The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming

henri j.m. nouwen murray bodo

This powerful meditation illuminates the gospel story of The Return of the Prodigal Son. Nouwen discovers anew the reality that God's love is unconditional and shares his own spiritual journey in this book on tape. After an exhausting lecture circuit, Nouwen says he felt "anxious, lonely, restless and very needy." Then, he noticed a poster of Rembrandt's The Prodigal Son in an office. The effect of the masterpiece was so powerful he felt embraced by God's love as if he had "come home." He traveled to see the original painting in Russia and was profoundly inspired by the encounter.Nouwen shares his experience as the wayward son, and also the angry older son and the prodigal father. He speaks to all who have known loneliness, dejection, jealousy or anger and invites them to homecoming, affirmation and reconciliation.

Genres christianreligiontheologyspiritualitynonfictionfaithchristianitycatholicchristian livingart

0 pages, Audio Cassette

First published January 1,1991

Series

The Return of the Prodigal Son

This edition

Format: 0 pages, Audio Cassette
Published: August 1, 2003 by Franciscan Media
ISBN: 9780867164336
ASIN: 0867164336
Language: English

Characters More characters

About the author

henri j.m. nouwen

Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen (Nouen), (1932–1996) was a Dutch-born Catholic priest and writer who authored 40 books on the spiritual life.

Nouwen's books are widely read today by Protestants and Catholics alike. The Wounded Healer, In the Name of Jesus, Clowning in Rome, The Life of the Beloved, and The Way of the Heart are just a few of the more widely recognized titles. After nearly two decades of teaching at the Menninger Foundation Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, and at the University of Notre Dame, Yale University and Harvard University, he went to share his life with mentally handicapped people at the L'Arche community of Daybreak in Toronto, Canada. After a long period of declining energy, which he chronicled in his final book, Sabbatical Journey, he died in September 1996 from a sudden heart attack.

His spirituality was influenced by many, notably by his friendship with Jean Vanier. At the invitation of Vanier he visited L'Arche in France, the first of over 130 communities around the world where people with developmental disabilities live and share life together with those who care for them. In 1986 Nouwen accepted the position of pastor for a L'Arche community called "Daybreak" in Canada, near Toronto. Nouwen wrote about his relationship with Adam, a core member at L'Arche Daybreak with profound developmental disabilities, in a book titled Adam: God's Beloved. Father Nouwen was a good friend of the late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin.

The results of a Christian Century magazine survey conducted in 2003 indicate that Nouwen's work was a first choice of authors for Catholic and mainline Protestant clergy.

One of his most famous works is Inner Voice of Love, his diary from December 1987 to June 1988 during one of his most serious bouts with clinical depression.

There is a Father Henri J. M. Nouwen Catholic Elementary School in Richmond Hill, Ontario.