Henri Nouwen
Dutch Catholic priest, professor, psychologist, and spiritual writer whose books — including The Wounded Healer (1972), The Return of the Prodigal Son (1992), Life of the Beloved, In the Name of Jesus, Reaching Out, and Out of Solitude — have sold more than seven million copies and are taught widely across denominational lines as foundational texts of pastoral and contemplative Christianity. Born 1932 in Nijkerk, ordained in 1957, Nouwen taught at the Menninger Foundation, Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard before leaving academia in 1986 to live as pastor in residence at L'Arche Daybreak — a community for adults with intellectual disabilities near Toronto — where he remained until his death in 1996. His writing turns repeatedly to a small set of themes: belovedness as the foundation of identity, brokenness as the doorway to communion, hospitality as the heart of Christian practice, and downward mobility as the shape of a Christ-following life.
quotes in library
Quotes by Henri Nouwen
112 quotes“And shares it generously with others.”
“You can only deal with what you can deal with.”
“Don't try to face everything at once.”
“Take it slowly. Trust the process.”
“Each step is enough.”
“To be a good leader, become a follower of God.”
“The leader of the future will be the one who dares to claim his irrelevance in the contemporary world.”
“As a relevant sign of God's incarnate love.”
“Christian leadership is not about being effective. It is about being faithful.”
“It is about leading from a place of personal communion with the Lord.”
“Out of that communion, real ministry flows.”
“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, increasingly.”
“That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.”
“Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into 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.”
“You are the Beloved, and on you my favor rests.”
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