Spiritual Direction Quotes

“It is by being awake to God in us that we can increasingly see God in the world around us.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith

“How much of our energy goes into defining ourselves by deciding “I am what I do,” “I am what others say about me,” or “I am what I have”? When that’s the case, life often follows a repetitive up-and-down motion.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith

“Our lives are not problems to be solved but journeys to be taken with Jesus as our friend and finest guide.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith

“The goal of spiritual direction is spiritual formation—the ever-increasing capacity to live a spiritual life from the heart. A spiritual life cannot be formed without discipline, practice, and accountability.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith

“spiritual direction as Henri understood it can be defined as a relationship initiated by a spiritual seeker who finds a mature person of faith willing to pray and respond with wisdom and understanding to his or her questions about how to live spiritually in a world of ambiguity and distraction.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith

“We also need guides: spiritual friends, a spiritual director, or a spiritual accountability group that can function for us as a safe place to bear our souls.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith

“Meditation means to let the word descend from our minds into our hearts and thus to become enfleshed.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith

“Thus, to receive spiritual help in time of need requires, first of all, not to deny but to affirm the search. Painful questions must be raised, faced, and then lived. This means that we must constantly avoid the temptation of offering or accepting simple answers, to be easy defenders of God, the Church, the tradition, or whatever we feel called to defend. Experience suggests that such glib apologetics animate hostility and anger, and finally a growing alienation from whom or what we are trying to defend. Be careful when life’s questions swirl around you in times of pain. Beware of easy answers or guarantees. Seek the companionship of others who will befriend you and listen as you live the questions of your life.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith

“I want to beg you as much as I can . . . to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves. . . . Do not now seek answers which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer. . . . Take whatever comes with great trust, and if only it comes out of your will, out of some need of your innermost being, take it upon yourself and hate nothing”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith

“The first task of seeking guidance then is to touch your own struggles, doubts, and insecurities—in short, to affirm your life as a quest.8 Your life, my life, is given graciously by God. Our lives are not problems to be solved but journeys to be taken with Jesus as our friend and finest guide.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith

“A spiritual life doesn’t necessarily lead to tranquillity, to peace, or to a beautiful feeling about ourselves or about how nice it is to be together with others. The chipping-away process can hurt. It might mean being lonely in a place where you never wanted to go. It might lead you to a vocation you never sought. It might ask you to do uncomfortable things. Or it might ask you to obediently and routinely do comfortable things that are not very dramatic when you prefer adventure. The spiritual truth is that God is at work in each of us and in our communities and families. Often, the companionship of trusted friends allows us to see how God is at work. We can’t always see God’s activity by ourselves.”
― Henri J. M. Nouwen, Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith

“Your life, my life, is given graciously by God. Our lives are not problems to be solved but journeys to be taken”
― Henri J. M. Nouwen, Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith

“To live the questions and act rightly, guided by God’s spirit, requires both discipline and courage: discipline to “ask, seek, knock” until the door opens (see Matthew 7:7–8).”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith

“God is a God who wants to lead us closer to the full realization of our lionhearted humanity, if you will.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith