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
distance ideas giving
When you pray, you open yourself to the influence of the power which has revealed itself as love. The power gives you freedom and independence. Once touched by this power, you are no longer swayed back and forth by the countless opinions, ideas, and feelings which flow through you. You have found a center for your life that gives you a creative distance so that everything you see, hear, and feel can be tested against the source.
profound solitude emergencies
Solitude is the place where we can connect with profound bonds that are deeper than the emergency bonds of fear and anger.
prayer home way
Prayer is the most concrete way to make our home in God.
prayer thinking involved
As we are involved in unceasing thinking, so we are called to unceasing prayer.
responsibility violence firsts
Our first responsibility in the midst of violence is to prevent it from destroying us.
heart desire looks
...the word that seems best to summarize the desire of the human heart is 'communion.' ...wherever we look it is communion that we seek.
believe mean risk
Lifting our cup means sharing our life so we can celebrate it. When we truly believe we are called to lay down our lives for our friends, we must dare to take the risk to let others know what we are living.
hands giving fists
Dear God, I am so afraid to open my clenched fists! Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to? Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands? Please help me to gradually open my hands and to discover that I am not what I own, but what you want to give me.
thinking judging-people long
As long as we continue to live as if we are what we do, what we have, and what other people think about us, we will remain filled with judgments, opinions, evaluations, and condemnations. We will remain addicted to putting people and things in their "right" place.
intimate-relationships intimate-relationship-with-god dare
Let's dare to enter into an intimate relationship with God without fear, trusting that we will receive love and always more love.
light knowing clouds
So I am praying while not knowing how to pray. I am resting while feeling restless, at peace while tempted, safe while still anxious, surrounded by a cloud of light while still in darkness, in love while still doubting.
children our-world voice
It is not easy to enter into the silence and reach beyond the many boisterous and demanding voices of our world and to discover there the small intimate voice saying: 'You are my Belived Child, on you my favor rests.'
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 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.