Henri Nouwen

Waiting is a period of learning. The longer we wait, the more we hear about him for whom we are waiting.

In our production-oriented society, being busy, having an occupation, has become one of the main ways, if not the main way, of identifying ourselves. Without an occupation, not just our economic security but our very identity is endangered.

In solitude we become aware that we were together before we came together and that life is not a creation of our will but rather an obedient response to the reality of our being united.

If fear is the great enemy of intimacy, love is its true friend.

Our glory is hidden in our pain, if we allow God to bring the gift of himself in our experience of it.

Our first responsibility in the midst of violence is to prevent it from destroying us.

The fruits of your labors may be reaped two generations from now. Trust, even when you don't see the results.

As peacemakers, we must resist all the powers of war and destruction and proclaim that peace is the divine gift offered to all who affirm life. Resistance means saying 'No' to all the forces of death, wherever they may be.

In their poverty, the mentally handicapped reveal God to us and hold us close to the gospel.

To be a minister means above all to become powerless, or in more precise terms, to speak with our powerlessness to the condition of powerlessness which is so keenly felt but so seldom expressed by the people of our age.

Friendship has always belonged to the core of my spiritual journey.

To give someone a blessing is the most significant affirmation we can offer.

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.

God wants you to live for others and to live that presence well.

Ministry is the least important thing. You cannot not minister if you are in communion with God and live in community.

The evangelical movement has become just a bit victimized by a success-oriented culture, wanting the church - like the corporation - to be successful.

Jesus didn't say, 'Blessed are those who care for the poor.' He said, 'Blessed are we where we are poor, where we are broken.' It is there that God loves us deeply and pulls us into deeper communion with himself.

Asking people for money is giving them the opportunity to put their resources at the disposal of the Kingdom.

The resistance to praying is like the resistance of tightly clenched fists. This image shows a tension, a desire to cling tightly to yourself, a greediness which betrays fear.

Ministers are powerless people who have nothing to boast of except their weaknesses. But when the Lord whom they serve fills them with His blessing they will move mountains and change the hearts of people wherever they go.