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.
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Quotes by Henri Nouwen
112 quotes“And that communion is given freely when we make ourselves small enough to receive it.”
“Joy and sorrow are no longer opposites.”
“Joy can be born from sorrow. Sorrow can deepen joy.”
“In the heart that knows the Father's love, both can dwell at once.”
“Not many of us are willing to risk being thought a fool.”
“Yet the way of Jesus is the way of the holy fool.”
“To follow Jesus is, very often, to do what looks foolish to the world.”
“Downward mobility is the shape of a Christ-following life.”
“The world rewards upward mobility. The kingdom rewards downward mobility.”
“This is the great inversion of the gospel.”
“Resist the temptation to be relevant.”
“Resist the temptation to be spectacular.”
“Resist the temptation to be powerful.”
“These are the three great temptations of every Christian leader.”
“They are the same temptations Jesus faced in the desert.”
“Spiritual life is not a movement from sorrow to joy.”
“It is a movement from sorrow to deeper joy that contains the sorrow.”
“Mature joy holds within it the wounds of the world.”
“Many friendships will fail when we ask of them what they cannot give.”
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