"Solitude is the place where we can connect with profound bonds that are deeper than the emergency bonds of fear and anger."
Henri Nouwen"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 bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come."
Henri Nouwen"If fear is the great enemy of intimacy, love is its true friend."
Henri Nouwen"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand."
Henri Nouwen"The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing... not healing, not curing... that is a friend who cares."
Henri Nouwen"Friendship has always belonged to the core of my spiritual journey."
Henri Nouwen"The real enemies of our life are the 'oughts' and the 'ifs.' They pull us backward into the unalterable past and forward into the unpredictable future. But real life takes place in the here and now."
Henri Nouwen"Spiritual identity means we are not what we do or what people say about us. And we are not what we have. We are the beloved daughters and sons of God."
Henri Nouwen"Most Christian leadership is exercised by people who do not know how to develop healthy, intimate relationships and have opted for power and control instead. Many Christian empire-builders have been people unable to give and receive love."
Henri Nouwen"The greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity or power, but self-rejection."
Henri Nouwen"The journey from teaching about love to allowing myself to be loved proved much longer than I realised."
Henri Nouwen"To learn patience is not to rebel against every hardship."
Henri Nouwen"The fruits of your labors may be reaped two generations from now. Trust, even when you don't see the results."
Henri Nouwen"For Jesus, there are no countries to be conquered, no ideologies to be imposed, no people to be dominated. There are only children, women and men to be loved."
Henri Nouwen"To be a Christian who is willing to travel with Christ on his downward road requires being willing to detach oneself constantly from any need to be relevant, and to trust ever more deeply the Word of God."
Henri Nouwen