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The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight QUOTES

The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight QUOTES

1 " I am called to enter into the inner sanctuary of my own being where God has chosen to dwell. The only way to that place is prayer, unceasing prayer, Many struggles and much pain can clear the way but I am certain that only unceasing prayer can let me enter it. "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

2 " she said, "Whether you are the younger son or the elder son, you have to realize that you are called to become the father. "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

3 " Real loneliness comes when we have lost all sense of having things in common. When "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

4 " Judas betrayed Jesus. Peter denied him. Both were lost children. Judas, no longer able to hold on to the truth that he remained God’s child, hung himself. In terms of the prodigal son, he sold the sword of his sonship. Peter, in the midst of his despair, claimed it and returned with many tears. Judas chose death. Peter chose life. I realize that this choice is always before me. Constantly "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

5 " The immense joy in welcoming back the lost son hides the immense sorrow that has gone before. The "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

6 " The “distant country” is the world in which everything considered holy at home is disregarded. "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

7 " Each little step toward the center seemed like an impossible demand, a demand requiring me to let go one more time from wanting to be in control, to give up one more time the desire to predict life, to die one more time to the fear of not knowing where it all will lead, and to surrender one more time to a love that knows no limits. And still, I knew that I would never be able to live the great commandment to love without allowing myself to be loved without conditions or prerequisites. The journey from teaching about love to allowing myself to be loved proved much longer than I realized. "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

8 " When I fail, I feel jealous or resentful of these others. When I succeed, I worry that others will be jealous or resentful of me. I become suspicious or defensive and increasingly afraid that I won’t get what I so much desire or will lose what I already have. Caught "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

9 " He had become so disconnected from what gives life—family, friends, community, acquaintances, and even food—that he realized that death would be the natural next step. All at once he saw clearly the path he had chosen and where it would lead him; he understood his own death choice; and he knew that one more step in the direction he was going would take him to self-destruction. "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

10 " But there are many other voices, voices that are loud, full of promises and very seductive. These voices say, “Go out and prove that you are worth something.” Soon after Jesus had heard the voice calling him the Beloved, he was led to the desert to hear those other voices. They told him to prove that he was worth love in being successful, popular, and powerful. Those same voices are not unfamiliar to me. They "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

11 " But when I forget that voice of the first unconditional love, then these innocent suggestions can easily start dominating my life and pull me into the “distant country.” It "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

12 " All of these mental games reveal to me the fragility of my faith that I am the Beloved One on whom God’s favor rests. I am so afraid of being disliked, blamed, put aside, passed over, ignored, persecuted, and killed, that I am constantly developing strategies to defend myself and thereby assure myself of the love I think I need and deserve. And in so doing I move far away from my father’s home and choose to dwell in a “distant country. "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

13 " coming home” meant, for me, walking step by step toward the One who awaits me with open arms and wants to hold me in an eternal embrace. I "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

14 " Coming home and staying there where God dwells, listening to the voice of truth and love, that was, indeed, the journey I most feared because I knew that God was a jealous lover who wanted every part of me all the time. When would I be ready to accept that kind of love? "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

15 " I know now that I have to speak from eternity into time, from the lasting joy into the passing realities of our short existence in this world, from the house of love into the houses of fear, from God’s abode into the dwellings of human beings. I "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

16 " truly accepting love, forgiveness, and healing is often much harder than giving it. "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

17 " Somehow I have become deaf to the voice that calls me the Beloved, have left the only place where I can hear that voice, and have gone off desperately hoping that I would find somewhere else what I could no longer find at home. "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

18 " I am a good person, known and cherished by the One who brought me to my existence. Before I was hurt, I was a beloved. "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

19 " Nouwen’s wisdom is a fusion of the psychological and the spiritual. "

― Henri J.M. Nouwen , The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight