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Henri Nouwen

Henri Nouwen Book List

Spiritual identity means we are not what we do or what people say about us. And we are not what we have. We are the beloved daughters and sons of God.

God is a God of the present. God is always in the moment, be that moment hard or easy, joyful and painful.

The greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity or power, but self-rejection.

To learn patience is not to rebel against every hardship.

Our efforts to disconnect ourselves from our own suffering end up disconnecting our suffering from God’s suffering for us. The way out of our loss and hurt is in and through.

The fruits of your labors may be reaped two generations from now. Trust, even when you don’t see the results.

People with handicaps teach me that being is more important than doing, the heart is more important than the mind, and caring together is better than caring alone.

Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure.

Asking people for money is giving them the opportunity to put their resources at the disposal of the Kingdom.

The Christian leaders of the future have to be theologians, persons who know the heart of God and are trained – through prayer, study, and careful analysis – to manifest the divine event of God’s saving work in the midst of the many seemingly random events of their time.

www.henrinouwen.org

Being the Beloved, Part 1, Crystal Cathedral – 9:05
Being the Beloved, Part 3, Crystal Cathedral – 8:37
Being the Beloved, Part 5, Crystal Cathedral – 3:52
Being the Beloved, Part 7, Crystal Cathedral – 5:23
A Saint for the Complex, Ron Rolheiser – 1:01:01
Journey of the Heart – 56:17
Henri Nouwen’s Vulnerable Journey Intro and Chapter 1 -11:12
Finding Our Sacred Center – 57:59
Home Tonight – 9:16
On Loneliness 6:26
God’s Love in Weakness 1:06
The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming
The Road to Daybreak: A Spiritual Journey
Being the Beloved, Part 2, Crystal Cathedral – 8:59
Being the Beloved, Part 4, Crystal Cathedral – 7:01
Being the Beloved, Part 6, Crystal Cathedral – 8:56
Being the Beloved, Part 8, Crystal Cathedral – 7:11
Remembering Henri Nouwen, Robert Jonas 57:54
Henri Nouwen’s Vulnerable Journey Chapter 2  – 15:30
A painting, a parable, and my friend Henri Nouwen, Sr Sue Mosteller 1:19:10
Fr Catoir & Henri Nouwen Personal Pain 5:32
Personal Pain part 3 1:59
Beyond the Mirror 7:18
Life of the Beloved Spirt: Spiritual Life in a Secular World
The Genesee Diary
Inner Voice of Love
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James Finley

“If we are absolutely grounded in the absolute love of God that protects us from nothing even as it sustains us in all things, then we can face all things with courage and tenderness and touch the hurting places in others and in ourselves with love.”

“How strange God’s ways are! He calls us to a union we do not understand. He calls us to a place of encounter which we cannot find. We search and search. Our silence reveals to us not a garden of delights but an awful nothingness. God leaves us in an awful emptiness. All our initial enthusiastic notions of prayer deteriorate into an acknowledgement of our utter superficiality and lack of authenticity before God. We can only throw ourselves completely on his mercy. We can only wait in the darkness and cry out for our salvation. We can but trust that God’s love is such that our sinfulness does not even matter. We can only have faith.”

“The solution Merton suggests is that we should quit keeping score altogether and surrender ourselves with all our sinfulness to God who sees neither the score nor the scorekeeper but only his child redeemed by Christ.”

“All that we can do with any spiritual discipline is produce within ourselves something of the silence, the humility, the detachment, the purity of heart and the indifference which are required if the inner self is to make some shy, unpredictable manifestation of his presence.”

The Peace that Surpasses Understanding – 53:11
Renewing that in us that sees the light – 5:01 
Mystical Sobriety – 27:10
True Wisdom and the self beyond ego, Jim Finley 17:18
Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle  1:23:29
Merton’s Palace of Nowhere
The Contemplative Heart

Spiritual direction with Merton – 13:17
Practice that Grounds Us – 6:22
What is trustworthy about death? – 7:01
Buddha at the Gas Pump 1:56:18
James Finley, Trauma and spirituality
1:16:33
On Mysticism, Psychedelic Drugs, Merton and Rohr 1:28:05
Christian Meditation: Experiencing the Presence of God
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Centering Prayer

Fr. Carl Arico Recordings – Contemplative Outreach and Centering Prayer

Centering Prayer is a receptive method of Christian silent prayer that prepares us to receive the gift of contemplative prayer, prayer in which we experience God’s presence within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than consciousness itself.

The Guidlines

  1. Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within.
  2. Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within.
  3. When engaged with your thoughts, return ever-so-gently to the sacred word.
  4. At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.
What Contemplation is Not Thomas Keating 20:23
The Present Moment and All that Is Thomas Keating 13:03
Four Fruits of Centering Prayer 8:08
God’s Kiss 7:02
How to Do Centering Prayer
Thomas Keating’s Homily at Basil Pennington’s Funeral
The Method of Centering Prayer with Thomas Keating 30:46
Open Mind, Open Heart
Centering Guidelines Intro 7:51
The Emptying of Self 5:48
The Inevitable Thoughts 8:01
Simply Resting in God 1:53
Basil Pennington on Merton & Centering prayer 12:16
What is contemplative prayer Richard Rohr 9:20
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John O’Donohue

“When you learn to love and let yourself be loved, you come home to the hearth of your own spirit. You are warm and sheltered. You are completely at one in the house of your own longing and belonging.”

“I would love to live
like a river flows,
carried by the surprise
of its own unfolding.”

“We do not need to go out and find love; rather, we need to be still and let love discover us.”

“One of the most beautiful gifts in the world is the gift of encouragement. When someone encourages you, that person helps you over a threshold you might otherwise never have crossed on your own.”

“All the possibilities of your human destiny are asleep in your soul. You are here to realize and honor these possibilities. When love comes in to your life, unrecognized dimensions of your destiny awaken and blossom and grow. Possibility is the secret heart of time.”

John O’Donohue 1:11
John O’Donohue reads “Beannacht” 1:40
 Beannacht read by John O’ Donohue 1:14
What is Beauty John O’Donohue: 0:48 to 27:31
Introduction to Celtic Spirituality Mary Meighan 3:23
Celtic Blessings Mary Meighan 6:34
How to find a thin place Andrew Kessler 4:53
Walking in Wonder: Eternal Wisdom for a Modern World
The Inner Landscape of Beauty
Vanished Days: A Musical Memorial Tribute to John O’Donohue 10:15
John O’Donohue At Greenbelt 11:20
Symposium 2012: In Memoriam 6:20
John O’Donohue On Being with Krista Tippett 51:00
2004 CBC interview with Mary Hines 48:27
What is Celtic Spirituality Spiritual Wanderlust 7:50
Braving the Thin Places Julianne Stanz 1:07
Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
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St. Therese of Lisieux

“Our Lord does not so much look at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them.”

“Let us love, since that is what our hearts were made for.”

“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”

“Jesus does not demand great actions from us, but simply surrender and gratitude.”

“If a little flower could speak, it seems to me that it would tell us quite simply all that God has done for it, without hiding any of its gifts. It would not, under the pretext of humility, say that it was not pretty, or that it had not a sweet scent, that the sun had withered its petals, or the storm bruised its stem if it knew that such were not the case.”

“Holiness consists simply in doing God’s will, and being just what God wants us to be.”

“Remember that nothing is small in the eyes of God. Do all that you do with love.”

“When I die, I will send down a shower of roses from the heavens, I will spend my heaven by doing good on earth.”

“Time is your boat not your home.”

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Biography 2:38
The Little Flower of Jesus 7:55
The Simple Soul: Pope Francis 3:25
Her Little Way, Fulton Sheen start to
4:25/19:14
Little Way, Thomas Keating start 10:05-
19:46
Tinkerbell and Sophia, Fr Ron Rollheiser 2:32
Br. Joseph Schmidt start 2:01
Story of a Soul: The autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux
Top 10 Quotes 3:32
Fr. James Martin 10:01
Fr. Robert Barron: Saint Thérèse of Lisieux 5:26
Trust in our Lord  start 6:35 to 10:05/21:50
The story of St Therese—sweet 3:27
St. Therese at death 1:43

St. Therese’s Convent

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St. John of the Cross

“Silence is God’s first language.”

“However softly we speak, God is so close to us that he can hear us; nor do we need wings to go in search of him, but merely to seek solitude and contemplate him within ourselves, without being surprised to find such a good Guest there.”

“In the inner stillness where meditation leads, the Spirit secretly anoints the soul and heals our deepest wounds.”

“Live in the world as if only God and your soul were in it; then your heart will never be made captive by any earthly thing.”

“Never give up prayer, and should you find dryness and difficulty, persevere in it for this very reason. God often desires to see what love your soul has, and love is not tried by ease and satisfaction.”

“In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human success, but rather on how much we have loved.”

“To reach satisfaction in all
desire its possession in nothing,
To come to the knowledge of all
desire the knowledge of nothing.
To come to possess all
desire the possession of nothing.
To arrive at being all
desire to be nothing.”

“Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent.”

“Love consists not in feeling great things but in having great detachment and in suffering for the Beloved. The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of Divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly.”

“A Christian should always remember that the value of his good works is not based on their number and excellence, but on the love of God which prompts him to do these things.”

Dark Night of the Soul read by Theodore Nottingham 2:21

The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross
Dark Night of the Soul by Loreena McKennitt
Dark Night of the Soul
Flame of Love: Poems of the Spanish Mystics St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila
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St. Teresa of Avila

The important thing is not to think much, but to love much; and so do that
which best stirs you to love.

“It is foolish to think that we will enter heaven without entering into ourselves.”


“Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.”

“Christ has no body now, but yours.
No hands, no feet on earth, but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which
Christ looks compassion into the world.
Yours are the feet
with which Christ walks to do good.
Yours are the hands
with which Christ blesses the world.”

“They deceive themselves who believe that union with God consists in ecstasies or raptures, and in the enjoyment of Him. For it consists in nothing except the surrender and subjection of our will – with our thoughts, words and actions – to the will of God.”

“If you seek to carry no other crosses but those whose reason you understand, perfection is not for you.”

The Prayer of Quiet by Samaneri
Jayasāra 14:46
Interior Castle with Jim Finley 1:23:29
Pope Francis on Teresa of Avila 4:05
A life of mystical
experience 11:01
The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila

Contemplative revolutionary with Mirabai Starr 20:52
Biography 3:46
First mansion,
13:51
Teresa of Avila and the Contemplative Vision,
Boston College 1:34:20
The Seven Mansions of Teresa of Avila
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St. Thomas Aquinas

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”

“Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you. Amen.”

“Love follows knowledge.”

“Faith has to do with things that are not seen, and hope with things that are not in hand.”

“There must be must be a first mover existing above all – and this we call God.”

“The things that we love tell us what we are.”

“The soul is like an uninhabited world
that comes to life only when
God lays His head
against us.”

“Wonder is the desire of knowledge.”

“Obedience unites us so closely to God that it in a way transforms us into Him, so that we have no other will but His.
If obedience is lacking, even prayer cannot be pleasing to God.”

Bishop Barron on Thomas Aquinas 7:45
Why is the Summa important 3:15
The Five Ways 8:53
Saint Thomas Aquinas
A Shorter Summa: The Essential Philosophical Passages of Saint Thomas Aqunias’ Summa Theologica
7 Reasons to love Thomas Aquinas 9:23
How do you read an article of the Summa 3:01
Bishop Barron on Aquinas’ unmoved Mover 10:20
Thomas Aquinas in 50 Pages: A Layman’s Guide to Thomism.
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St. Ignatius of Loyola

“We must speak to God as a friend speaks to his friend, servant to his master; now asking some favor, now acknowledging our faults, and communicating to Him all that concerns us, our thoughts, our fears, our projects, our desires, and in all things seeking His counsel.”

“There is no doubt that God will never be wanting to us, provided that He finds in us that humility which makes us worthy of His gifts, the desire of possessing them, and the promptitude to co-operate industriously with the graces He gives us.”

“Teach us, good Lord, to serve Thee as Thou deservest:
To give and not count the cost;
To fight and not heed the wounds;
To toil and not seek for rest;
To labour and not ask for any reward Save that of know that we do Thy will.”

Ignatius w/ James Martin 9:37
Ignatian spiritual exercises 3:50
Ignatius 1:11
The Examen 8:47
The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius
A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer: Discovering the Power of St. Ignatius Loyola’s Examen
Ignatian Spirituality Jesuits in Britain 2:06
Ignatian contemplation – Fr Jim Martin 3:04
Jesuits talking into to Examen 6:00
Easy mid-day Examen 1:56
Te Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life
Life of Ignatius (download)
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St. Francis of Assisi

“Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to His beloved is that of overcoming self.”

“It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”

“Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that have received–only what you have given.”

Life of St. Francis/James Martin 7:48
Sr Ilia Delio on Franciscan Spirituality 15:37
How can I live as a Franciscan? (Ask a Capuchin) 3:54
What is Franciscan Theology 9:00
Difference between Franciscans, Jesuits, and Dominicans w/ Br Casey 3:57
St. Francis of Assisi
The Life of St Francis 25:51
Franciscan Mysticism – Richard Rohr 28:39
Eckhart Tolle discusses the life and teachings of Francis of Assis 4:39
How to live like a Franciscan 3:54