I'm concluding my series on Henri Nouwen's book Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life with the final chapter from his first section, which deals with the movement from loneliness to solitude. For several days before I began reading this chapter, I had not responded well to events at home, such as my children acting like children, for goodness' sake. Nouwen's words at the beginning of this chapter (entitled "A Creative Response") caught me up short: As long as we are trying to run away from loneliness … [Read more...] about Henri Nouwen: A Creative Response (from Loneliness to Solitude)
Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life
Henri Nouwen: What’s the cure for loneliness?
Last week, I began blogging through the first section of Henri Nouwen's Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life (to read the first post click here). The first movement – from loneliness to solitude – struck a chord within me, as I reflected that graduate school can be a lonely time and place for many people. Of course, loneliness can strike at any time and any place. Loneliness is even independent of the number of people you're with. Solitude of Heart What's the cure for loneliness? Solitude. But … [Read more...] about Henri Nouwen: What’s the cure for loneliness?
Henri Nouwen: From Loneliness to Solitude
Henri Nouwen is one of those authors whom I have heard praised for many years, but have never gotten around to reading. His biography —an accomplished intellectual and Catholic priest who left the academy in order to live in a L'Arche community with developmentally disabled adults (influenced by his friend and fellow Catholic intellectual, Jean Vanier) —has long struck me as compelling, but until this year, the only thing I had read by him was a short booklet called "A Spirituality of Fundraising," which InterVarsity … [Read more...] about Henri Nouwen: From Loneliness to Solitude