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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.

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
Perhaps
Learning
Waiting
Means
Vigil
Keep
Weep
Dawn
Human
Wait
Humans
Identity
Mean

More quotes by Henri Nouwen

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Community is the fruit of our capacity to make the interests of others more important than our own.
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When we become aware that we do not have to escape our pains, but that we can mobilize them into a common search for life, those very pains are transformed from expressions of despair into signs of hope.
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Our glory is hidden in our pain, if we allow God to bring the gift of himself in our experience of it.
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What makes us human is not our mind but our heart, not our ability to think but our ability to love.
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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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If you want to know anything about community, you have to realize that the contemplative side is essential. Community without retreating and quiet time never survives.
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Although I am a committed Catholic priest, and nowhere hide that fact, my focus is very much a spiritual journey.
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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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Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone's face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love?' These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will be many fruits, here in this world and the life to come.
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The pain that comes from deep love makes your love more fruitful. It is like a plow that breaks the ground to allow the seed to take root.
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Friendship has always belonged to the core of my spiritual journey.
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As we read spiritually about spiritual things, we open our hearts to God's voice. Sometimes we must be willing to put down the book we are reading and just listen to what God is saying to us through our words.
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One of the main tasks of theology is to find words that do not divide but unite, that do not create conflict but unity, that do not hurt but heal.
Henri Nouwen
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The art of living is to enjoy what we can see and not complain about what remains in the dark.
Henri Nouwen
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Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place.
Henri Nouwen
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Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing-sicknes s, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death--can take that love away.
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In solitude we become aware that our worth is not the same as our usefulness.
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If we want other people to give us something that only God can give, we become a demon. We say, Love me! and before you know it we become violent and demanding and manipulative. It's so important that we keep forgiving one another - not once in a while, but every moment of life.
Henri Nouwen
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The greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity or power, but self-rejection.
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The members - mentally handicapped people who are marginal in society and not useful in an economic sense - welcomed me into their lives. And I was loved, not because of what s doing but because of who I was.
Henri Nouwen