Henri Nouwen Quotes

I don't pray enough, but I pray more now. Every morning at six o'clock have a half hour of meditation before the Blessed Sacrament. I pray with others too.

To pray well is the better half of study.

I do devotion in the morning. I pray and I read the word.

There is so much noise in the world! May we learn to be silent in our hearts and before God.

Be constantly committed to prayer or to reading [Scripture]; by praying, you speak to God, in reading, God speaks to you.

It is a good thing to let prayer be the first business of the morning and the last of the evening.

I always begin my prayer in silence, for it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks. God is the friend of silence-we need to listen to God because it's not what we say but what He says to us and through us that matters.

I get up earlier than my husband and I intentionally spend time in prayer and Bible reading just to focus myself for the day, because the days get crazy.

When you cease from labour, fill up your time in reading, meditation, and prayer: and while your hands are labouring, let your heart be employed, as much as possible, in divine thoughts.

You don't necessarily have to be religious to pray.

Prayer is where the action is.

My grandparents and my mom prayed the rosary a lot, and later in life, I had a priest friend of mine teach me centering prayer, based on Father Thomas Keating's work. That led to practicing different kinds of meditation off and on as I got older.

I know that I pray a lot, and I take time for myself.

I pray and meditate every morning for anywhere between 15 to 50 minutes.

I pray and meditate first thing in the morning.

I do read newspapers constantly and my 'Jesus Calling' devotional on my way to work each day. In addition, my Bible is on my bedside table and my 'go to' for advice and direction.

Over the years, I've become accustomed to the quiet of that morning meal, a time when I devote myself completely to my faith.

Each morning and night I get down on my knees and thank God for my life and ask Him to make me grateful all the time instead of just most of the time.

Think of God more often than thou breathest.

Prayer is like lying awake at night, afraid, with your head under the cover, hearing only the beating of your own heart. It is like a bird that has blundered down the flue and is caught indoors and flutters at the windowpanes. It is like standing a long time on a cold day, knocking at a shut door.

Read the Bible daily. Make it part of your everyday business to read and meditate on some portion of God's Word. Gather your manna fresh every morning. Choose your own seasons and hours. Do not scramble over and hurry your reading. Give your Bible the best, and not the worst, part of your time. But whatever plan you pursue, let it be a rule of your life to visit the throne of grace and the Bible every day.

Shall I give you yet another reason why you should pray? I have preached my very heart out. I could not say any more than I have said. Will not your prayers accomplish that which my preaching fails to do? Is it not likely that the Church has been putting forth its preaching hand but not its praying hand? Oh dear friends! Let us agonize in prayer.

[Prayer] takes no time, but it occupies all our time.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention.

The most important lesson we can learn is how to pray. Prayers do not die, prayers live before God, and God's heart is set on them.