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Henri Nouwen on Suffering and Joy book cover
Henri Nouwen on Suffering and Joy
2021
First Published
4.35
Average Rating
300
Number of Pages
In our society, we learn to hide our grief, to suppress our joy, to fight darkness with darkness. We are like Jesus’s generation, to whom he says “We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry” (Luke 7:32). Now spiritual master Henri Nouwen helps you practice Christian healing through both suffering and joy. As you learn to embrace mourning as a means of healing, you will discover true life in the Spirit. You will embody the beatitude “Blessed are those who mourn.” In the first half of the series, you will come to understand how you are called to be a healer. Christ sent us the Spirit to reveal the depths of God’s love. And life in the Spirit requires both mourning your losses and dancing in joy. This, Nouwen says, is the spirit of healing. Then, you will deepen your relationship with the divine. Instead of trying to fight evil with darkness, you will learn to practice Christian healing. By embracing your fears and losses, you will reclaim your identity as a beloved child of God. Throughout these talks, Nouwen weaves together Scripture, his own experiences of suffering, and compassionate insights gleaned from a lifetime of spiritual reflection. Let him help you find true healing and dwell with the Holy Spirit.
Avg Rating
4.35
Number of Ratings
108
5 STARS
48%
4 STARS
41%
3 STARS
9%
2 STARS
2%
1 STARS
0%
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Author

Henri J.M. Nouwen
Henri J.M. Nouwen
Author · 86 books

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.

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