Love, Henri: Letters on the Spiritual Life
Henri Nouwen wrote constantly to the people who reached out to him, from cardinals to college students to L'Arche residents. This collection, drawn from the Nouwen archive and arranged by theme, shows how he counseled others on prayer, vocation, doubt, loneliness, and grief. Many letters are only a paragraph long. Read together they form a portrait of a pastor who took everyone's questions seriously and answered them in his own voice rather than from a pulpit. Brené Brown contributed the foreword, in which she writes about reading Nouwen during her own dark seasons. The book reads as both spiritual direction and a model of attentive friendship.
What you might want to know about Love, Henri: Letters on the Spiritual Life
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
More than one hundred previously unpublished letters from the Dutch priest and writer, gathered from his decades of correspondence with friends and strangers.
Yes. Brown wrote the foreword to the collection, calling Nouwen's words quiet prayers that will live in her heart.
No. The letters stand alone, though readers of The Return of the Prodigal Son will recognize the voice.
Love, Henri: Letters on the Spiritual Life was written by Henri J. M. Nouwen, published in 2016 by Convergent Books.
Love, Henri: Letters on the Spiritual Life is 368 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Love, Henri: Letters on the Spiritual Life takes most readers 6 to 8 hours to finish.
Love, Henri: Letters on the Spiritual Life is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.