Henri Nouwen is one of my favorite spiritual/Christian authors, and this book did not disappoint!
Through parables & tales Nouwen offers practical spiritual advice on prayer, living in community and answering the big questions we have about God, ourselves, and the world.

“Almost anything that regularly asks us to slow down and order our time, desires, and thoughts to counteract selfishness, impulsiveness, or hurried fogginess of mind can be a spiritual discipline.”

Rich wisdom from Nouwen on living the Christian life. Even though this was posthumously released and mostly compiled by others it still has Nouwen’a tone and touch. Very life-giving. This is one I’ll be rereading for years to come.

Tog upp läsningen igen av den här boken och upptäckte att den verkligen talade till mig och var vad jag behövde. Henri Nouwen börjar med att beskriva hur viktigt det är att ta emot att man är älskad och fortsätter med den andliga vägledningen hur man möter Gud i Bibeln, i gemenskapen och i tjänandet. Kommer att läsa den här boken igen och vill gärna läsa mer av Henri Nouwen.

Drawn together from Nouwen’s writings by two of his students, this little book is a very user friendly guide on how to seek spiritual direction in the Christian life. I read and absorbed this over several months and will definitely read parts of it again.

This was my first Nouwen book, and I was expecting to learn more about spiritual direction, the failures and successes, more examples from the Bible. I felt that it was on the gates of being melancholic, specially when he talks about relationships.

lots of baller one liners but think it’s definitely meant to be read in a group w others.

I read it alone and still had nice takeaways out of it, but it just didn’t slap like some similar books have…

personally not as much of a fan of “how to” books to reflect and improve your relationship w God as much as I am a fan of personal memoirs / apologetics that talk about personal impact practices have had on one’s own life.

if you love lots of little parables and stories from ancient monks / other figures to help explain practices, could be worth reading. I just think I’d recommend others before reading this one.

Love Henri Nouwen’s writing so happy to have come across this book which edited posthumously including some things not previously published. Used this as part of my morning devotional reading and had several Aha moments.

Some key milestones in this book :

“Ministry happens when we move from resentment to gratitude. The spiritual life is one of gratitude …. not just for the good things but for all that he has brought you this day” ( pg 261)

Compassion … makes service possible . Otherwise service can become projects ; just tasks .

Both the Hebrew and Greek words for compassion in the Bible has to with “gut feeling “ and “bowels” - splachmizomai - moved in the bowels ( Like 7:11-15)).

Compassion and ministry could ( or should ??) lead to downward mobility and voluntary displacement .

But done so with God’s love : “ Ministry is when 2 people toast their glasses of wine and something spills over . Ministry is the extra”. ( mmm…. i don’t drink wine )

Ministry takes place in community - and true community requires forgiveness . Our love and care for one another falls short . Disappointment ensues. Forgiveness becomes the divine love in human context (pg 235 / Matt 18:22).

Solitude precedes community - paying careful attention to the work of God- that master sculptor who carves and chisel out the beautiful lion out of the hard marble .

This book is a collection of articles, sermons, and other related works from the late Henri Nouwen, a catholic priest. The book is very interesting and informative but a word of caution for the readers. Some of Henri’s views are problematic but overall it is a good book, specially in the area of living in community. The book starts with a definition for Spiritual direction, that states, “it is a relationship initiated by a spiritual seeker who finds a mature person of faith willing to pray and respond with wisdom and understanding to his or her questions about how to live spiritually in a world of ambiguity and distraction”. In other words, a mentor. In this world with so much confusion and troubles, we sure need a godly person that can provide us with wisdom and help us in our walk with God.

The main point that in my opinion captures the essence of the book is the area of forgiveness. Community requires forgiveness. The book, states “that forgiveness means that I continually am willing to forgive the other person for not fulfilling all my needs and desires. Forgiveness says, ” I know you love me, but you don’t have to love me unconditionally, because only God can do that”. I too must ask forgiveness for not being able to fulfill other people’s total needs, for no human being can do that”. In addition, “our heart longs for satisfaction, for total communion. But human beings, whether it’s your husband, your wife, your father, mother, brother, sister, or child, are all limited in giving the level of love and acceptance we all crave. But since we want so much and we get only part of what we want, we have to keep on forgiving people for not giving us all we want. This is of enormous importance right now because constantly people look to blame their parents, their friends, and the church for not giving them what they need. Any relationship you enter into – will always be riddled with frustration and disappointment. So forgiveness becomes the word for divine love in the human context”. I completely agree with his views in this area. We get in the habit of asking and expecting too much from the people that are close to us, or even the government. But I think it is important to understand that only God can fill the void inside of us. If we trust God and faithfully follow His word then all things are possible.

I recommend this book but again the reader must keep a discerning eye.

In many ways this is typical Nouwen. But with a surprise. More of that in a bit. How is it typical? Well, so many themes: silence and solitude; the word of God and Lectio Divina; the intimacy and accountability of community are all there. They come to us in the, oh so often, three points Henri would make. They always include the witness of his life and many stories and parables to illustrate his points. His former students, Michael J. Christensen and Rebecca J. Laird, craft a marvellous work of editing in preparing this volume. At the end they introduce the surprise.

Perhaps their editing captures it best:
"A fourth discipline, the discipline of the body, can be discerned in the later Nouwen."

They continue by quoting Nouwen:
"Real spiritual life, I became aware, is an enfleshed life calling for a new spirituality of the body. To believe in the Incarnation - that God becomes flesh - is to realize that God enters into a body, so that if you touch a body, in a way you touch the divine life. There is no divine life outside the body because God decided to become one of us."

Not only is this a profound insight in itself, but is more so coming from one who lived his life in academic settings for many years.

Like all works in spiritual direction, this is a workbook. It encourages us to listen to God in the silence, the sacred word, in the community, and in our body in our midst. Readers will find accessible exercises with questions to assist that work.

4.5⭐️

I would rate this book 5 stars merely because of chapter 5 (Who am I?). Reading this chapter completely transformed my outlook on God, myself and the world.

Having said that, Henri Nouwen's incredible wisdom and vulnerability shines through on every single page of this tremendous little book. I can highly recommend it for anyone wanting to discover more about the gift of spiritual direction and the spiritual life.