left me breathless by the end. i felt like some of his social analysis (esp re: generational difference) isn’t exactly razor sharp, especially reading now. But it’s near irrelevant considering his overflowing heart that can be felt throughout this book. And he references king crimson and george jackson, as a white christian chaplain writing in ‘72? Whats not to love?!?

Anyway, as a Buddhist Multi-faith chaplain, this will serve as a resource throughout the rest of my life, one I’m sure to read over and over. damn.

At first I thought this book seemed a bit dated but it was worth sticking with as the last few chapters were very thought provoking. Nouwen’s writing never fails to challenge the reader and make you look at things differently.

5/5⭐

La sinopsis en español dice: Esta obra es una guía práctica de las actitudes que debe vivir el ministro que quiera desempeñar su servicio a la comunidad de manera sincera y auténtica. El libro está estructurado en cuatro capítulos que representan cuatro puertas distintas, a través de las cuales el autor intenta meterse de lleno en los problemas del ministerio en el mundo moderno.


Escrito en la década del setenta es muy actual, a pesar de que el libro fue escrito hace casi 30 años. Me sorprende porque tiene frases y testimonios bastantes fuertes y que sirven para nuestra era.

La primera parte nos muestra la desesperanza de los jóvenes (y no tan jóvenes) La segunda parte cómo el ministro tiene que enfrentar éste mundo actual. Aquí me confundí un poco porque no entendía a dónde quería llegar el autor.

La tercera tiene un testimonio que me pareció muy fuerte. Sentí impotencia y...que vocación difícil es la de ser Ministro (sacerdote o consejero, o guía espiritual) porque habla de "parálisis psíquica". Conozco y conocí personas así. Los sacás de su hábitat y mueren.

Y la cuarta parte plantea el tema del Ministro que cura a partir no solo de sus heridas (no tiene nada que ver con el morbo), habla y explica de la soledad y de la hospitalidad. 
Ésta última parte me ha resultado dolorosa de asimilar porque no hace otra cosa que decirte la verdad sobre la soledad.
“El sanador Herido” es un libro imprescindible para quienes nos dejamos ayudar porque sirve a nuestra evolución personal.

Citas:
“Así vemos hasta qué punto la soledad es la herida del ministro, no sólo porque comparte la condición humana, sino también porque es la única angustia profunda de su profesión. Está llamado a curar esa herida con más cuidado y atención con la que suelen hacerlo los demás.
Porque un conocimiento profundo de su propio dolor le permite convertir su debilidad en fuerza y ofrecer su propia experiencia como fuente de curación para los que, a menudo, están perdidos en la oscuridad de su propio sufrimiento incomprendido. Es una llamada muy difícil, porque para el ministro que tiene que formar una comunidad, la soledad es una herida muy dolorosa, y está sometida a menudo a la no comprensión y al descuido por su parte. Pero una vez que el sufrimiento es aceptado y comprendido, ya no es necesaria la negación, y el ministro puede convertirse en un servidor que cura desde sus heridas.”

Como escribe Nouwen, es en esta cultura sin esperanza que el "sanador herido" puede poner su vida y su propio sufrimiento a disposición de los demás, y "hacer de las propias heridas una fuente de curación, por lo tanto, no exige compartir dolores personales, sino por una voluntad constante de ver el propio dolor y sufrimiento como surgiendo de la profundidad de la condición humana que todos los hombres comparten". 

Sí, es un libro fuerte pero en mi caso que me están ayudando a sanar, fue una recomendación que me hizo mi guía espiritual. Insisto: Muchas cosas no me fueron fáciles de digerir pero lo leí, acepté dar un paso más en esto de sanar las heridas.

This is a great book that gets straight to the point and has no “fluff” between the pages. This book has encouraged me to not resist the pain or trauma I’ve experienced. To accept the invitation by Jesus to step into my story. Understanding my own experience with wounds can help assist others in their healing journey.
I love that Nouwen emphasizes hospitality as a primary way we can live out our calling as “Wounded Healers.” Allowing our homes to be a place of shared stories. Pain and joy, hope and despair, faith and doubt.


I’ll add a few of my favorite quotes:

“This articulation, I believe, is the basis for a spiritual leadership of the future, because only he who is able to articulate his own experience can offer himself to others as a source of clarification.”

“Who can save a child from a burning house without taking the risk of being hurt by the flames? Who can listen to a story of loneliness and despair without taking the risk of experiencing similar pains in his own heart and even losing his precious peace of mind? In short: ‘Who can take away suffering without entering?’”

“Nobody can predict where this will lead us, because every time a host allows himself to be influenced by his guest he takes a risk not knowing how they will affect his life. But it is exactly in common searches and shared risks that new ideas are born, that new visions reveal themselves and that new roads become visible. We do not know where we will be two, ten or twenty years from now. What we can know, however, is that man suffers and that a sharing of suffering can make us move forward. The Christian is called to make this forward thrust credible to his many guests, so that they do not stay but have a growing desire to move on, in the conviction that the full liberation of man and his world is still to come.”

This book is 50 years old, but Nouwen saw people are they are and Jesus as He is. Nouwen humanizes ministry in a deeply gracious way in this book.

“A Christian community is therefore a healing community not because wounds are cured and pains are alleviated, but because wounds and pains become openings or occasions for a new vision. Mutual confession then becomes a mutual deepening of hope, and sharing weakness becomes a reminder to one and all of the coming strength” (94).

This is one of the best books I’ve read. Honestly, the first chapter was really confusing for me and made me nervous for the rest of the book. But the rest was easy to follow and very good.
If you want to walk alongside those suffering, anyone who is lost (or just human), you need to read this book. It addresses the importance and impact of supporting others and understanding our brokenness and pain. Highly, highly recommend!

I thought this short book would be a quick, easy read, but I was so wrong. The first half is a deep dive into some history and philosophy that shaped a generation becoming adults in the U.S. in the early 1970s. The second half explored how ministers/leaders could best share life and the hope of life in Christ with those people, at that time. There were definitely things that generalize outside of that structure and I admire this author a lot, but the book was sure not what I anticipated.

A very helpful read, and a needed angle on the role of the minister. The “contemporary society” of the book is of course, no longer contemporary. The insights are now about America’s grandparents, but the reader can set a trajectory and draw from Nouwen’s insights to form new insights about our current day. I suppose that in many ways this type of “wounded healer” is still a needed model. I know few leaders who truly do it, especially fused with gospel hope. I would suggest that Christians who want to minister read this book and seek to update it in their own contexts.

Brilliant pastoral theology, yet also works as a self-healing book, a beautiful guide to open ourselves along with our wounds to each other, on learning from our own loneliness, to be a blessing for world around us, through our very own pain, and our deep understanding of its resonance with the world's biggest questions and concerns.

Not my favorite by him, but I think a part of that is because I haven’t read a book that is written in essays in a minute connected to faith. He lost me sometimes, but it was good to engage and not always agree. A strong ending though that I resonated with in terms of the power of authenticity and not being afraid of the human condition of loneliness and our struggles

“No one can help anyone without becoming involved, without entering with his whole person into the painful situation, without taking the risk of becoming hurt, wounded or even destroyed in the process. The beginning and the end of all Christian leadership is to give your life for others.”

I expected this book to be about how God brings life from suffering, but it was mainly aimed at the minister’s role to do so through Him. It was good, but I was hoping it would focus more on the Lord’s character. Still important and I love Nouwen.

Nouwen opens this book by giving light to a particular worldview that he sees as slowly becoming the norm in his modern society. This paradigm, that he calls the “nuclear man” is characterized by boredom with the world, apathy, confusion, a lack of hope that is paralyzing, and some other aspects that have, I believe, lost their relevance since 1970. Yet, they still give a fascinating insight into a situation that is part of the proximate history of the society we are faced with today. Something that I found particularly valuable about this introduction, however, is the way that it demonstrates well the extent to which an appropriate view of the world and man’s place in it can no longer be taken for granted, and needs to be reintroduced into society.
Probably the most significant shortcoming, however, is that Nouwen spends almost the entire book talking about what makes a good “Christian leader,” without talking about Jesus Christ. There is really only one very vague and confusing paragraph, about 3/4 of the way through the book, in which he basically just says “and of course all of this is related to Christ, because Christ also has basic concern for people.” In fact, there are no references to the New Testament in the whole book. The only references to scripture are a couple of psalm quotes right at the end. There is literally nothing about his concept of a “Christian leader” that makes it Christian, and the whole thing has just left confused about how and why he is using that term. There was, moreover, a bit of theology that I found questionable, and would love for the chance to ask him more about.