#nouwen

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Our lives are unique stones in the mosaic of human existence - priceless and irreplaceable.

- Henri Nouwen

Model posing in a bikini on the mosaic of the 4th century AD Roman Villa del Casale in Piazza Armerina, 1956. Photography by Elsa Haertter.

[valsedelesruines]

“It is necessary to love — to love everything; even that which is most revolting, Love is the cruellest, most difficult thing of all. Herein, however, lies the Mystery: that which is most revolting is more likely to melt into love than that which is only half revolting — “ 

- Ladislav Klíma

“Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all of us love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour — unceasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.”

- Henri Nouwen

[digitaldion]

“Once in a while we meet a gentle person. Gentleness is a virtue hard to find in a society that admires toughness and roughness. We are encouraged to get things done and to get them done fast, even when people get hurt in the process. Success, accomplishment, and productivity count. But the cost is high. There is no place for gentleness in such a milieu. Gentle is the one who does ‘not break the crushed reed, or snuff the faltering wick.’ Gentle is the one who is attentive to the strengths and weaknesses of the other and enjoys being together more than accomplishing something. A gentle person treads lightly, listens carefully, looks tenderly, and touches with reverence. A gentle person knows that true growth requires nurture, not force. Let’s dress ourselves with gentleness. In our tough and often unbending world our gentleness can be a vivid reminder of the presence of God among us.”

- Henri Nouwen (who died on 21 September 1996. We give thanks for his life today)

[leuc-anthemum]

Many of my daily preoccupations suggest that I belong more to the world than to God. A little criticism makes me angry, and a little rejection makes me depressed. A little praise raises my spirits, and a little success excites me. It takes very little to raise me up or put me down. Often I am like a small boat on the ocean completely at the mercy of its waves. All the time and energy I spend in keeping some kind of balance and preventing myself from being tipped over and drowning shows that my life is mostly a struggle for survival: not a holy struggle, but an anxious struggle resulting from the mistaken idea that it is the world that defines me. As long as I keep running about asking: “Do you love me? Do you really like me?” I give all the power to the voices of the world and put myself in bondage because the world is filled with “ifs.” The world says: “Yes, I love you if you are good-looking, intelligent, and wealthy. I love you if you have a good education, a good job, and good connections. I love you if you produce much, sell much, and buy much.” There are endless “ifs” hidden in the world’s love. These “ifs” enslave me, since it is impossible to respond adequately to all of them. As long as I keep looking for my true self in the world of conditional love, I will remain “hooked” to the world—trying, failing, trying again. It’s a world that fosters addictions because what it offers cannot satisfy the deepest craving of my heart. I am the prodigal son every time I search for unconditional love where it cannot be found. Why do I keep ignoring the place of true love and persist in looking for it elsewhere? I am constantly surprised at how I keep taking the gifts God has given me—my health, my intellectual and emotional gifts—and keep using them to impress people, receive affirmation and praise, and compete for rewards, instead of developing them for God. Yes, I often carry them off to a “distant country” and put them in the service of an exploiting world that does not know their true value. In these days of increasing addictions, we have wandered far away from our Father’s home. Our addictions cling to what the world proclaims as the keys to self-fulfillment: accumulations of wealth and power; attainment of status and admiration; lavish consumption of food and drink, and sexual gratification without distinguishing between lust and love. These addictions create expectations that cannot but fail to satisfy our deepest needs. The addicted life can aptly be designated a life lived in “a distant country.” It is from there that our cry for deliverance rises up.

Henri Nouwen, The Prodigal Son, pg 42-43 holy shit

[gloryfromdust]

It is a great mystery that the closer you come to the poor, the more you want to write about God.

Henri Nouwen

[quotes-for-reference]

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean 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. 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 curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.

Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life, Henri J. M. Nouwen

[digitaldion]

'Jesus was broken on the cross. He lived his suffering and death not as an evil to avoid at all costs but as a mission to embrace. We too are broken. We live with broken bodies, broken hearts, broken minds, or broken spirits. We suffer from broken relationships.

How can we live our brokenness? Jesus invites us to embrace our brokenness as he embraced the cross and live it as part of our mission. He asks us not to reject our brokenness as a curse from God that reminds us of our sinfulness but to accept it and put it under God’s blessing for our purification and sanctification. Thus, our brokenness can become a gateway to new life.'

- Henri Nouwen, Bread for the journey (15 July)

[digitaldion]

“To be a witness for God is to be a living sign of God’s presence in the world. What we live is more important than what we say, because the right way of living always leads to the right way of speaking. When we forgive our neighbors from our hearts, our hearts will speak forgiving words. When we are grateful, we will speak grateful words, and when we are hopeful and joyful, we will speak hopeful and joyful words. When our words come too soon and we are not yet living what we are saying, we easily give double messages. Giving double messages - one with our words and another with our actions - makes us hypocrites. May our lives give us the right words, and may our words lead us to the right lives.”

- Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey (20 June)