Henri Nouwen Quotes & Sayings (Page 4)

“Spiritual identity means we are not what we do or what people say about us. And we are not what we have. We are the beloved daughters and sons of God.”

“The fruits of your labors may be reaped two generations from now. Trust, even when you don't see the results.”

“When you recognize the festive and the still moments as moments of prayer, then you gradually realize that to pray is to live.”

“The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.”

“Our Western society is showing its technological muscles in ever more threatening ways, but the experience of fear, anxiety and even despair has increased in equal proportion. Indeed, the paradox is that the powerful giants feel as powerless as a new-born babe.”

“In our production-oriented society, being busy, having an occupation, has become one of the main ways, if not the main way, of identifying ourselves. Without an occupation, not just our economic security but our very identity is endangered.”

“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.”

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

“Solitude is the place where we can connect with profound bonds that are deeper than the emergency bonds of fear and anger.”

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