Discernment Quotes

“Getting answers to my questions is not the goal of the spiritual life. Living in the presence of God is the greater call.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“People we meet, some great in the eyes of the world and some almost invisible to the larger society, are often conduits of God’s wisdom.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“When we are alone with God, the Spirit prays in us. The challenge is to develop a simple discipline or spiritual practice to embrace some empty time and empty space every day.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“The great movement of the spiritual life is from a deaf, nonhearing life to a life of listening.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“In the Gospels, there are many examples of Jesus not giving a direct answer to questions put to him by his disciples and others. (For example, the mother of James and John asks whether her two sons might sit one at the right hand and the other at the left hand of Jesus in his kingdom, and Jesus responds, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” [Matt. 20:20–23].) He does this not because he has no patience with them but because their questions are the wrong questions; they are not the questions that live in God’s heart but belong instead to the fearful, anxious world of those who do not know who they are.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“When we are spiritually deaf, we are not aware that anything important is happening in our lives. We keep running away from the present moment, and we try to create experiences that make our lives worthwhile. So we fill up our time to avoid the emptiness we otherwise would feel.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“I reached a healthy place in which I was able to stop projecting my needs on another human being. We both came to understand that each of us is limited in our capacity to be for another what is needed, and learned to forgive each other for not being God.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“Spiritual reading, therefore, is slow, deliberate, meditative reading in which we allow the words to penetrate our heart and question our spirit.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“Our salvation comes from something small, tender, and vulnerable, something hardly noticeable. The Lord, who is the creator of the universe, comes to us in smallness, weakness, and hiddenness.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“Our God is a God who cares, heals, guides, directs, challenges, confronts, corrects. To discern means first of all to listen to God, to pay attention to God’s active presence, and to obey God’s prompting, direction, leadings, and guidance.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“Dear friends, I want you to hear this: what is said of Jesus is said of you. I know this can be hard to affirm. You are the beloved daughter or son of God. Can you believe it? Can you hear it not only in your head through your physical ears but in your gut, hear it so that your whole life can be turned around? Go to the scriptures and read: “I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have written your name in the palm of my hand from all eternity. I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you in your mother’s womb. I love you. I embrace you. You are mine and I am yours and you belong to me.” You have to hear this, because if you can hear this divine voice speak to you from all eternity, then your life will become more and more the life of the beloved, because that is who you are.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“A way to rephrase "waiting patiently in expectation" is "standing vulnerable in the presence of our loving God.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“Divine guidance can be found in the books we read, the nature we enjoy, the people we meet, and the events we experience.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“The gospel that proclaims the intrinsic worth, sacred value, and essential dignity of human beings encourages our work for equal rights, good housing, good medical care, and good education, and our fight for justice and peace in the world.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“El discernimiento es una disciplina y una práctica que nos invita a cultivar la confianza, el amor, la fe, la esperanza, y el coraje.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, EL DISCERNIMIENTO. Cómo leer los signos de la vida diaria

“In our mostly active lives and fast-paced culture, waiting is not a popular pastime. It is not something we anticipate or experience with great joy. In fact, most of us consider it a waste of time. Perhaps this is because the culture in which we live is basically saying, “Get going! Do something! Show you are able to make a difference! Don’t just sit there and wait.” But the paradox of waiting is that it requires full attention to the present moment, with the expectation of what is to come and the patience to learn from the act of waiting.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“They ask only one question: "what is pleasing to the Spirit of God?" And as soon as they have heard the sound of the Spirit in the silence and solitude of their hearts, they follow its promptings even if it upsets their friends, disrupts their environment, and confuses their admirers.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“When we see ourselves in a relationship of love with God, there is always something of a lover's dilemma, a struggle to give and receive, to trust and obey the call.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“Waiting patiently is suffering through the present moment, tasting it to the fullest in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“Active waiting is essential to the spiritual life.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“It is as if we have been wandering in a foreign land looking for peace and purpose in our lives and a true sense of who we are. Jesus stands in our midst and beckons us home so that we can be restored to our true selves.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“it became increasingly clear to me that I know quite well the difference between darkness and light but do not always have the courage to name them by their true names.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“God has created you and me with a heart that only God’s love can satisfy. And every other love will be partial, will be real, but limited, will be painful. And if we are willing to let the pain prune us, to give us a deeper sense of our belovedness, then we can be as free as Jesus and walk on this world and proclaim God’s first love, wherever we go.2”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“I wonder if the greatest temptation is self-rejection. Could it be that beneath all the lures to greed, lust, and success rests a great fear of never being enough or not being lovable?”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“Jesus is deeply connected to the earth on which he walks. He observes the forces of nature, learns from them, teaches about them, and reveals that the God of Creation is the same God who sent him to give good news to the poor, sight to the blind, and freedom to the prisoners. He walks from village to village, sometimes alone and sometimes with others; as he walks, he meets the poor, the beggars, the blind, the sick, the mourners, and those who have lost hope. He listens attentively to those with whom he walks, and he speaks to them with the authority of a true companion on the road. He remains very close to the ground.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“Where does my complete flowering as a human being connect with the needs of the world?”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“When we are impatient, we experience the present moment as empty and we want to move away from it. Much of our commercial culture skillfully exploits our impatience and tempts us to move toward the “real thing,” which is always somewhere else or at some other time.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.2”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“Discernment grows out of the life of faith rooted in community.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

“My capacity for intimacy with God was interrelated with my ability to love and live with the others in my community.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life