To live a spiritual life, we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. The movement from loneliness to solitude is the beginning of any spiritual life.

Henri Nouwen (1932–1996), Priester und Autor

Source: Werk nicht benannt (über goodreads, Wortlaut nicht gegengeprüft)

Topics: Loneliness & Abandonment, Peace & Rest, Prayer & Silence

Occasions: For Reflection, Encouragement

Henri Nouwen

Henri Nouwen (1932–1996) war ein niederländischer katholischer Priester, Theologe und geistlicher Schriftsteller, der nach akademischer Lehrtätigkeit in den USA seine letzten Lebensjahre in einer L’Arche-Gemeinschaft in Kanada verbrachte. Er steht für eine Spiritualität der Verwundbarkeit, die unbedingte Annahme des Menschen durch Gott und den bewussten Dienst an Schwachen jenseits von Erfolgsstreben. Bibellesern eröffnet er einen einfühlsamen Zugang zu biblischen Gleichnissen und Themen, indem er theologische Tiefe mit psychologischem Feingefühl und dem ehrlichen Umgang mit eigenen Zweifeln verbindet.

All quotes by Henri Nouwen (575)

More on this topic

In me it is dark, but with you there is light; I am lonely, but you do not leave me.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one.

C.S. Lewis

The worst hunger can be the hunger to be noticed and loved.

Mother Teresa

When no one listens to me anymore, God still listens to me.

Pope Benedict XVI

I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.

Helen Keller

We bereaved are not alone. We belong to the largest company in all the world--the company of those who have known suffering.

Helen Keller

For I have known them all already, known them all— Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.

T.S. Eliot

Language has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone.

Paul Tillich

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