Henri Nouwen
Henri Nouwen
Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen,was a Dutch Catholic priest, professor, writer and theologian. His interests were rooted primarily in psychology, pastoral ministry, spirituality, social justice and community. Over the course of his life, Nouwen was heavily influenced by the work of Anton Boisen, Thomas Merton, Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh and Jean Vanier...
NationalityDutch
ProfessionClergyman
Date of Birth24 January 1932
darkness demand matter
Praying is no easy matter. It demands a relationship in which you allow someone other than yourself to enter into the very center of your person, to see there what you would rather leave in darkness, and to touch there what you would rather leave untouched.
sisterhood space fearless
That is our vocation: to convert the enemy into a guest and to create the free and fearless space where brotherhood and sisterhood can be formed and fully experienced.
happy-life life-is
A happy life is a life for others.
temptation devil stones
That's the temptation of the devil: "Turn stones into bread! Be relevant!"
baptism church body-of-christ
The Church is the body of Christ fashioned by baptism & the Eucharist.
kissing people world
People who pray stand receptive before the world. They no longer grab but caress, they no longer bite but kiss, they no longer examine but admire
true-friend love-is enemy
If fear is the great enemy of intimacy, love is its true friend.
laughter worry joy
Joy and laughter are the gifts of living in the presence of God and trusting that tomorrow is not worth worrying about.
unconditional-love ministry mystery
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.
rejects
Every time you reject yourself, you idealize others
thanksgiving thankful spiritual
Gratitude goes beyond the 'mine' and 'thine' and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. 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.
stories world want
...we all want to hear stories, from the moment we are born to the moment we die. Stories connect our little lives with the world around us and help us discover who we are.
rebel hardship
To learn patience is not to rebel against every hardship.
irrelevance leader world
The leaders of the future will be those who dare to claim their irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation...