The crisis of our prayer life is that our minds may be filled with ideas of God while our hearts remain far from him.
Henri NouwenPraying is no easy matter. It demands a relationship in which you allow someone other than yourself to enter into the very center of your person, to see there what you would rather leave in darkness, and to touch there what you would rather leave untouched.
Henri NouwenBased or our baptism, all are called to a mystical life, to communion with God. We need to claim that, to taste it and feel it, to trust that the deeper we live this communion, the more our behavior will witness to the truth.
Henri NouwenThe journey from teaching about love to allowing myself to be loved proved much longer than I realised.
Henri NouwenJoy is based on the spiritual knowledge that, while the world in which we live is shrouded in darkness, God has overcome the world.
Henri NouwenWhen you pray, you open yourself to the influence of the power which has revealed itself as love. The power gives you freedom and independence. Once touched by this power, you are no longer swayed back and forth by the countless opinions, ideas, and feelings which flow through you. You have found a center for your life that gives you a creative distance so that everything you see, hear, and feel can be tested against the source.
Henri Nouwen