Making All Things New Quotes

“Our life is a short time in expectation, a time in which sadness and joy kiss each other at every moment. There is a quality of sadness that pervades all the moments of our lives. It seems that there is no such thing as a clear-cut pure joy, but that even in the most happy moments of our existence we sense a tinge of sadness. In every satisfaction, there is an awareness of limitations. In every success, there is the fear of jealousy. Behind every smile, there is a tear. In every embrace, there is loneliness. In every friendship, distance. And in all forms of light, there is the knowledge of surrounding darkness . . . But this intimate experience in which every bit of life is touched by a bit of death can point us beyond the limits of our existence. It can do so by making us look forward in expectation to the day when our hearts will be filled with perfect joy, a joy that no one shall take away from us.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life

“One way to express the spiritual crisis of our time is to say that most of us have an address but cannot be found there.”
― Henri Nouwen, Making All Things New

“To be bored, therefore, does not mean that we have nothing to do, but that we question the value of the things we are so busy doing. The great paradox of our time is that many of us are busy and bored at the same time.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life

“A spiritual life without discipline is impossible. Discipline is the other side of discipleship. The practice of a spiritual discipline makes us more sensitive to the small, gentle voice of God.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life

“When we worry, we have our hearts in the wrong place.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life

“Our individual as well as communal lives are so deeply molded by our worries about tomorrow that today hardly can be experienced.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life

“Today worrying means to be occupied and preoccupied with many things, while at the same time being bored, resentful, depressed, and very lonely.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life

“we are usually surrounded by so much inner and outer noise that it is hard to truly hear our God when he is speaking to us.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life

“Life in the Spirit of Jesus is therefore a life in which Jesus’ coming into the world—his incarnation, his death, and resurrection—is lived out by those who have entered into the same obedient relationship to the Father which marked Jesus’ own life. Having become sons and daughters as Jesus was Son, our lives become a continuation of Jesus’ mission.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life

“Community thus is obedience practiced together. The question is not simply, “Where does God lead me as an individual person who tries to do his will?” More basic and more significant is the question, “Where does God lead us as a people?” This”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life

“Community has little to do with mutual compatibility. Similarities in educational background, psychological make-up, or social status can bring us together, but they can never be the basis for community. Community is grounded in God, who calls us together, and not in the attractiveness of people to each other. There”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life

“If the urge to be entertained so much, to travel so much, to buy so much, and to arm ourselves so much no longer motivated our behavior, could our society as it is today still function?”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life

“Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life

“In true community we are windows constantly offering each other new views on the mystery of God’s presence in our lives.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life

“To be lifted up into the divine life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit does not mean, however, to be taken out of the world. On the contrary, those who have entered into the spiritual life are precisely the ones who are sent into the world to continue and fulfill the work that Jesus began. The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life