Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human. Henri Nouwen More Quotes by Henri Nouwen More Quotes From Henri Nouwen Feelings of guilt dominate our work as peacemakers we cannot last long. But when we have opened each other's eyes to the great human gifts among all people we can indeed make peacemaking a way of being. Henri Nouwen mutual-support gratitude eye The great # conversion called for by Jesus is to move from belonging to the world to belonging to God. Henri Nouwen world moving jesus To the degree that we embrace the truth that our identity is not rooted in our success, power, or popularity, but in God's infinite love, to that degree can we let go of our need to judge. Henri Nouwen identity judging letting-go The great spiritual task facing me is to so fully trust that I belong to God that I can be free in the world--free to speak even when my words are not received; free to act even when my actions are criticized, ridiculed, or considered useless.... I am convinced that I will truly be able to love the world when I fully believe that I am loved far beyond its boundaries. Henri Nouwen tasks spiritual believe To receive spiritual direction is to recognize that God does not solve our problems or answer all our questions, but leads us closer to the mystery of our existence where all questions cease. Henri Nouwen spiritual answers doe To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. Henri Nouwen loneliness spiritual life Prayer is the most concrete way to make our home in God. Henri Nouwen prayer home way 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. Henri Nouwen use suffering moving God doesn't give us just enough. God gives us more than enough: more bread and fish than we can eat, more love than we dared to ask for. Henri Nouwen enough bread giving Joy and laughter are the gifts of living in the presence of God and trusting that tomorrow is not worth worrying about. Henri Nouwen laughter worry joy Prayer is the beginning and the end, the source and the fruit, the core and the content, the basis and the goal of all peacemaking. Henri Nouwen fruit goal prayer Teaching, therefore, asks first of all the creation of a space where students and teachers can enter into a fearless communication with each other and allow their respective life experiences to be their primary and most valuable source of growth and maturation. It asks for a mutual trust in which those who teach and those who want to learn can become present to each other, not as opponents, but as those who share in the same struggle and search for the same truth. Henri Nouwen communication teaching teacher Prayer is not a pious decoration of life but the breath of human existence. Henri Nouwen existence decoration prayer What is important is how well we love. God will make our Henri Nouwen our-love important god-love Nuclear man is the man who realizes that his creative powers hold the potential for self-destruction. He sees that in this nuclear age vast new industrial complexes enable man to produce in one hour that which he labored over for years in the past, but he also realizes that these same industries have disturbed the ecological balance and, through air and noise pollution, have contaminated his own milieu. Henri Nouwen air men past In 1984, Jean Vanier invited me me to visit L'Arche community in Trosly, France. He didn't say "We need a priest" or "We could use you." He said, "Maybe our community can offer you a home." I visited several times, then resigned from Harvard and went to live with the community for a year. I loved it! I didn't have much to do. I wasn't pastor or anything. I was just a friend of the Community. Henri Nouwen community home years A life without a lonely place, that is, without a quiet center, becomes destructive. Henri Nouwen gifts-of-life lonely quiet Any dance of celebration must weave both the sorrows and the blessings into a joyful step....To heal is to let the Holy Spirit call me to dance, to believe again, even amid my pain, that God will orchestrate and guide my life. Henri Nouwen pain blessing believe Solitude is the place of purification and transformation, the place of the great struggle and the great encounter. Henri Nouwen encounters solitude struggle It is good to have a prayer on your lips wherever you go. There are so many moments in life when you are free to pray. When you are waiting for the cashier in the supermarket, getting mad because he or she doesn't hurry, say a little prayer: 'Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.' Take that prayer with you wherever you go. Henri Nouwen mad prayer jesus
