Henri J. M. Nouwen Quotes

“Through this common search, hospitality becomes community. Hospitality becomes community as it creates a unity based on the shared confession of our basic brokenness and on a shared hope.”

“A minister is not a doctor whose primary task is to take away pain. Rather, he deepens the pain to a level where it can be shared. ”

“Many people suffer because of the false supposition on which they have based their lives. That supposition is that there should be no fear or loneliness, no confusion or doubt. But these sufferings can only be dealt with creatively when they are understood as wounds integral to our human condition. ”

“When someone comes with his loneliness to the minister, he can only expect that his loneliness will be understood and felt, so that he no longer has to run away from it but can accept it as an expression of his basic human condition.”

“Who can listen to a story of loneliness and despair without taking the risk of experiencing similar pains in his own heart and even losing his precious peace of mind?”

“When our wounds cease to be a source of shame, and become a source of healing, we have become wounded healers.”

“Perhaps the main task of the minister is to prevent people from suffering for the wrong reasons.”

“Who can save a child from a burning house without taking the risk of being hurt by the flames?”

“Thus ministry can indeed be a witness to the living truth that the wound, which causes us to suffer now, will be revealed to us later as the place where God intimated his new creation. ”

“This is so because a shared pain is no longer paralyzing but mobilizing, when understood as a way to liberation.”

“Thus, nothing can be written about ministry without a deeper understanding of the ways in which ministers can make their own wounds available as a source of healing.”

“Nobody escapes being wounded. We all are wounded people, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually.”

“Jesus is God’s wounded healer: through his wounds we are healed.”

“Our service will not be perceived as authentic unless it comes from a heart wounded by the suffering about which we speak.”

“No minister can save anyone. He can only offer himself as a guide to fearful people. Yet, paradoxically, it is precisely in this guidance that the first signs of hope become visible.”

“The main question is not ‘How can we hide our wounds?’ so we don’t have to be embarrassed, but ‘How can we put our woundedness in the service of others?’ ”

“As followers of Jesus we can also allow our wounds to bring healing to others.”

“Therefore ministry is a very confronting service. It does not allow people to live with illusions or immortality and wholeness. It keeps reminding others that they are mortal and broken, but also that with the recognition of this condition, liberation starts.”

“In short: ‘Who can take away suffering without entering it?’ ”

“When we become aware that we do not have to escape our pains, but that we can mobilize them into a common search for life, those very pains are transformed from expressions of despair into signs of hope.”

“Jesus’ suffering and death brought joy and life. His humiliation brought glory; his rejection brought a community of love.”

″ It also is becoming obvious that those who avoid the painful encounter with the unseen are doomed to live a [prideful], boring, and superficial life.”