Nouwen, Henri J. M

This is a book of meditations penned by famed Catholic writer Henri Nouwen, growing out of his contemplation of icons during sojourns at l'Arche, a community for people with mental handicaps in Trosly, France.

Henri Nouwen invites us to reflect on the tension between our desire for solitude and the demands of contemporary life. He reminds us that it was in solitude that Jesus found the courage to follow God?s will. And he shows us that fruitful love and service must spring from a living relationship with God. Beautifully written, elegantly simple, Out of Solitude is as fresh today as it was thirty years ago. "We want to overcome problems and adversities and want to change at all costs. An alternative is to care for ourselves, each other, and our world.".

The power of IN MEMORIAM does not come from Nouwen's insights into death, loss, and grief, as profound as these insights happen to be. Rather in Nouwen's work we find someone who is struggling with these questions and invites the reader to struggle as well. In a sense Nouwen becomes a companion with his readers. He offers a sense of hope, which is what Nouwen attempts to do in most of his writings, and judging from the lives he has touched, obviously succeeds in doing.

Offers a number of timely insights and incisive reminders for those in pastoral education: the need to instill more than techniques; the insistence that the focus of Jesus' life was not the needs of other people, but dedication to His Father; the absolute centrality of prayer; the ministry of absence and 'creative withdrawal'; the necessity of avoiding the illusion of indispensability.

A series of reflections on life to help your prayers become a joy.

Offers a needed response to the oft-asked question, "what does it mean to be a minister in contemporary society?".

Offers a number of timely insights and incisive reminders for those in pastoral education: the need to instill more than techniques; the insistence that the focus of Jesus' life was not the needs of other people, but dedication to His Father; the absolute centrality of prayer; the ministry of absence and 'creative withdrawal'; the necessity of avoiding the illusion of indispensability.

This is in response to the question: "What does it mean to live a life in the Spirit of Jesus Christ?".