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reaching out

Henri Nouwen: What’s the cure for loneliness?

Henri Nouwen's Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life</em. Reissue edition. Image, 1986.
Henri Nouwen’s Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life. Reissue edition. Image, 1986.

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 Nouwen stresses that solitude does not mean being alone, though retreat has been and continues to be a crucial part of developing the discipline of solitude. Just as you can be lonely while surrounded by people, you can be completely alone, yet lack solitude. [Read more…] about Henri Nouwen: What’s the cure for loneliness?

Henri Nouwen: From Loneliness to Solitude

Loneliness
This photo from Flickr is titled “Loneliness,” but I don’t think this church is lonely in the same way that Nouwen describes loneliness.

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 encourages staff to read. The booklet has often given me comfort and strength during difficult stretches of funding work, but for some reason, I had never been motivated to seek out any of his longer works.

Somewhat randomly, I claimed an old copy of Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life from my church library’s discard pile last fall. I began reading it a couple of weeks ago. I had expected it to be good, but I hadn’t expected it to speak so directly to some of the emotional and spiritual struggles I have occasionally faced, and which some of you may be facing as well.

Do you find graduate school or faculty life to be lonely? When you have experienced loneliness, how have you dealt with it emotionally and spiritually?

The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life

What are the three movements referred to in the title? [Read more…] about Henri Nouwen: From Loneliness to Solitude