When suffering unexpectedly falls upon you, whether from within or from without, say: Welcome, my dear, only, faithful friend, I had neither expected nor waited for you here, and bow humbly toward it. Know that God seeks you in all things.

— Johannes Tauler (1300–1361), Mystiker

Topics: Suffering & the Question of God, Humility & Pride, God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit

Occasions: Comfort, For Reflection

All quotes by Johannes Tauler (1)

More on this topic

In our own woundedness, we can become sources of life for others.

Henri Nouwen

Ultimately mourning means facing what wounds us in the presence of One who can heal.

Henri Nouwen

But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

C.S. Lewis

When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become.

Henri Nouwen

He has chosen not to heal me, but to hold me. The more intense the pain, the closer His embrace.

Joni Eareckson Tada

May I be the thinking heart of this barrack. I would like to be it again. I would like to be the thinking heart of an entire concentration camp.

Etty Hillesum

God writes straight even on crooked lines.

Paul Claudel

God lets us walk no path that he himself has not walked, and on which he does not go ahead of us.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

All quotes · lumen.bible