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A life without a lonely place, that is, without a quiet center, becomes destructive.

Henri Nouwen

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Henri Nouwen
Age: 64 †
Born: 1932
Born: January 24
Died: 1996
Died: September 21
Catholic Priest
Presbyter
Priest
Psychologist
Theologian
University Teacher
Writer
Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen
Place
Without
Life
Destructive
Center
Lonely
Quiet
Becomes

More quotes by Henri Nouwen

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The farther the outward journey takes you, the deeper the inward journey must be.
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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.
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Becoming the beloved is pulling the truth revealed to me from above down into the ordinariness of what I am, in fact, thinking of, talking about and doing from hour to hour.
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Waiting time is not wasting time. Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.
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Which questions guide our lives? Which questions do we make our own? Which questions deserve our undivided and full personal commitment? Finding the right questions is crucial to finding the answers.
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We have to trust that our stories deserve to be told. We may discover that the better we tell our stories the better we will want to live them.
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The church is not an institution forcing us to follow rules but a community inviting us to still our hunger and thirst at its table.
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It is by chance that we met, by choice that we became friends.
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Intimacy is not a happy medium. It is a way of being in which the tension between distance and closeness is dissolved and a new horizon appears. Intimacy is beyond fear.
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The great teachers are always those who can live the tension. They are not criticizing everybody, they're not complaining. They give young people a vision.
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For many, religion has to do with what we are allowed to do and not allowed to do. In the end, that doesn't bear fruit.
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A happy life is a life for others.
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When suddenly you seem to lose all you thought you had gained, do not despair. You must expect setbacks and regressions. Don't say to yourself All is lost. I have to start all over again. This is not true. What you have gained you have gained....When you return to the the road, you return to the place where you left it, not to where you starte
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Often we come home from a sharing session with a feeling that something precious has been taken away from us or that holy ground has been trodden upon.
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The most important thing I've come to believe in is that people with mental handicaps have a unique mission to bring God's blessing to the World.
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It is very hard to stay in touch with our true identity because those who want our money, our time, and our energy profit more from our insecurity and fears than from our inner freedom.
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When people show you their boundaries (I can't do this for you) you feel rejected...part of your struggle is to set boundaries to your own love. Only when you are able to set your own boundaries will you be able to acknowledge, respect and even be grateful for the boundaries of others.
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We are all healers who can reach out and offer health, and we are all patients in constant need of help.
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Once you are in communion with God, you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear other people in whom God has also found a dwelling place.
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Learning to weep, learning to keep vigil, learning to wait for the dawn. Perhaps this is what it means to be human.
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