I will probably read this book annually for the rest of my life. The short book centers around profound, in depth analysis of Rembrandt’s painting The Return of the Prodigal Son on the 3 main characters - younger son, older son, and Father.

The gentleness and care with which Nouwen writes was a balm to my soul. It made me rethink what I knew about the parable of the prodigal son and I’m so thankful it did.

"Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds" - W. Shakespeare

The return of the prodigal son is a homecoming story that is as old as the hills and familiar to most. It is in essence a story about the breadth, depth, and height of a father's love. This time, the story is touchingly retold in a fresh new way alongside a famous painting of the same parable.

Its author, Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen (1932-1996,) was a Dutch-born Catholic priest, a pastoral psychologist, and professor. He taught in the divinity school at Yale and Harvard. In the Prologue to "The Return Of The Prodigal Son", Nouwen wrote: "At the heart of this adventure is a seventeenth-century painting and its artist, a first-century parable and its author, and a twentieth-century person in search of life's meaning."

The painting was Rembrandt's Prodigal Son; the parable was a homecoming story of a wayward son; the twentieth-century person was Nouwen himself who was transitioning from a life in academia to a life in one of the L'Arche communities ministering to individuals who were mentally impaired.

This book is testimony to the power of art to inspire and transform lives. Rembrandt’s painting resonated deeply with Nouwen. It was the visio divina that led him to a prayerful contemplation of his true vocation. It is hard to conceive how a man accustomed to life as an academic found his calling among the weakest and most helpless people in society. Nouwen reflected that the L’Arche community made him aware of his own limitations - "It is the place that confronts me with the fact that truly accepting love, forgiveness, and healing is often much harder than giving it."

The best reward for me was reading Nouwen’s brilliant critique of Rembrandt’s painting and observing how this analysis dovetailed his exposition of the biblical text to elucidate the meaning of the parable. He provided an illuminating commentary of Rembrandt's painting that was only possible in combination with his spiritual insight into the parable. Apparently, Rembrandt painted the Prodigal Son toward the end of his life when he too had become weather beaten but broken for the better. I was thankful to be treated to a mini history of Rembrandt’s life and to be privy to the circumstances that influenced his paintings.

This book offered one of the most insightful expositions of the parable of the prodigal son that I have ever come across. The parable was explained in its historical context, which I had not previously appreciated. The younger son's leaving and bold demand for his share of his inheritance was tantamount to wishing his father dead. What audacity!

Nouwen expounded on the meaning of Home in its true spiritual sense. Leaving home was "a denial of the spiritual reality that I belong to God with every part of my being, that God holds me safe in an eternal embrace, that I am indeed carved in the palms of God's hands and hidden in their shadow”. Home finds its bedrock in the father’s love ("I am loved so much that I am left free to leave home."). Nouwen gave a very stirring description of the father’s love as depicted in Rembrandt’s painting and the parable - a love that is supposed to reflect divine love. It is humbling to think that humans are incapable of truly fathoming the heart of God. Divine love defies human understanding, I think, because we love imperfectly.

Nouwen's analysis afforded me a new perspective. He revealed why this parable might well have been called "a parable of the lost sons". In truth, the son who never left home was lost too. He was estranged from his father in a different way. "The lostness of the resentful 'saint' is so hard to reach precisely because it is so closely wedded to the desire to be good and virtuous." How insightful! Another point worth noting is that the responses of the two sons to the father’s welcome were left open ended. Only one thing is certain and that is the father's "heart of limitless mercy".

I also appreciated what Nouwen wrote about the discipline of gratitude, which is "the explicit effort to acknowledge all that I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy." All of life is a pure gift - something to remember when the drudgery of life suggests otherwise.

Nouwen has a way of writing that is warm, tender, and persuasive. I believe this stems from his willingness to be vulnerable. He shared honestly his struggles in his own spiritual journey and it is this that gently takes the reader many steps closer to the Father.

This book is a gift from Nouwen's heart.

A lot to chew on with this elegant and short reflection on both Jesus' parable and Rembrandt's painting of the return of the prodigal son. I especially enjoyed Nouwen's confessional writing style, which allows him to preach without being preachy and convict the reader without claiming to do so. The best part is Nouwen's discussion of the elder son, often neglected in treatments of the parable but whose own journey is perhaps most relevant to many Christians, including myself.

This book is beautiful. When I try to describe it I go a little speechless, so I’m just not gonna try. What I will say is the author described living with and pastoring to people with disabilities as a “spiritual homecoming” citing the “warm, unpretentious reception” he received. Consider me further endeared to the book bc of that perspective.

Here are some quotes I liked (but seriously just get this book and read it yourself)

“God is not the patriarch who stays home, doesn’t move,
and expects his children to come to him, apologize for their aberrant behavior, beg for forgiveness, and promise to do better. To the contrary, he leaves the house, ignoring his dignity by running toward them, pays no heed to apologies and promises of change, and brings them to the table richly prepared for them.”

“I cannot forgive myself. I cannot make myself feel loved. By myself I cannot leave the land of my anger. I cannot bring myself home nor can I create communion on my own. I can desire it, hope for it, wait for it, yes, pray for it. But my true freedom I cannot fabricate for myself. That must be given to me.”

I will re-read it soon, for sure!

Wow, I learned so much about this parable that I had never before considered! A friend recommended this after telling me which person he found he (surprisingly) related to and that really resonated with me as well. I REALLY liked the epilogue about grief, forgiveness, and generosity.

Also wrote down several quotes about joy! One of my faves: "The reward of choosing joy is joy itself....
There is so much rejection, pain, and woundedness among us, but once you choose to claim the joy hidden in the midst of all suffering, life becomes celebration. Joy never denies the sadness, but transforms it to a fertile soil for more joy."

I really enjoyed this book. It is very well written, insightful and challenging. I do have my quibbles with some of the theological statements (though some of them may be interpreted allegorically or analogously, and escape serious criticism), but this is a book worth reading again and again, and meditating on. Looking at the Rembrandt painting of the prodigal son draws the author to reflect upon the parable (the two sons, and the father), and to consider how we are (and are called), in different ways, to reflect the character of each individual in the parable.

I’ve never experienced the parable of the prodigal son like this. Woah! I could read this book over and over!

This may be my all-time favorite source of spiritual encouragement. Certainly, Henri Nouwen is my go-to for consolation in the face of suffering.

In this book, Nouwen interprets both Rembrandt's paining and the Biblical parable from three perspectives: that of the son, that of the father, and that of the brother. We have all been one of them at some point in our lives. Many of us have been all of them.

Nouwen's prose somehow manages to be both crystalline and soft. I don't know how he did it, unless it was by divine intervention. When I began reading Henri Nouwen over a decade ago, I realized how far I had to go as a writer...and as a human being.

Enjoyed rereading this classic. Nouwen was a beautiful soul and a gift to the whole church.

This book changed me, plain and simple. From the way I view art, to the way I view myself, my relationships, and how I am to live my vocation. This is one I am going to have to plan to re-read regularly. So good.

The book is a long sermon rooted in the story of the prodigal son (depicted in a painting) and the author situates himself and us into each character. I especially liked the section about "the good son".