Frasi di Henri Nouwen

Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen è stato un presbitero, teologo e scrittore olandese di religione cattolica, autore di 40 libri sulla vita spirituale.



I suoi libri sono ampiamente letti e due titoli molto amati dai lettori sono The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming e The Wounded Healer . Nouwen ha tenuto conferenze presso le università statunitensi di Notre Dame , Harvard, Yale e presso il Seminario Teologico dell'Ontario , inoltre ha viaggiato in tutta l'America del Nord tenendo ritiri e conferenze.

La sua spiritualità fu influenzata da molti, ma in particolare dalla sua amicizia con Jean Vanier. Su invito di Vanier, visitò la comunità de L'Arche, in Francia, la prima delle oltre 130 comunità in tutto il mondo, in cui i disabili, con difficoltà di sviluppo, vivono e condividono la propria vita con le persone che si prendono cura di loro. Nel 1986 Nouwen accettò la carica di pastore presso una comunità de L'Arche chiamata Daybreak , nei pressi di Toronto, in Canada. Nouwen ha scritto della sua relazione con Adam, uno dei principali membri a L'Arche Daybreak con profonde difficoltà di sviluppo, in un libro intitolato Adam: God's Beloved .

Il risultato di un'indagine condotta nel 2003 dalla rivista Christian Century mostra che il lavoro di Nouwen era di prima qualità per il clero cattolico e protestante.

Una delle sue opere più famose è Inner Voice of Love , il suo diario dal dicembre 1987 al giugno 1988, durante uno dei suoi più gravi attacchi di depressione. Milton Wan Wai Yiu, il famoso teologo cristiano di Hong Kong, ha aggiunto in appendice a questo libro le proprie esperienze spirituali scaturite dall'incontro con l'autore. Milton ha definito la sua teologia spirituale come la "più alta e più profonda del Cattolicesimo e del Protestantesimo", e le sue opere sono ben accreditate da molti cristiani, anche quelli di confessione protestante. Wikipedia  

✵ 24. Gennaio 1932 – 21. Settembre 1996
Henri Nouwen photo
Henri Nouwen: 54   frasi 67   Mi piace

Henri Nouwen frasi celebri

Frasi su Dio di Henri Nouwen

“Dio non grida, non urla e non spinge.”

Vivere nello Spirito

Frasi sulla vita di Henri Nouwen

Henri Nouwen Frasi e Citazioni

Henri Nouwen: Frasi in inglese

“We often confuse unconditional love with unconditional approval.”

Bread For the Journey (1996)
Contesto: We often confuse unconditional love with unconditional approval. God loves us without conditions but does not approve of every human behavior. God doesn’t approve of betrayal, violence, hatred, suspicion, and all other expressions of evil, because they all contradict the love God wants to instill in the human heart. Evil is the absence of God’s love.

“It is the unceasing recognition that God is wherever we are, always inviting us to come closer and to celebrate the divine gift of being alive.”

Origine: With Open Hands (1972)
Contesto: Prayer leads you to see new paths and to hear new melodies in the air. Prayer is the breath of your life which gives you freedom to go and to stay where you wish and to find the many signs which point out the way to a new land. Praying is not simply some necessary compartment in the daily schedule of a Christian or a source of support in time of need, nor is it restricted to Sunday mornings or mealtimes. Praying is living. It is eating and drinking, action and rest, teaching and learning, playing and working. Praying pervades every aspect of our lives. It is the unceasing recognition that God is wherever we are, always inviting us to come closer and to celebrate the divine gift of being alive.

“Prayer leads you to see new paths and to hear new melodies in the air. Prayer is the breath of your life which gives you freedom to go and to stay where you wish and to find the many signs which point out the way to a new land.”

With Open Hands (1972)
Contesto: Prayer leads you to see new paths and to hear new melodies in the air. Prayer is the breath of your life which gives you freedom to go and to stay where you wish and to find the many signs which point out the way to a new land. Praying is not simply some necessary compartment in the daily schedule of a Christian or a source of support in time of need, nor is it restricted to Sunday mornings or mealtimes. Praying is living. It is eating and drinking, action and rest, teaching and learning, playing and working. Praying pervades every aspect of our lives. It is the unceasing recognition that God is wherever we are, always inviting us to come closer and to celebrate the divine gift of being alive.

“To pray means to open your hands before God.”

With Open Hands (1972)
Contesto: To pray means to open your hands before God. It means slowly relaxing the tension which squeezes your hands together and accepting your existence with an increasing readiness, not as a possession to defend, but as a gift to receive. Above all, prayer is a way of life which allows you to find a stillness in the midst of the world where you open your hands to God’s promises and find hope for yourself, your neighbor and your world. In prayer, you encounter God not only in the small voice and the soft breeze, but also in the midst of the turmoil of the world, in the distress and joy of your neighbor and in the loneliness of your own heart.

“Sometimes we like a book, sometimes we prefer music. Sometimes we want to sing out with hundreds, sometimes only whisper with a few. Sometimes we want to say it with words, sometimes with a deep silence.”

With Open Hands (1972)
Contesto: Only within this kind of life does a spoken prayer make sense. A prayer in church, at table or in school is only a witness to what we want to make of our entire lives. Such a prayer reminds us that praying is living and it invites us to make this an ever-greater reality. Thus, there are as many ways to pray as there are moments in life. Sometimes we seek out a quiet spot and want to be alone, sometimes we look for a friend and want to be together. Sometimes we like a book, sometimes we prefer music. Sometimes we want to sing out with hundreds, sometimes only whisper with a few. Sometimes we want to say it with words, sometimes with a deep silence.

“In prayer, you encounter God not only in the small voice and the soft breeze, but also in the midst of the turmoil of the world, in the distress and joy of your neighbor and in the loneliness of your own heart.”

With Open Hands (1972)
Contesto: To pray means to open your hands before God. It means slowly relaxing the tension which squeezes your hands together and accepting your existence with an increasing readiness, not as a possession to defend, but as a gift to receive. Above all, prayer is a way of life which allows you to find a stillness in the midst of the world where you open your hands to God’s promises and find hope for yourself, your neighbor and your world. In prayer, you encounter God not only in the small voice and the soft breeze, but also in the midst of the turmoil of the world, in the distress and joy of your neighbor and in the loneliness of your own heart.

“When we walk in the Lord's presence, everything we see, hear, touch, or taste reminds us of Him. This is what is meant by a prayerful life.”

The Living Reminder: Service and Prayer in Memory of Jesus Christ (1977)
Contesto: When we walk in the Lord's presence, everything we see, hear, touch, or taste reminds us of Him. This is what is meant by a prayerful life. It is not a life in which we say many prayers but a life in which nothing, absolutely nothing, is done, said, or understood independently of Him who is the origin and purpose of our existence.

“Jesus was a revolutionary, who did not become an extremist, since he did not offer an ideology, but Himself.”

The Wounded Healer (1972)
Contesto: Jesus was a revolutionary, who did not become an extremist, since he did not offer an ideology, but Himself. He was also a mystic, who did not use his intimate relationship with God to avoid the social evils of his time, but shocked his milieu to the point of being executed as a rebel. In this sense he also remains for nuclear man the way to liberation and freedom.

“Fear makes us run away from each other or cling to each other but does not create true intimacy.”

Lifesigns: Intimacy, Fecundity, and Ecstasy in Christian Perspective (1986), p. 30

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