• Don’t wage your Christian struggle with sermons and arguments, but with true love. When we argue, others react. When we love people, they are moved and we win them over. When we love we think that we offer something to others, but in reality we are the first to benefit.

    —Elder Porphyrios

  • Do not consider great the missionary to Africa or the significant inventor. Great is the little person who forbears the madness, the injustice, the persecution, the pain of his neighbor and of his own life.

    —Monk Moses the Athonite

  • Let books be your dining table,
    And you shall be full of delights.
    Let them be your mattress,
    And you shall sleep restful nights.

    —St. Ephrem the Syrian

  • When we are impatient, we experience the present moment as empty and we want to move away from it. Much of our commercial culture skillfully exploits our impatience and tempts us to move toward the “real thing,” which is always somewhere else or at some other time.

    —Henri Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

  • A waiting person is a patient person. The word patience comes from the Latin verb patior, which means “to suffer.” Waiting patiently is suffering through the present moment, tasting it to the fullest in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.

    —Henri Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

  • Whenever there is a lack of clarity or ambiguous circumstances, it is time to wait. Active waiting is essential to the spiritual life. In our mostly active lives and fast-paced culture, waiting is not a popular pastime. It is not something we anticipate or experience with great joy. In fact, most of us consider it a waste of time.

    —Henri Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

  • We seldom fully realize that we are sent to fulfill God-given tasks. We act as if we have to choose how, where, and with whom to live. We act as if we were simply dropped down in creation and have to decide how to entertain ourselves until we die. But we were sent into the world by God, just as Jesus was. Once we start living our lives with that conviction, we will soon know what we were sent to do. These tasks may be very specialized, or they may be the general task of loving one another in everyday life.

    —Henri Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

  • “What does God want from me?” is a question we all ask, not once and for all but throughout our lives. Should I get a job or go back to school, get ordained or do lay ministry, teach or preach, work in another country or closer to home, get married or stay single, have a family or join a community? There are many facets to a life fully committed to God’s will and way. What I tell others who ask these questions, and remind myself with surprising conviction, is this: “God has a very special role for you to fulfill. God wants you to stay close to his heart and to let him guide you. You will know what you are called to do when you have to know it.” New vocations are full of promise. Something very important is in store for us. There is a hidden treasure to discover.

    —Henri Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

  • From the beginning, two inner voices have been speaking to me: one saying, “Henri, be sure you make it on your own. Be sure you become an independent person. Be sure I can be proud of you,” and another voice saying, “Henri, whatever you are going to do, even if you don’t do anything very interesting in the eyes of the world, be sure you stay close to the heart of Jesus; be sure you stay close to the love of God.”

    —Henri Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

  • But as I entered into these feelings, I also discovered the real problem—expecting from a friend what only Christ can give.

    —Henri Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life