Henri Nouwen wrote and spoke often about community during his life and ministry as a pastor, priest, professor, and prolific author. His search for community propelled his writing and many of his life's most significant life choices, including his decision to leave an academic teaching position in 1986 to serve as chaplain to the L'Arche Daybreak community in Richmond Hill, Ontario. There, living alongside those with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their assistants, his understanding and commitment to community ripened and matured. And yet, surprisingly, he never wrote a complete book on the subject. Now, drawing on a number of articles as well as previously unpublished material, this book provides a picture of why Nouwen thought community was such a necessary and integral part of the spiritual life in all its many dimensions.
Henri Nouwen wrote and spoke often about community during his life and ministry as a pastor, priest, professor, and prolific author. His search for community propelled his writing and many of his life's most significant life choices, including his decision to leave an academic teaching position in 1986 to serve as chaplain to the L'Arche Daybreak community in Richmond Hill, Ontario. There, living alongside those with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their assistants, his understanding and commitment to community ripened and matured. And yet, surprisingly, he never wrote a complete book on the subject. Now, drawing on a number of articles as well as previously unpublished material, this book provides a picture of why Nouwen thought community was such a necessary and integral part of the spiritual life in all its many dimensions.
Henri J. M. Nouwen, a Dutch priest who spent most of his life in North America before his death in 1996, is widely regarded as one of the most influential spiritual teachers of our time. After teaching at several prestigious universities, he accepted an invitation to serve as chaplain to the L’Arche Daybreak Community in Richmond Hills, Ontario, his home for the last ten years of his life. His many books include Adam: God’s Beloved, With Burning Hearts: A Meditation on the Eucharistic Life, and Ukraine Diary.
ILLUMINATION BOOK AWARD Gold Medal, Ministry
“For Henri Nouwen, community is a basic need and hunger of the
human heart. We are created for community, but often we do not
experience it in the individualistic and competitive cultures that
shape our lives. Community is a place marked by acceptance,
intimacy, and vulnerability, where we can bear fruit in solidarity
with others and be the body of Christ for the sake of the world. It
is a place of care and celebration, the place where our wounds and
weaknesses are exposed, a sheltered place for the confession of sin
and brokenness, and a house of love where we can receive
forgiveness and offer it in return.”—From the Introduction by
Stephen Lazarus
“Essays, by turns inspiring, challenging, and sometimes achingly
human, on one of the most important topics of our age—by one of our
age's most important spiritual masters."—James Martin, SJ, author,
Learning to Pray
“Community presents ten chapters that are at the heart of the
Gospel! Solitude and silence are the anchors that stabilize. Action
for justice is the result. But the heart of Community revealed by
Nouwen is that it is our similarities that lead us to compassion
and oneness. This message is good news for these challenging and
divided times.”—Simone Campbell, SSS, author, Hunger for Hope:
Prophetic Communities, Contemplation, and the Common Good
“Community is not a human creation but a divine gift which calls
for an obedient response. This response may require much patience
and humility, much listening and speaking, much confrontation and
self-examination, but it should always be an obedient response to a
bond which is given and not made.”—Henri J. M. Nouwen
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