing prosperity has not made people more friendly toward one another. They’re better off; but that newfound wealth has not resulted in a new sense of community. I get the impression that people are more preoccupied with themselves and have less time for one another that when they didn’t possess so much. There’s more competitiveness, more envy, more unrest, and more anxiety. There’s less opportunity to relax, to get together informally, and enjoy the little things in life. Success has isolated a lot of people and made them lonely. -Henri Nouwen I think it’s this mentality that lies behind a lot of anxiety, unrest, and agitation. Its as though we’re forever on the go, trying to prove to each other that we deserve to be loved. The doubt we harbor within us drives us on to ever-greater activity. In that way we try to keep our heads above water and not drown in our ever-increasing lack of self-respect. The enormous propensity to seek recognition, admiration, popularity, and renown is rooted in the fear that without all this we are worthless. You could call it the “commercialization” of love. Nothing for nothing. Not even love. -Henri Nouwen We fail to know our hidden center; and so we live and die often without knowing who we really are. If we ask ourselves why we think, feel, and act in a certain way, we often have no answer, thus proving to be strangers in our own house. -Henri Nouwen Prayer is the bridge between my unconscious and conscious self. Prayer connects my mind with my heart, my will with my passions, my brain with my belly. Prayer is the way to let the life-giving Spirit of God penetrate all the corners of my being. Prayer is the divine instrument of my wholeness, unity and inner peace. -Henri Nouwen For me personally, prayer becomes more and more a listening to the blessing. I have read and written much about prayer, but when I go to a quiet place to pray, I realize that, although I have a tendency to say many things to God, the real “work” of prayer is to become silent and listen to the voice that says good things about me. This might sound self-indulgent, but, in practice, it is a hard discipline. I am so afraid of being cursed, of hearing that I am no good or not good enough, that I quickly give in to the temptation to start talking and to keep talking in order to control my fears. To gently push aside and silence the many voices that question my goodness and to trust that I will hear a voice of blessing…that demands real effort -Henri Nouwen I still believe deeply that our few years on this earth are part of a much larger event that stretches out far beyond the boundaries of our birth and death. I think of it as a mission into time a mission that is very exhilarating and even exciting. Mostly because the One who sent me on the mission is waiting for me to come home and tell the story of what I have learned. -Henri Nouwen O Lord Jesus, you who came to us to show the compassionate love of your Father, make your people know this love with their hearts, minds and souls. So often we feel lonely, unloved, and lost in the valley of tears. We desire to feel affection, tenderness, care, and compassion, but suffer from inner darkness, emptiness, and numbness. I pray tonight: Come, Lord Jesus, come. Do not just come to our understanding, but enter our hearts—our passions, emotions, and feelings—and reveal your presence to us in our inmost being. As long as you remain absent from that intimate core of our experience, we will keep clinging to people, things, or events to find some warmth, some sense of belonging. Only when you really come, really touch us, set us ablaze with your love, only then will we become free and let go of all false forms of belonging. Without that inner warmth, all our ascetical attempts remain trivial, and we might even get entangled in the complex network of our own good intentions. -Henri Nouwen Nouwen remarked of his experience with the people of L'Arche, "If they express love for you, then it comes from God. It's not because you accomplished anything. These broken, wounded, and completely unpretentious people forced me to let go of my relevant self—the self that can do things, show things, prove things, build things—and forced me to reclaim that unadorned self in which I am completely vulnerable, open to receive and give love regardless of any accomplishments." -Henri Nouwen A Rule offers ‘creative boundaries within which God’s loving presence can be recognized and celebrated.’ It does not prescribe but invite, it does not force but guide, it does not threaten but warn, it does not instill fear but points to love. In this it is a call to freedom, freedom to love. -Henri Nouwen A mosaic consists of thousands of little stones. Some are blue, some are green, some are yellow, some are gold. When we bring our faces close to the mosaic, we can admire the beauty of each stone. But as we step back from it, we can see that all these little stones reveal to us a beautiful picture, telling a story none of these stones can tell by itself. That is what our life in community is about. Each of us is like a little stone, but together we reveal the face of God to the world. Nobody can say: “I make God visible.” But others who see us together can say: “They make God visible.” Community is where humility and glory touch. -Henri Nouwen A spiritual discipline…is the concentrated effort to create some inner and outer space in our lives…A spiritual discipline sets us free to pray, or to say it better, allows the Spirit of God to pray in us. -Henri Nouwen (‘Making All Things New’) “true solitude far from being the opposite of community life is the place where we come to realize that we were together before we came together and that community life is not a creation of the human will but an obedient response to the reality of our being united. Many people who have lived together for years and whose love for one another has been tested more than once know that the decisive experience in their life was not that they were able to hold together but that they were held together. That in fact we are a community not because we like each other or have a common task or project but because we are called together by God.” -Henri Nouwen “To live a life that is not dominated by the desire to be relevant but is instead safely anchored in the knowledge of God’s first love, we have to be mystics—a mystic is a person whose identity is deeply rooted in God’s first love.” -Henri Nouwen “The mystery of ministry is that we have been chosen to make our own limited and very conditional love the gateway for the unlimited and unconditional love of God.” -Henri Nouwen “Stop wondering around. Instead come home and trust that God will bring you what you need; For as long as you can remember, you have been a pleaser, depending on others to give you an identity. But now you are being asked to let go of all these self made props and trust that God is enough for you…the root choice is always trust at all times that God is with you and will give you what you most need.” -Henri Nouwen “truly accepting love, forgiveness, and healing is often much harder than giving it. The place beyond earning, deserving, and rewarding. Place of surrender and complete trust. I did not realize how deeply rooted my resistance was and how agonizing it would be too…”come to my senses, fall on my knees and let my tears fall freely…to become part of the story of the prodigal son…each step seemed impossible; to let go one more time of wanting to be in control, the desire to predict life, fear of not knowing where it will all lead, and surrender to a love that knows no limits. I will never be able to live the great commandment to love without allowing myself to be loved without conditions or prerequisites. -Henri Nouwen “The way of the Christian leader is not the way of upward mobility in which our world has invested so much, but the way of downward mobility ending on the cross…powerlessness and humility in the spiritual life do not refer to people who have no spine and who let everyone make decisions for them. They refer to people who are so deeply in love with Jesus that they are ready to follow him wherever he guides them, always trusting that, with him, they will find life and find it abundantly.” -Henri Nouwen Source: In the Name of Jesus "Receptivity without confrontation leads to a bland neutrality that serves nobody. Confrontation without receptivity leads to an oppressive aggression which hurts everybody." -Henri Nouwen “We always seem to have something more urgent to do and ‘just sitting there’ and ‘doing nothing’ often disturbs us more than it helps. But there is no way around this. Being useless and silent in the presence of God belongs to the core of all prayer. In the beginning we often hear our own unruly noises more loudly than God’s voice. This is at times very hard to tolerate. But slowly, very slowly, we discover that the silent time makes us quiet and deepens our awareness of God. Then, very soon, we start missing these moments when we are deprived of them, and before we are fully aware of it an inner momentum has developed that draws us more and more into silence and closer to that still point where God speaks to us.” -Henri Nouwen Source: Reaching Out “Listen to your heart. It’s there that Jesus speaks most intimately to you. Praying is first and foremost about listening to Jesus, who dwells in the very depths of your heart. He doesn’t shout. He doesn’t thrust himself upon you. His voice is an unassuming voice, very nearly a whisper, the voice of a gentle love.” -Henri Nouwen Source: Way of the Heart “Reading the scriptures is not as easy as it seems since in our academic world we tend to make anything and everything we read subject to analysis and discussion. But the word of God should lead us first of all to contemplation and meditation. Instead of taking the words apart, we should bring them together in our innermost being; instead of wondering if we agree or disagree, we should wonder which words are directly spoken to us and connect directly with our most personal story. Instead of thinking about the words as potential subjects for an interesting dialogue or paper, we should be willing to let them penetrate into the most hidden corners of our heart, even to those places where no other word has yet to find entrance. Then and only then can the word bear fruit as seed sown in rich soil. Only then can we really “hear and understand.” -Henri Nouwen Reaching Out “Old and New Testament stories not only show how serious our obligation is to welcome the stranger into our home, but they also tell us that guests are carrying precious gifts with them, which they are eager to reveal to a receptive host. When Abraham received three strangers at Mamre and offered them water, bread and fine tender calf, they revealed themselves to him as the Lord announcing that Sarah his wife should give birth to a son (Genesis 18:1-15). When the widow of Zarephath offered food and shelter to Elijah, he revealed himself as a man of God offering her an abundance of oil and meal and raising her son from the dead (I Kings 17:9-24). When the two travelers to Emmaus invited the stranger, who had joined them on the road to stay with them for the night, he made himself known in the breaking of the bread as their Lord and Saviour (Luke 24: 13-35) When hostility is converted to hospitality then fearful strangers can become guests revealing to their hosts the promise they are carrying with them. Then in fact, the distinction between host and guest proves to be artificial and evaporates in the recognition of the new found unity. Thus the biblical stories help us to realize not jus that hospitality is an important virtue, but even more that in the context of hospitality guest and host can reveal their most precious gifts and bring new life to each other.” -Henri Nouwen Reaching Out “It may sound strange to speak of the relationship between parents and children in terms of hospitality. But it belongs to the center of the Christian message that children are not properties to own and rule, but gifts to cherish and care for. Our children are our most important guests, who enter into our home, ask for careful attention, stay for a while and then leave to follow their own way… What parents can offer is a home, a place that is receptive but also has the safe boundaries within which their children can develop and discover what is helpful and what is harmful. There their children can ask questions without fear and can experiment with life without the risk of rejection. There they can be encouraged to listen to their own inner selves and to develop the freedom that gives them the courage to leave home and travel on. The hospitable home indeed is the place where father, mother and children can reveal their talents to each other, become present to each other as members of the same human family and support each other in their common struggles.“ -Henri Nouwen Reaching Out Joy is essential to the spiritual life. Whatever we may think or say about God, when we are not joyful, our thoughts and words cannot bear fruit. Jesus reveals to us God’s love so that his joy may become ours and that our joy may become complete. Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing—sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death—can take that love away… Still, nothing happens automatically in the spiritual life. Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to God and have found in God our refuge and our safety and that nothing, not even death, can take God away from us…it is important to become aware that at every moment of our life we have an opportunity to choose joy. Life has many sides to it. There are always sorrowful and joyful sides to the reality we live. And so we always have choice to live in the moment as a cause for resentment or as a cause for joy. It is in the choice that our true freedom lies, and that freedom is, in the final analysis, the freedom to love. It might be a good idea to ask ourselves how we develop our capacity to choose joy. Maybe we could spend a moment at the end of each day and decide to remember that day—whatever may have happened—as a day to be grateful for. In so doing we increase our hearts capacity to choose for joy. And as our heart becomes more joyful, we will become, without any special effort, a source of joy for others. Just as sadness begets sadness, so joy begets joy.” -Henri Nouwen Here and Now “The mystery of God’s presence, can be touched only be a deep awareness of his absence. It is in the center of our longing for the absent God that we discover his footprints, and realize that our desire to love God is born out of the love with which he has touched us. In the patient waiting for the loved one, we discover how much he has filled our lives already. Just as the love of a mother for her son can grow deeper when he is away, just as children can learn to appreciate their parents more when they have left the home, just as lovers can rediscover each other during long periods of absence, so our intimate relationship with God can become deeper and more mature by the purifying experience of his absence. By listening to our longings, we hear God as their creator. By touching the center of solitude, we sense that we have been touched by loving hands. By watching carefully the endless desire to love, we come to the growing awareness that we can love only because we have been loved first, and that we can offer intimacy only because we are born out of the inner intimacy of God himself.” -Henri Nouwen Reaching Out “I am beginning now to see how radically the character of my spiritual journey will change when I no longer think of God as hiding out and making it difficult as possible for me to find him, but, instead, as the one who is looking for me while I am doing the hiding.” -Henri Nouwen “When Jesus was moved to compassion, the source of all life trembled, the ground of all love burst open, and the abyss of God’s immense, inexhaustible and unfathomable tenderness revealed itself.” -Henri Nouwen Compassion “Compassion asks us to go where it hurts to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means immersion in the condition of being human.” -Henri Nouwen Compassion “Since I was very young my life has been dominated by two strong voices. The first said, “Make it in the world and be sure you can do it on your own.” And the other voice said, “Whatever you do for the rest of your life, even if it’s not very important, be sure you hold on to the love of Jesus.” Again the first voice urged me to make my mark, and make sure I do something relevant. And the other voice said, “Don’t lose touch with Jesus, who chose a very humble and simple way. Jesus by his life and death will be your example for living.” I’ve struggled because one voice seemed to be asking for upward mobility and the other for downward mobility and I was never sure how to do both at the same time.” -Henri Nouwen ‘Home Tonight’ “In the competitive world we live in the word “home,” means very little. Success, power, and prestige obliterate the concepts of community, intimacy, and togetherness.” -Henri Nouwen When I saw the men and women who announced their covenant with Jesus and the poor, I saw how real this downward way of Jesus is and how, if I go this way, I go not alone, but as a member of the “body of Jesus.” Seldom have I experienced so directly the difference between individual heroism and communal obedience. Whenever I think about becoming poor as something I must accomplish, I become oppressed. But as soon as I realize that my brothers and sisters call me to go this way with them in obedience to Jesus. I am filled with hope and Joy -Henri Nouwen Source: The Road to Daybreak “As soon as we are alone…chaos opens up in us. This chaos can be so disturbing and so confusing that we can hardly wait to get busy again. Entering a private room and shutting the door, therefore does not mean that we immediately shut out all our inner doubts, anxieties, fears, bad memories, unresolved conflicts, angry feelings and impulsive desires. On the contrary, when we have removed our outer distractions, we often find that our inner distractions manifest themselves to us in full force. We often use the outer distractions to shield ourselves from the interior noises. This makes the discipline of solitude all the more important.” -Henri Nouwen “Solitude is the place where Christ remodels us in his own image and frees us from the victimizing compulsions of the world.” -Henri Nouwen For a long time, I sought safety and security among the wise and clever, hardly aware that the things of the Kingdom were revealed to “little children”; that God has chosen “those who by human standards are fools to shame the wise.” But when I experienced the warm, unpretentious reception of those who have nothing to boast about, and experienced a loving embrace from people who didn’t ask any questions, I began to discover that a true spiritual homecoming means a return to the poor in spirit to whom the Kingdom of Heaven belongs. -Henri Nouwen Gratitude is not a simple emotion or an obvious attitude. It is a difficult discipline to constantly reclaim my whole past as the concrete way in which God has led me to this moment and is sending me into the future. It is hard precisely because it challenges me to face the painful moments – experiences of rejection and abandonment, feelings of loss and failure – and gradually to discover in them the pruning hands of God purifying my heart for deeper love, stronger hope, and broader faith. -Henri Nouwen “Mystics are men and women of God who ardently desire to dwell in God’s presence, to listen to God’s voice, to look at God’s beauty, to touch God’s incarnate Word an to taste fully God’s infinite goodness.” -Henri Nouwen Source: In the Name of Jesus “The desire to save, whether from sin or poverty or exploitation, is one of the most damaging motives in ministry. “Humility is the real Christian virtue…when we come to realize that…only God saves, then we are free to serve, then we can live truly humble lives. It makes all the difference in the world whether I view my neighbor as a potential convert or as someone whom God already loves.” -Henri Nouwen “Our life in Christ and our ministry in his name belong together as the two beams of the cross.” -Henri Nouwen Source: ‘The Selfless Way of Christ’ “There is a profound difference between the false ambition for power and the true ambition to love and serve. It is the difference between trying to raise ourselves up and trying to lift up our fellow human beings.” -Henri Nouwen Source: ‘The Selfless Way of Christ’ “The spiritual life is a life guided by the same Spirit who guided Jesus Christ. The Spirit is the breath of Christ in us, the divine power of Christ active in us, the mysterious source of new vitality by which we are made aware that it is not we who live, but Christ who lives in us (Galatians 2:20). Indeed, to live a spiritual life means to become living Christs. It is not enough to try to imitate Christ as much as possible; it is not enough to remind others of Jesus; it is not even enough to be inspired by the words and actions of Jesus Christ. No, the spiritual life presents us with a far more radical demand: to be living Christs here and now, in time and history.” -Henri Nouwen Source: ‘The Selfless Way of Christ’ Regardless of the particular shape we give to our lives, Jesus’ call to discipleship is primal, all-encompassing, all-inclusive, demanding a total commitment. One cannot be a little bit for Christ, give his some attention, or make him one of many concerns.” -Henri Nouwen Source: ‘The Selfless Way of Christ’ Downward Mobility “The story of our salvation stands radically over and against the philosophy of upward mobility. The great paradox which Scripture reveals to us is that real and total freedom is only found through downward mobility. The Word of God came down to us and lived among us as a slave. The divine way is indeed the downward way. In the center of our faith as Christians stands the mystery that God has chosen to reveal the divine mystery by unreserved submission to the downward pull. God not only chose an insignificant people to carry the Word of salvation through the centuries, not only chose a small remnant of those people to fulfill God’s promises, not only chose a humble girl in an unknown town in Galilee to become the temple of the Word, but God also chose to manifest the fullness of divine love in a man whose life led to a humiliating death outside the walls of the city. This mystery was so deeply ingrained in the minds and hearts of the early Christians that they sang in the hymn of Christ His state was divine Yet he did not cling To his equality with God But emptied himself To assume the condition of a slave And become as we are; And being as we are, He was humbler yet Even to accepting death, Death on a cross -Ephesians 2:6-8 Indeed, the one who was from the beginning with God and who was God revealed himself as a small, helpless child; as a refugee in Egypt; as an obedient adolescent an inconspicuous adult; as a penitent disciple of the Baptizer; as a preacher from Galilee, followed by some simple fisherman; as a man who ate with sinners an talked with strangers; as an outcast, a criminal, a threat to his people. He moved from power to powerlessness, from greatness to smallness, from success to failure, from strength to weakness, from glory to ignominy. The whole life of Jesus of Nazareth was a life in which all upward mobility was resisted. Some people wanted to make him king. They wanted him to show power. They wanted to share in his influence and to sit on thrones with him. But he consistently said “no” to all these desires and pointed to the downward way. “The Son of Man has to suffer…can you drink the cup?” Even after his death, when his followers spoke of him as a defeated freedom fighter and said, “Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free” (Luke 24:21), he had to remind them again of the downward way: “was it not ordained that the Christ should suffer and so enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26) Jesus leaves little doubt that the way he lived is the way he offers his followers: “The disciple is not superior to his teacher, nor the slave to his master” (Matthew 10:24). With great persistence he points out the downward way: ‘Anyone who wants to be great among you must be your servant, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve” (Matthew 20:26-28). The downward way is the way of the cross: “Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39)…this can sometimes sound morbid or depressing, until we come to know that following Jesus on the downward road means entering into a new life, the life of the Spirit of Jesus himself. “To pray is to walk in the full light of God, and to say simply, without holding back, ‘I am human and you are God.’ At that moment, conversion occurs, the restoration of the true relationship. A human being is not someone who once in a while makes a mistake, and God is not someone who now and then forgives. No, human beings are sinners and God is love.” -Henri Nouwen Waiting is not a very popular attitude. Waiting is not something that people think about with great sympathy. In fact, most people consider waiting a waste of time. Perhaps this is because the culture in which we live is basically saying, “Get going! Do something! Show you are able to make a difference! Don’t just sit there and wait!” For many people, waiting is an awful desert between where they are and where they want to go. And people do not like such a place. They want to get out of it by doing something. -Henri Nouwen “You have to trust that every true friendship has no end …. The love you give and receive is a reality that will lead you closer and closer to God as well as to those whom God has given you to love.” -Henri Nouwen I am with people who are poor in spirit. They teach me that being is more important than doing, the heart is more important than the mind, and doing things together is more important than doing things alone. -Henri Nouwen Source: The Road to Peace: Writings on Peace and Justice Patience is a hard discipline. It is not just waiting until something happens over which we have no control: the arrival of the bus, the end of the rain, the return of a friend, the resolution of a conflict. Patience is not waiting passively until someone else does something. Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient, we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later, and somewhere else. Be patient and trust that the treasure you are looking for is hidden in the ground on which you stand. -Henri Nouwen “One of the greatest challenges of the spiritual life is to receive God’s forgiveness. There is something in us humans that keeps us clinging to our sins and prevents us from letting God erase our past and offer us a completely new beginning. Sometimes it even seems as though I want to prove to God that my darkness is too great to overcome. While God wants to restore me to the full dignity of sonship, I keep insisting that I will settle for being a hired servant. But do I truly want to be restored to the full responsibility of the son? Do I truly want to be so totally forgiven that a completely new way of living becomes possible? Do I trust myself and such a radical reclamation? Do I want to break away from my deep-rooted rebellion against God and surrender myself so absolutely to God’s love that a new person can emerge? Receiving forgiveness requires a total willingness to let God be God and do all the healing, restoring and renewing. As long as I want to do even a part of that myself, I end up with partial solutions, such as becoming a hired servant. As a hired servant, I can still keep my distance, still revolt reject, strike, run away, or complain about my pay. As the beloved son, I have to claim my full dignity and begin preparing myself to become the father.” -Henri Nouwen "A friend is more than a therapist or confessor, even though a friend can sometimes heal us and offer us God's forgiveness. A friend is that other person with whom we can share our solitude, our silence, and our prayer. A friend is that other person with whom we can look at a tree and say, "Isn't that beautiful," or sit on the beach and silently watch the sun disappear under the horizon. With a friend we don't have to say or do something special. With a friend we can be still and know that God is there with both of us." -Henri Nouwen “Suffering is a dreadful teacher but often the beginning of the best in us. Suffering and creativity are often interdependent. Pain produces a terrible tension released in our creative response. Suffering can be like a grain of sand in an oyster: it can create a magnificent pearl” -Henri Nouwen Source: ‘Home Tonight’ How can we not lose our souls when everything and everybody pulls us in different directions? How can we “keep it together” when we are constantly being torn apart? Jesus says, “Not a hair of your head will be lost. Your perseverance will win you your lives” (Luke 21:18–19). We can only survive our world when we trust that God knows us more intimately than we know ourselves. We can only keep it together when we believe that God holds us together. We can only win our lives when we remain faithful to the truth that every little part of us, yes, every hair, is completely safe in the divine embrace of our Lord. To say it differently: when we keep living a spiritual life, we have nothing to be afraid of. -Henri J.M. Nouwen Jesus calls us to recognize that gladness and sadness are never separate, that joy and sorrow really belong together, and that mourning and dancing are part of the same movement. That is why Jesus calls us to be grateful for every moment that we have lived, and to claim our unique journey as God’s way to mold our hearts to greater conformity with God’s own. The cross is the main symbol of our faith, and it invites us to find hope where we see pain, and to reaffirm the resurrection where we see death. The call to be grateful is a call to trust that every moment of our life can be claimed as the way of the cross that leads us to new life. -Henri J. M. Nouwen Source: The Essential Henri Nouwen “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 remained “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….’Addiction’ might be the best word to explain the lostness that so deeply permeates contemporary society. Our addictions make us cling to what the world proclaims as the keys to self-fulfillment; accumulation of wealth and power; attainment of status and admiration; lavish consumption of food and drink, and sexual gratification without distinguishing between lust and love. These addictions create expectations that cannot but fail to satisfy our deepest needs. As long as we live within the world’s delusions, our addictions condemn us to futile quests in ‘the distance country,’ leaving us to face an endless series of disillusionments while our sense of self remains unfulfilled. In these days of increasing addictions, we have wandered far away from our Father’s home. The addicted life can aptly be designated to a life lived in “a distance country.” It is from there that our cry for deliverance rises up.” -Henri Nouwen Source: The Return of the Prodigal Son "Birthdays need to be celebrated. I think it is more important to celebrate a birthday than a successful exam, a promotion, or a victory. Because to celebrate a birthday means to say to someone: 'Thank you for being you.' Celebrating a birthday is exalting life and being glad for it. On a birthday we do not say: 'Thanks for what you did, or said, or accomplished.' No, we say: 'Thank you for being born and being among us.” -Henri Nouwen "To pray, I think, does not mean to think about God in contrast to thinking about other things, or to spend time with God instead of spending time with other people. Rather, it means to think and live in the presence of God. As soon as we begin to divide our thoughts into thoughts about God and thoughts about people and events, we remove God from our daily life and put him in a pious little niche where we can think pious thoughts and experience pious feelings. Although it is important and even indispensable for the spiritual life to set apart time for God and God alone, prayer can only become unceasing prayer when all our thoughts - beautiful or ugly, high or low, proud or shameful, sorrowful or joyful - can be thought in the presence of God. Thus, converting our unceasing thinking into unceasing prayer moves us from a self-centered monologue to a God-centered dialogue. This requires that we turn all our thoughts into conversation. The main question, therefore, is not so much what we think, but to whom we present our thoughts.” -Henri Nouwen Source: Clowning in Rome For a long time, I sought safety and security among the wise and clever, hardly aware that the things of the kingdom were revealed to “little children”; that God has chosen “those who by human standards are fools to shame the wise.” But when I experienced the warm, unpretentious reception of those who have nothing to boast about, and experienced a loving embrace from people who didn’t ask any questions, I began to discover that a true spiritual homecoming means a return to the poor in spirit to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs. -Henri J. M. Nouwen “When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.” -Henri J. M. Nouwen the greatest enemy of love for Jesus is service for Jesus -Henri Nouwen "Jesus whole message is to say that you are God's beloved child... When you can hear in your heart, not in your head, that you are truly God's beloved daughter, that you are truly God's beloved son, everything turns around. The mystery of this spiritual truth is that you were loved before you were born, and you will be loved after you die... Your dwelling in God's heart is a dwelling from eternity to eternity.” -Henri Nouwen (speech, 1994) "I am convinced that anyone who has been touched deeply by Jesus will discover eventually in himself a call to share the love of Jesus with others, not to force anyone into becoming a Christian or manipulate anyone into Baptism, but to be a living sign of the love that has been discovered through Jesus and that needs to be made known. The desire to proclaim Jesus belongs to the essence of knowing Him and loving Him. This proclamation can take place in different ways. It doesn't always have to be by words. Everyone has a different vocation; some will proclaim the Gospel by a simple faithfulness to those close to them. Not everyone is called to the same task, and, once we know Jesus, we will gradually discover what our particular way of proclaiming the Gospel is. I do think however, that it is wrong to believe that we are called to save the world by trying with all our will-power to make other people accept Jesus or Baptism. That would be a taking on of a divine role that doesn't belong to us. Only God saves and God's Spirit blows where it wants…" -Henri Nouwen "Parker Palmer, a spiritual writer of the Quaker tradition, says community is the place where the person you least want to live with always lives. So community is not like a place where you love each other sort of freely and warmly and affectionately. Community is in fact the place where you are purified, where your love is tested.” -Henri Nouwen Source: Discovering our Gift through service to others (speech 1994) When we listen to a sentence, a story, or a parable not simply to be instructed, informed, or inspired but to be formed into a truly obedient person, then the Book offers trustworthy spiritual insight. The daily practice of lectio divina (sacred reading), over time, transforms our personal identity, our actions, and our common life of faith…Scripture does have a personal word for us, yet knowledge of historic Christian teaching helps us avoid the easy trap of wanting scripture to support our own design. -Henri Nouwen Source: Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith “There is no such thing as the right place, the right job, the right calling or ministry. I can be happy or unhappy in all situations. I am sure of it, because I have been. I have felt distraught and joyful in situations of abundance as well as poverty, in situations of popularity and anonymity, in situations of success and failure. The difference was never based on the situation itself, but always on my state of mind and heart. When I knew I was walking with God, I always felt happy and at peace. When I was entangled in my own complaints and emotional needs, I always felt restless and divided.” -Henri J. M. Nouwen Source: Seeking Peace Our lives as we live them seem like lives that anticipate questions that never will be asked. It seems as if we are getting ourselves ready for the question “How much did you earn during your lifetime?” or “How many friends did you make?” or “How much progress did you make in your career?” or “How much influence did you have on people?” or “How many conversions did you make?”Were any of these to be the question Christ will ask when he comes again in glory, many of us could approach the judgment day with great confidence. But nobody is going to hear any of these questions. The question we all are going to face is the question we are least prepared for. It is: “What have you done for the least of mine?” As long as there are strangers; hungry, naked, and sick people; prisoners, refugees, and slaves; people who are handicapped physically, mentally, or emotionally; people without work, a home, or a piece of land, there will be that haunting question from the throne of judgment: “What have you done for the least of mine?” -Henri J.M. Nouwen Source: Seeds of Hope “Your life is not going to be easy, and it should not be easy. It ought to be hard. It ought to be radical; it ought to be restless; it ought to lead you to places you'd rather not go.” -Henri Nouwen “When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen Source: Out of Solitude To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives – the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections – that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only truly grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment.…Let us not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God. -Henri Nouwen Now I wonder whether I have sufficiently realized that during all this time God has been trying to find me, to know me, and to love me. The question is not “How am I to find God?” but “How am I to let myself be found by him?” The question is not “How am I to know God?” but “How am I to let myself be known by God?” And, finally, the question is not “How am I to love God?” but “How am I to let myself be loved by God?” God is looking into the distance for me, trying to find me, and longing to bring me home.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming “Addiction" might be the best word to explain the lostness that so deeply permeates society. Our addiction make us cling to what the world proclaims as the keys to self-fulfillment: accumulation of wealth and power; attainment of status and admiration; lavish consumption of food and drink, and sexual gratification without distinguishing between lust and love. These addictions create expectations that cannot but fail to satisfy our deepest needs. As long as we live within the world's delusions, our addictions condemn us to futile quests in "the distant country," leaving us to face an endless series of disillusionments while our sense of self remains unfulfilled. In these days of increasing addictions, we have wandered far away from our Father's home. The addicted life can aptly be designated a life lived in "a distant country." It is from there that our cry for deliverance rises up.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Source: Return of the Prodigal Son “I am the prodigal son every time I search for unconditional love where it cannot be found.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Return of the Prodigal Son “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 J.M. Nouwen, Source: Return of the Prodigal Son “I now see that the hands that forgive, console, heal, and offer a festive meal must become my own.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Source: Return of the Prodigal Son “People who have come to know the joy of God do not deny the darkness, but they choose not to live in it. They claim that the light that shines in the darkness can be trusted more than the darkness itself and that a little bit of light can dispel a lot of darkness. They point each other to flashes of light here and there, and remind each other that they reveal the hidden but real presence of God.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Return of the Prodigal Son “There are many elder sons and elder daughters who are lost while still at home.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Return of the Prodigal Son “Celebration belongs to God’s Kingdom. God not only offers forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing, but wants to lift up these gifts as a source of joy for all who witness them. In all three of the parables which Jesus tells to explain why he eats with sinners, God rejoices and invites others to rejoice with him. “Rejoice with me,” the shepherd says, “I have found my sheep that was lost.” “Rejoice with me,” the woman says, “I have found the drachma I lost.” “Rejoice with me,” the father says, “this son of mine was lost and is found.” All these voices are the voices of God. God does not want to keep his joy to himself. He wants everyone to share in it. God’s joy is the joy of his angels and his saints; it is the joy of all who belong to the Kingdom.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Return of the Prodigal Son “I witness many signs of hope. I don’t have to wait until all is well, but I can celebrate every little hint of the Kingdom that is at hand.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Return of the Prodigal Son “As soon as I recognized the difference between the two hands of the father, a new world of meaning opened up for me. The Father is not simply a great patriarch. He is mother as well as father. He touches the son with a masculine hand and a feminine hand. He holds, and she caresses. He confirms and she consoles. He is, indeed, God, in whom both manhood and womanhood, fatherhood and motherhood, are fully present. That gentle caressing right hand echoes for me the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Can a woman forget her baby at the breast, feel no pity for the child she has borne? Even if these were to forget, I shall not forget you. Look, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Return of the Prodigal Son “I am beginning now to see how radically the character of my spiritual journey will change when I no longer think of God as hiding out and making it as difficult as possible for me to find him, but, instead, as the one who is looking for me while I am doing the hiding.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Return of the Prodigal Son “What I do know with unwavering certainty is the heart of the father. It is a heart of limitless mercy.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Return of the Prodigal Son “When Jesus speaks about the world, he is very realistic. He speaks about wars and revolutions, earthquakes, plagues and famines, persecution and imprisonment, betrayal, hatred and assassinations. There is no suggestion at all that these signs of the world’s darkness will ever be absent. But still, God’s joy can be ours in the midst of it all. It is the joy of belonging to the household of God whose love is stronger than death and who empowers us to be in the world while already belonging to the kingdom of joy.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Return of the Prodigal Son “The Father’s love does not force itself on the beloved.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Return of the Prodigal Son “In Latin, to bless is benedicere, which means literally: saying good things. The Father wants to say, more with his touch than with his voice, good things of his children. He has no desire to punish them. They have already been punished excessively by their own inner or outer waywardness. The Father wants simply to let them know that the love they have searched for in such distorted ways has been, is, and always will be there for them. The Father wants to say, more with his hands than with his mouth: “You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests.” He is the shepherd, “feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms, holding them against his breast.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Return of the Prodigal Son “there are many other voices, voices that are loud, full of promises and very seductive. These voices say, “Go out and prove that you are worth something.” Soon after Jesus had heard the voice calling him the Beloved, he was led to the desert to hear those other voices. They told him to prove that he was worth love in being successful, popular, and powerful. Those same voices are not unfamiliar to me. They are always there and, always, they reach into those inner places where I question my own goodness and doubt my self-worth. They suggest that I am not going to be loved without my having earned it through determined efforts and hard work. They want me to prove to myself and others that I am worth being loved, and they keep pushing me to do everything possible to gain acceptance. They deny loudly that love is a totally free gift. I leave home every time I lose faith in the voice that calls me the Beloved and follow the voices that offer a great variety of ways to win the love I so much desire.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Source: Return of the Prodigal Son “Jesus, the Son of God, is the man of sorrows, but also the man of complete joy.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Source: Return of the Prodigal Son “But what a painful difference between the two! The father bends over his returning son. The elder son stands stiffly erect, a posture accentuated by the long staff reaching from his hand to the floor. The father’s mantle is wide and welcoming; the son’s hangs flat over his body. The father’s hands are spread out and touch the homecomer in a gesture of blessing; the son’s are clasped together and held close to his chest. There is light on both faces, but the light from the father’s face flows through his whole body—especially his hands—and engulfs the younger son in a great halo of luminous warmth; whereas the light on the face of the elder son is cold and constricted.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Source: Return of the Prodigal Son “Spiritual fatherhood has nothing to do with power or control. It is a fatherhood of compassion.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Source: Return of the Prodigal Son “One of the greatest challenges of the spiritual life is to receive God’s forgiveness.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Source: Return of the Prodigal Son “Now I realize that the real sin is to deny God’s first love for me, to ignore my original goodness. Because without claiming that first love and that original goodness for myself, I lose touch with my true self and embark on the destructive search among the wrong people and in the wrong places for what can only be found in the house of my Father.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Source: Return of the Prodigal Son “Whether I am the younger son or the elder son, God’s only desire is to bring me home.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Source: Return of the Prodigal Son “God does not love the younger son more than the elder. In the story the father goes out to the elder son just as he did to the younger, urges him to come in, and says, “My son, you are with me always, and all I have is yours.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Source: Return of the Prodigal Son “The young man being embraced by the Father is no longer just one repentant sinner, but the whole of humanity returning to God. The broken body of the prodigal becomes the broken body of humanity, and the baby-like face of the returning child becomes the face of all suffering people longing to reenter the lost paradise. Thus Rembrandt’s painting becomes more than the mere portrayal of a moving parable. It becomes the summary of the history of our salvation. The light surrounding both Father and Son now speaks of the glory that awaits the children of God.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen, Source: Return of the Prodigal Son “Jesus calls us to recognize that gladness and sadness are never separate, that joy and sorrow really belong together, and that mourning and dancing are part of the same movement. That is why Jesus calls us to be grateful for every moment that we have lived, and to claim our unique journey as God’s way to mold our hearts to greater conformity with God’s own. The cross is the main symbol of our faith, and it invites us to find hope where we see pain, and to reaffirm the resurrection where we see death. The call to be grateful is a call to trust that every moment of our life can be claimed as the way of the cross that leads us to new life.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen Source: The Essential Henri Nouwen “Being patient is difficult. It is not just waiting until something happens over which we have no control: the arrival of the bus, the end of the rain, the return of a friend, the resolution of a conflict. Patience is not waiting passively until someone else does something. Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient, we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later, and somewhere else. Be patient and trust that the treasure you are looking for is hidden in the ground on which you stand.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen “All I want to say to you is “You are the Beloved,” and all I can hope is that you can hear those words as spoken to you with all the tenderness and force that love can hold.” -Henri Nouwen “We don’t think our way into a new kind of living. You live your way into a new kind of thinking.” -Henri Nouwen The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised to His followers, is the great gift of God. Without the Spirit of Jesus, we can do nothing, but in and through His Spirit we can live free, joyful and courageous lives. We cannot pray, but the Spirit of Christ can pray in us. We cannot create peace and joy, the Spirit of Christ can fill us with a peace and joy that is not of this world. We cannot break through the many barriers that divide races, sexes, and nations, but the Spirit of Christ unites all people in the all-embracing love of God. The Spirit of Christ burns away our many fears and anxieties and sets us free to move wherever we are sent. That is the great liberation of Pentecost. -Henri Nouwen “It is in community that we are tested and purified. It is in community that we learn what forgiveness and healing are all about. It is in community that we learn who our neighbor is. Community is the true school of love. Most of all it is in community that we encounter the Christ of the Gospel.” -Henri Nouwen Source: From the Forward of Discipleship “We tend to stay away from mourning and dancing. Too afraid to cry, too shy to dance...we become narrow-minded complainers, avoiding pain and also true human joy...While we live in a world subject to the evil one, we belong to God. Let us mourn, and let us dance.” -Henri Nouwen Source: Audio Lecture on Suffering and Joy “I am convinced that healing is often so difficult because we don’t want to know the pain.” -Henri Nouwen “We have been called to be fruitful – not successful, not productive, not accomplished. Success comes from strength, stress, and human effort. Fruitfulness comes from vulnerability and the admission of our own weakness.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen “How can we not lose our souls when everything and everybody pulls us in different directions? How can we “keep it together” when we are constantly being torn apart? Jesus says, “Not a hair of your head will be lost. Your perseverance will win you your lives” (Luke 21:18–19). We can only survive our world when we trust that God knows us more intimately than we know ourselves. We can only keep it together when we believe that God holds us together. We can only win our lives when we remain faithful to the truth that every little part of us, yes, every hair, is completely safe in the divine embrace of our Lord. To say it differently: when we keep living a spiritual life, we have nothing to be afraid of.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen “It is precisely when you are loved a lot that you might realize a second loneliness which is not to be solved but lived. This second loneliness is an existential loneliness that belongs to the basis of our being. It's where we are unfulfilled because only God can fill us.” -Henri J.M. Nouwen Claiming the Light--People who have come to know the joy of God do not deny the darkness, but they choose not to live in it. They claim that the light that shines in the darkness can be trusted more than the darkness itself and that a little bit of light can dispel a lot of darkness. They point each other to flashes of light here and there, and remind each other that they reveal the hidden but real presence of God. They discover that there are people who heal each other’s wounds, forgive each other’s offenses, share their possessions, foster the spirit of community, celebrate the gifts they have received, and live in constant anticipation of the full manifestation of God’s glory. -Henri J. M. Nouwen Ministry is entering with our human brokenness into communion with others and speaking a word of hope. The great paradox of ministry is that when we minister in our weakness, we receive from those to whom we go. The more in touch we are with our own need for healing and salvation, the more open we are to receiving in gratitude what others have to offer us. -Henri J. M. Nouwen It is hard for me to accept that the best I can do is probably not give but receive. By my receiving in a true and open way, those who give to me can become aware of their own gifts. After all, we come to recognize our own gifts in the eyes of those who receive them gratefully. -Henri J. M. Nouwen Learn the discipline of being surprised not by suffering but by joy. As we grow old, there is suffering ahead of us, immense suffering, a suffering that will continue to tempt us to think that we have chosen the wrong road. But don't be surprised by pain. Be surprised by joy, be surprised by the little flower that shows its beauty in the midst of a barren desert, and be surprised by the immense healing power that keeps bursting forth like springs of fresh water from the depth of our pain. -Henri J. M. Nouwen The spiritual life is a gift. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit, who lifts us up into the kingdom of God’s love. -Henri J. M. Nouwen “In the lonely place Jesus finds the courage to follow God’s will and not his own; to speak God’s words and not his own; to do God’s work and not his own.” -Henri J. M. Nouwen “Somewhere we know that without a lonely place our lives are in danger. Somewhere we know that without silence, words lose their meaning, that without distance, closeness cannot cure.” -Henri J. M. Nouwen Source: Out of Solitude “In solitude we can listen to the voice of him who spoke to us before we could speak a word, who healed us before we could make a gesture to help, who set us free long before we could help free others.” -Henri J. M. Nouwen Source: Out of Solitude “The word faith is often understood as accepting something you can’t understand. The Greek word for faith is pistis, which means literally, “trust.” Whenever Jesus says to people he has healed: “Your faith has saved you,” he is saying that they have found new life because they have surrendered in complete trust to the love of God revealed in him.” -Henri Nouwen Source: You Are the Beloved “Sometimes our sorrow overwhelms us so much that we no longer can believe in joy. Life just seems a cup filled to the brim with war, violence, rejection, loneliness, and endless disappointments. At times like this we need our friends to remind us that crushed grapes can produce tasty wine.” -Henri Nouwen, Source: “April 7” in Bread for the Journey “There is great pain and suffering in the world. But the pain hardest to bear is your own. Once you have taken up that cross, you will be able to see clearly the crosses that others have to bear, and you will be able to reveal to them their own ways to joy, peace, and freedom.” -Henri Nouwen Source: You Are the Beloved Prayers O Lord, I pray that your children may come to feel your presence and be immersed in your deep, warm, affective love. And to me, O Lord, your stumbling friend, show your mercy…. Amen -Henri Nouwen “God, help me to see others not as my enemies or as ungodly but rather as thirsty people. And give me the courage and compassion go offer your Living Water, which alone quenches deep thirst.” -Henri Nouwen |
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