The Genesee Diary Quotes

“The measure of your solitude is the measure of your capacity for communion.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Genesee Diary: Report from a Trappist Monastery

“If I have learned anything this week, it is that there is a contemplative way of working that is more important for me than praying, reading, or singing. Most people think that you go to the monastery to pray. Well, I prayed more this week than before but also discovered that I have not learned yet to make the work of my hands into a prayer.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Genesee Diary: Report from a Trappist Monastery

“Advent . . . leads to a growing inner stillness and joy allowing me to realize that the One for whom I am waiting has already arrived and speaks to me in the silence of my heart.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Genesee Diary: Report from a Trappist Monastery

“I am beginning to experience that an unconditional, total love of God makes a very articulate, alert, and attentive love for the neighbor possible.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Genesee Diary: Report from a Trappist Monastery

“God should be sought, but we cannot find God. We can only be found by him.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Genesee Diary: Report from a Trappist Monastery

“God is the hub of the wheel of life. The closer we come to God the closer we come to each other. The basis of community is not primarily our ideas, feelings, and emotions about each other but our common search for God. When we keep our minds and hearts directed toward God, we will come more fully “together.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Genesee Diary: Report from a Trappist Monastery

“Dorotheus writes: “Don’t look for the affection of your neighbor. He who looks for it is troubled when he does not get it. You yourself, however, have to give witness to the love for your neighbor and to offer him rest, and thus you will bring your neighbor to love.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Genesee Diary: Report from a Trappist Monastery

“Just as a whole world of beauty can be discovered in one flower, so the great grace of God can be tasted in one small moment Just as no great travels are necessary to see the beauty of creation, so no great ecstasies are needed to discover the love of God.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Genesee Diary: Report from a Trappist Monastery

“He who thinks that he is finished, is finished. How true. Those who think that they have arrived, have lost their way. Those who think they have reached their goal, have missed it. Those who think they are saints, are demons.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Genesee Diary: Report from a Trappist Monastery