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Henri J.M. Nouwen Quotes

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Famous Henri J.M. Nouwen Quotes

“We become neighbors when we are willing to cross the road for one another. (...) There is a lot of road crossing to do. We are all very busy in our own circles. We have our own people to go to and our own affairs to take care of. But if we could cross the road once in a while and pay attention to what is happening on the other side, we might indeed become neighbors.”

LoveAttentionCompassionBusyNeighborsLove Your Neighbor
Book:Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith
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“Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.”

Compassion
Author:Henri J.M. Nouwen
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“Spiritual fatherhood has nothing to do with power or control. It is a fatherhood of compassion. But the father of the prodigal son is not concerned about himself. His long-suffering life has emptied him of his desires to keep in control of things. Can I give without wanting anything in return, love without putting any conditions on my love?”

SufferingSpiritualityCompassionTheologySelfishnessUnconditional LoveFatherhoodParablesProdigal Son
Book:The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming
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“You're called to become a father who can welcome his children home without asking them any questions and without wanting anything from them in return. Most people around you don’t need you to be a good friend or even a kind brother. We need you to be a father who can claim for himself the authority of true compassion. The idea of being like the old man who had nothing to lose because he had lost all, and only to give, overwhelmed me with fear. I still feel the desire to remain the son and never to grow old.”

SpiritualityFearCompassionAuthorityTheologyGenerosityFatherhoodParablesProdigal Son
Book:The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming
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“If I could meet Rembrandt right where he had painted father and son, God and humanity, compassion and misery, in one circle of love, I would come to know as much as I ever would about death and life. I also sensed the hope that through Rembrandt’s masterpiece I would one day be able to express what I most wanted to say about love.”

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Book:The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming
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“Rembrandt portrays the father as the man who has transcended the ways of his children. His own loneliness and anger may have been there, but they have been transformed by suffering and tears. I see the immense beauty of the father’s emptiness and compassion.”

SpiritualityCompassionLonelinessTearsTransformationTheologyEmptinessFatherhoodProdigal SonRembrandt
Book:The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming
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“To die to our neighbors means to stop judging them, to stop evaluating them, and thus to become free to be compassionate. Compassion can never coexist with judgment because judgment creates the distance, the distinction, which prevents us from really being with the other.”

CompassionJudgmentSolidarityThe Other
Book:The Way of the Heart: A Study of Contemplative Prayer and Inner Devotion
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“Those who really can receive bread from a stranger and smile in gratitude, can feed many without even realizing it. Those who can sit in silence with their fellow man not knowing what to say but knowing that they should be there, can bring new life in a dying heart. Those who are not afraid to hold a hand in gratitude, to shed tears in grief, and to let a sigh of distress arise straight from the heart, can break through paralyzing boundaries and witness the birth of a new fellowship, the fellowship of the broken.”

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Book:Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life
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“Mostly we think of people with great authority as higher up, far away, hard to reach. But spiritual authority comes from compassion and emerges from deep inner solidarity with those who are 'subject' to authority. The one who is fully like us, who deeply understands our joys and pains or hopes and desires, and who is willing and able to walk with us, that is the one to whom we gladly give authority and whose 'subjects' we are willing to be. It is the compassionate authority that empowers, encourages, calls forth hidden gifts, and enables great things to happen. True spiritual authorities are located in the point of an upside-down triangle, supporting and holding into the light everyone they offer their leadership to.”

LeadershipCompassionAuthorityEmpathyServant Leadership
Book:Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith
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