With Open Hands
by Henri Nouwen
Summary
Nouwen sees prayer as our way of opening ourselves to God. While prayer requires a vacancy and vulnerability on our part, in return we receive the gift of God’s presence and guidance in our lives. The Father gives Himself freely to us as we open ourselves through the practice of silence, solitude, and a willingness to be truly seen by Him. And from this place we then begin to see clearly and respond well to the needs of others.
Author’s Website
With Open Hands - Book by Henri Nouwen
Favorite Quotes
“Prayer is no easy matter. It demand 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.”
“It offers the freedom to stroll through your own inner yard and to rake up the leaves and clear the paths so you can easily find the way to your heart.”
“And yet you are Christian only so long as you look forward to a new world, only so long as you constantly pose critical questions to the society in which you live, and only so long as you emphasize the need for conversion both for yourself and for the world. You are Christian only so long as you do not let yourself become established in a situation of seeming calm, only so long as you stay unsatisfied with the status quo and keep saying that a new world is yet to come. You are Christian only when you believe that you have a role to play in the realization of this new kingdom and when you urge everyone you meet with a holy unrest to make haste so that the promise might soon be fulfilled. So long as you live as a Christian, you must keep looking for a new order, a new structure, a new life.”
“Dear God, Give me the courage to live and work for a new heaven and new earth as Jesus did. Give me the freedom to be critical where I see evil and to offer praises where I see goodness. Most of all, make me faithful to the vision you have given me, so that wherever I go and whomever I meet, I can be a sign of your all-renewing love.”
