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
prayer goal fruit
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.
teacher struggle communication
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.
prayer home way
Prayer is the most concrete way to make our home in God.
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
clouds one-day sun
While my friend always spoke about the sun, I kept speaking about the clouds, until one day I realized that it was the sun that allowed me to see the clouds.
prayer desire passionate
I am deeply convince that the necessity of prayer, and to pray unceasingly, is not as much based on our desire for God as on God's desire for us. It is God's passionate pursuit of us that calls us to prayer.
two people waiting
[...]when two people have become present to each other, the waiting of one must be able to cross the narrow line between the living or dying of the other.
prayer distance taken
One of the experiences of prayer is that it seems that nothing happens. But when you start with it and look back over a long period of prayer, you suddenly realize that something has happened. What is most close, most intimate, most present, often cannot be experienced directly but only with a certain distance. When I think that I am only distracted, just wasting my time, something is happening too Immediate for knowing, understanding, and experiencing. Only in retrospect do I realize that something very important has taken place.
prayer listening firsts
Prayer is first of all listening to God. It's openness. God is always speaking; he's always doing something.
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.
lonely ministry ministers
Too many of us are lonely ministers practicing a lonely ministry.
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.