Product Description

Nouwen invites readers to join him on a 40-day Lenten path as fellow pilgrims, from the solemn beginning of Ash Wednesday to the joyous climax of Easter. This inspirational "search for the way" speaks directly to the heart during this time of reflection and prayer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #238877 in Books
• Published on: 1992
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 56
• Binding: Paperback
• 187 pages

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

Customer Reviews

It challenges me to find the 'descending way' to God.
I've used this book for the last three Lenten seasons, and it just gets better each year. Each day's text is very short, usually less than 2 pages, so I don't ever feel that I just don't have time to read it. Even though the meditations are short, every day's reading is filled with challenges for me to become closer to God, and to find, as Nouwen puts it, the 'descending way'.

This year I purchased three more copies of this book to share with friends for their Lenten meditations.

Excellent lenten tool from a wounded master
The late henri Nouwen, of blessed memory, was one of the mostinfluential spiritual writers of the last century .His writings are rarely academic,and often are quite personal. Therse selections are taken from many of Fr Nouwens writings, put together with the appropriate scipture reading of the day, and concluded with a prayer from Fr nouwen. Two pages long each day, this book has been a faithful companion the last 3 lenten seasons for me. Nouwens own foibles make all the more poignant the struggles he expresses during Lent. Powerful reading from a good great man.

Nourishing selections that you want to prayerfully sip and taste and be transformed
The challenging journey of a major sickness and surgery and the solitude in hospital stay might have helped one's listening and gaining a renewed and deepened appreciation for Henri Nouwen's writings. The low-keyed compiler, F. Johna, name only given at Forward, has done an excellent job in selecting from diverse sources and woven choice pieces into apt themes for every day of Lent, with a quote at the beginning and meaningful prayer at the end. The new edition has a more attractive cover and format and a theme topic is given to each day.
You wish to quote from every page. I'll just give a few examples.
From 1st Sunday of Lent:
"...true joy comes from letting God love me the way God wants, whether it is through illness or health, failure or success, poverty or wealth, rejection or praise. It is hard for me to say, 'I shall gratefully accept everything, Lord, that pleases you. Let your will be done.' But I know when I believe my Father is pure love, it will become increasingly possible to say these words from the heart."
What a gift to live in the conviction that "my Father is pure love" no matter what!
He ends encouraging people to pray often and make our own Charles de Foucauld's Prayer of Abandonment. (All so similar to St Ignatius of Loyola's "Take and Receive".) But he cautions that we cannot realize this prayer through our own effort, only through the spirit of Jesus.
The Eucharist is so central in Nouwen's spirituality.
From 2nd Sunday of Lent:
"When we eat bread and drink wine together in memory of Christ, we BECOME his life and are thus enabled to represent his life in our time and place."
From 3rd Sunday of Lent:
"It is this, the enemy-loving love of God, that is offered to us in the Eucharist. To forgive our enemies doesn't lie within our power. That is a divine gift. That's why it's so important to make the Eucharist the heart and center of your life. It's there that you receive the love which empowers you to take the way that Jesus has taken before you: a narrow way, a painful way, but the way that gives you true joy and peace and enables you to make the non-violent love of God visible in this world."
The ongoing spiritual conversion, esp. during Lent, is not one of personal effort and achievement, though there is the need for spiritual discipline. Growth in surrendering oneself, forgiveness, compassion and love all stem from being loved, united with Jesus, to live because of the Father as beloved sons and daughters.
One will suffer from indigestion to read any of Nouwen's numerous books from cover to cover at one sitting. So daily meditation over these choice selections not only nourishes the spirit during Lent, but throughout the year.