Henri Nouwen Quotes

Caring. And reading the Bible, learning about God, Jesus, love. He said, 'Bring on the children', 'Imitate the children', 'Be like the children' and 'Take care of others.' Take care of old people. And we were raised with those values. Those are very important values and my family and I we were raised with those values and they continue strong in us today.

Jesus has said "Come, blessed of my Father, take the seat in the kingdom prepared for you, because I was hungry you gave me food, I was thirsty you have me drink, I was naked you clothed me, I was homeless you took me home and I was sick you visited me." And we are just doing that.

To be a Christian is to be obligated to be charitable. This is true whether you are rich or poor, healthy or ill, old or young, male or female, oppressed or free, established or disestablished.

Being Christian towards poor people means trying to improve their lives and give them back some self-respect.

The Church does an enormous amount of good, and it carries one of the most valuable messages imaginable - that you should love your neighbor as yourself, and that if you have two coats you should give one to the man who has none.

Anyone who has two shirts when someone has none is not a christian.

This is the rule of most perfect Christianity, its most exact definition, its highest point, namely, the seeking of the common good ... for nothing can so make a person an imitator of Christ as caring for neighbors.

I wear black for those who never read or listen to the words that Jesus said, about the road to happiness, through love and charity.

The distinctive mark of the Christian, today more than ever, must be love for the poor, the weak, the suffering.

Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken.

And my Christianity, first and foremost, governed the way that I tried to deal with people.

I believe in unconditional love and equality. Jesus Christ exemplified these qualities.

Christ preferred the poor; ever since I have been converted so have I.

Oh, how I would like a poor Church, and for the poor.

The faith must express itself in charity and in solidarity, which is the civil form of charity.

When a man becomes a Christian, he becomes industrious, trustworthy and prosperous. Now, if that man, when he gets all he can and saves all he can, does not give all he can, I have more hope for Judas Iscariot than for that man!

What's hard, it seems, is living up to the words spoken by Jesus Christ, who preached naught but love and mercy and justice and humility.

If I had the power I would steal all your royal wealth and give it to Christ’s brothers and sisters.

Alas for the rarity / Of Christian charity

Christians do not say that people should be reduced merely to what they can produce or what they can buy - that we should let the weak go under and only the strong survive. No, we say, 'Do to others what you would have them do unto you.'

A sure indicator of true religion is a concern for the poor of the earth.

I try to be a good person. I love Jesus.

I get maximum satisfaction in seeing the happiness of poor people.

Some of the greatest Christians I know are people who don't actually have a kind of faith system that they believe in. But, in their activity, the way they conduct themselves, there's a goodness there.

Simpler manners, purer lives; more self-denial; more earnest sympathy with the classes that lie below us, nothing short of that can lay the foundations of the Christianity which is to be hereafter, deep and broad.