Henri J M Nouwen
Henri J M Nouwen was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest who left a highly acclaimed academic career to share his life with people with mental disabilities as pastor of L’Arche Daybreak Community, Toronto, Canada. The author of many best-selling and influential books, Henri Nouwen died in September 1996.
Prior to writing his great classic, The Return of the Prodigal Son, Henri Nouwen suffered an enormous personal loss and breakdown that took him away from his home in the L’Arche Daybreak community for a period of seven months. His thoughts were intense, raw and deeply private, and ultimately revealed to him the passionate drama of parenthood, filial duty, rivalry, anger and unconditional love on display in Rembrandt’s painting.
On his return from solitude, Henri held small, private workshops on his revelations that were recorded in audio. The material of those extremely personal talks has now been formed into a unique work. Home Tonight brings to light Nouwen’s lectures on the Prodigal Son in a powerful guide for spiritual reflection. Providing exercises, suggestions for times of solitude, questions for pondering, simple prayers, and aides for personal journaling, Home Tonight leads readers to commune with God through spiritual listening. A practical guide for the inner journey home, this important book will give those who adore Nouwen’s works the chance to hear his voice anew on his most popular topic.
Price: £9.99 Pages: 192 ISBN: 52773 3
by Henri J. M. Nouwen, Donald McNeill and Douglas Morrison
REVISED AND UPDATED EDITION
In this provocative essay on that least understood virtue, compassion, the authors challenge themselves and us with these questions: Where do we place compassion in our lives? Is it enough to live a life in which we hurt one another as little as possible? Is our guiding ideal a life of maximum pleasure and minimum pain? Compassion answers no.
After years of study and discussion among themselves, and with men and women at the very centre of national politics, the authors look at compassion with a vigorous new perspective. They place compassion at the heart of a Christian life in a world governed far too long by principles of power and destructive control. Compassion, no longer merely an eraser of human mistakes, is a force of prayer and action - the expression of God’s love for us and our love for God and one another.
Compassion is a book that says no to a compassion of guilt and failure and yes to a compassionate love that pervades our spirit and moves us to action. Henri Nouwen, Donald McNeill, and Douglas Morrison have written a moving document on what it means to be a Christian in a difficult time.
‘Just as a whole world of beauty can be discovered on one flower, so the great grace of God can be tasted in one small moment.’ Henri J.M. Nouwen
This touching observation is central to the probing spiritual journal of Henri Nouwen recorded during his seven-month stay in a Trappist monastery. During this period he had a unique opportunity to explore crucial issues of the spiritual life and discover ‘a quiet stream underneath the fluctuating affirmations and rejections of our little world’.
Henri Nouwen participated fully in the daily life and routine of the Abbey of the Genesee in upstate New York - in work and in prayer. He relates here the typical human experiences and questions that had somehow prevented Christ from being the centre of his existence. From the early weeks in the abbey - dominated by conflicting desires and concerns - to the final days of Advent, when he has found a new sense of calm expectation, Henri Nouwen never loses his critical honesty.
Insightful, compassionate, often humorous, always realistic, The Genesee Diary is both an inspiration and a challenge to those who are in search of themselves.
NOW AVAILABLE ON CD!
A chance encounter with a reproduction of Rembrandt’s painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son, catapulted Henri Nouwen into a long spiritual adventure. In his highly-acclaimed book of the same title, he shares the deeply personal meditation that led him to discover the place within which God has chosen to dwell. This Lent course, which has been adapted from the book, helps us to reflect on the meaning of the parable for our own lives.
Divided into five sessions, the course moves through the parable exploring our reaction to the story: the younger son’s leaving and return, the father’s
restoration of sonship, the elder son’s resentment and the father’s compassion. All of us who have experienced loneliness, dejection, jealousy or anger will respond to the persistent themes of homecoming, affirmation and reconciliation.
Each session contained on the CD includes extracts from the book by Henri Nouwen, and background information about Henri Nouwen’s life, as well as suggestions for reflection. Notes for Group Leaders and written questions for group discussion are also included in the enclosed booklet.
Much has been written about the adventures of Henri J. M. Nouwen, guide of souls extraordinaire, but this is the first time he has been cast exclusively in the guise of a foreign correspondent. In this new collection of Nouwen's extensive travels, through the Ukraine and Russia, Europe, North America and Central and Latin America, concentrating on some lesser known episodes from Nouwen's life. The journeys reveal a world of striking contrasts - one minute Nouwen is rubbing shoulders with the affluent and influential, the next walking through lands of poverty and danger. Focusing on the spirituality of people and places, Nouwen's reflections put us more closely in touch with our own experiences of faith, as well as offering us intriguing new insights into the heart of a one-off spiritual travel guide whose outer and inner journeys were all of a piece.
Michael Ford is a journalist and theologian, specialising in the life and spirituality of Henri Nouwen. He is the author of Wounded Prophet, Eternal Seasons, Disclosures and The Dance of Life.
Publishing May 21st
In this new collection of articles previously unpublished in book form, Henri Nouwen explores selflessness, vocation, and how downward mobility is a key to the spiritual path.
In these short reflections Henri Nouwen explores the theme of downward mobility as the way of Christ, and the things that tempt us away from it, namely, the lure of success, of power, of being needed and important. Originally serialized in the magazine Sojourners, Nouwen wrote the articles during his years as a professor at Yale Divinity School. There he enjoyed academic success and found fame as a spiritual writer, but was struggling to find his true vocation. Here he seeks to explain for himself and his readers how choosing the downwardly mobile path can, conversely, be the means of growth and new life in Christ.
An updated edition of the classic anthology, including extracts from The Return of the Prodigal Son and The Inner Voice of Love.
Edited by Robert Durback