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" I've had a tremendous problem with depression in my life. I'd rather not talk about it, because it's over. But depression is real. "
Henri Nouwen
Talk
Life
Depression
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" The spiritual life is not a life before, after, or beyond our everyday existence. No, the spiritual life can only be real when it is lived in the midst of the pains and joys of the here and now. "
Henri Nouwen
Existence
Real
Now
" Fear is the great enemy of intimacy. Fear makes us run away from each other or cling to each other but does not create true intimacy. "
Henri Nouwen
True
Create
Enemy
" 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. "
Henri Nouwen
Society
Security
Busy
" 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. "
Henri Nouwen
Become
Above
Age
" The evangelical movement has become just a bit victimized by a success-oriented culture, wanting the church - like the corporation - to be successful. "
Henri Nouwen
Culture
Movement
Successful
" Solitude is very different from a 'time-out' from our busy lives. Solitude is the very ground from which community grows. Whenever we pray alone, study, read, write, or simply spend quiet time away from the places where we interact with each other directly, we are potentially opened for a deeper intimacy with each other. "
Henri Nouwen
Time
Alone
Busy
" The real enemies of our life are the 'oughts' and the 'ifs.' They pull us backward into the unalterable past and forward into the unpredictable future. But real life takes place in the here and now. "
Henri Nouwen
Life
Now
Past
" Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up. Discipline means that somewhere you're not occupied, and certainly not preoccupied. In the spiritual life, discipline means to create that space in which something can happen that you hadn't planned or counted on. "
Henri Nouwen
Discipline
You
Spiritual
" The man who can articulate the movements of his inner life need no longer be a victim of himself, but is able slowly and consistently to remove the obstacles that prevent the spirit from entering. "
Henri Nouwen
Who
Man
Need
" Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone's face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come. "
Henri Nouwen
Smile
Life
Love
" Each day holds a surprise. But only if we expect it can we see, hear, or feel it when it comes to us. Let's not be afraid to receive each day's surprise, whether it comes to us as sorrow or as joy It will open a new place in our hearts, a place where we can welcome new friends and celebrate more fully our shared humanity. "
Henri Nouwen
Welcome
Day
Celebrate
" To be a Christian who is willing to travel with Christ on his downward road requires being willing to detach oneself constantly from any need to be relevant, and to trust ever more deeply the Word of God. "
Henri Nouwen
God
Christian
Trust
" 'How much longer will I live?'... Only one thing seems clear to me. Every day should be well-lived. What a simple truth! Still, it is worthy of my attention. "
Henri Nouwen
Day
Live
Me
" Friendship has always belonged to the core of my spiritual journey. "
Henri Nouwen
Friendship
Always
Spiritual
" Ministry is the least important thing. You cannot not minister if you are in communion with God and live in community. "
Henri Nouwen
God
You
Live
" In their poverty, the mentally handicapped reveal God to us and hold us close to the gospel. "
Henri Nouwen
Gospel
Us
Reveal
" Our first responsibility in the midst of violence is to prevent it from destroying us. "
Henri Nouwen
Us
Violence
Our
" Asking people for money is giving them the opportunity to put their resources at the disposal of the Kingdom. "
Henri Nouwen
People
Them
Giving
" Just as people can watch spellbound a circus artist tumbling through the air in a phosphorized costume, so they can listen to a preacher who uses the Word of God to draw attention to himself. But a sensational preacher stimulates the senses and leaves the spirit untouched. Instead of being the way to God, his 'being different' gets in the way. "
Henri Nouwen
Artist
Being Different
People
" Most Christian leadership is exercised by people who do not know how to develop healthy, intimate relationships and have opted for power and control instead. Many Christian empire-builders have been people unable to give and receive love. "
Henri Nouwen
Love
Leadership
Control
" 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. "
Henri Nouwen
Fear
Happy
Horizon
" One of the most beautiful ways for spiritual formation to take place is to let your insecurity lead you closer to the Lord. Natural hypersensitivity can become an asset; it makes you aware of your need to be with people and it allows you to be more willing to look at their needs. "
Henri Nouwen
Beautiful
People
Spiritual
" The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy. "
Henri Nouwen
Joy
Love
I Am
" When you recognize the festive and the still moments as moments of prayer, then you gradually realize that to pray is to live. "
Henri Nouwen
Realize
Prayer
You
" I have an increasing sense that the most important crisis of our time is spiritual and that we need places where people can grow stronger in the spirit and be able to integrate the emotional struggles in their spiritual journeys. "
Henri Nouwen
Time
Grow
Spiritual
" Prayer is the beginning and the end, the source and the fruit, the core and the content, the basis and the goal of all peacemaking. "
Henri Nouwen
Beginning
Prayer
Fruit
" Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure. "
Henri Nouwen
Meaning
Words
Silence
" God wants you to live for others and to live that presence well. "
Henri Nouwen
God
Others
Live
" God is a God of the present. God is always in the moment, be that moment hard or easy, joyful and painful. "
Henri Nouwen
Moment
Hard
God
" Our glory is hidden in our pain, if we allow God to bring the gift of himself in our experience of it. "
Henri Nouwen
Pain
Experience
Hidden