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Feb 17th to Feb 20th: Welcome and Introductions

Reading: Foreward, by Sr. Sue Mosteller, C.S.J., Henri’s friend and
Literary Executrix, p. vii t0 xi.

The book recounts an “odyssey” of friendship; it required the stature
of a “Ulysses” to make the exhausting journey
and write five books along the way.
Sr. Sue Mosteller, from the Foreward

Welcome to the Henri Nouwen Society Lent book discussion of Sabbatical Journey – The Diary of His Final Year, written by Henri Nouwen while on sabbatical in the year preceding his untimely death on September 21, 1996. Our discussion of Henri’s diary of his final year is one of the ways the Society is celebrating Henri’s legacy during this 25th anniversary of Henri’s passing. As always, we look forward to greeting 0ld friends and welcoming new ones in our virtual community as we journey through the season together with Henri as our guide.

As Sr. Sue notes in the Foreward, Henri made his last entry on August 30, 1996 and he died before rereading or editing the journal. In preparing the book for publication, Sr. Sue’s goal was to be “faithful to his original text. I have not made many changes. The result is that the book lacks his completeness and finesse but it brims with his life and spirit.” We the readers are the beneficiaries of this approach. This Lent we will share the last year of Henri’s vibrant and exhausting life as he experienced it. We will see Henri with his many friends, in a close and mature relationship with his father after many years, in his solitude, as he is writing, and in personal prayer as well as his priestly Eucharistic ministry. I’m confident that you will grow in your understanding of Henri and be enriched by your participation.

Let’s briefly describe how our online book discussion works. If you’ve joined us before, this will serve as a review.

Beginning on February 21st, the First Sunday of Lent, and each Sunday through March 28th a new entry or post will be added to the book discussion (the blog) home page. The post will identify the reading for the week, present a brief moderator’s reflection, and suggest some questions for discussion. Participants are invited and encouraged to comment on the post by responding to the suggested questions, by sharing their own reflections, and by replying to the comments of others throughout the week.

To read the comments or to leave a comment of your own, scroll down to the bottom of the post.  If you don’t see any comments, click on the small link at the bottom that says
## Comments.  To leave a new comment, continue scrolling down and use the “Leave a Reply” box.  To reply to someone else’s comment, click the Reply link directly below their comment. After you submit a new comment or a reply, it needs to be “approved” either by me or Will at the Nouwen Society so it may take a few hours before it actually appears on the blog page.

You should always post your comment in the current week. If you are unsure, click on the Home link in the black bar under the photograph at the top of the blog to navigate to the current week. Then click on the bold title to open the post and any comments. Finally, the instructions on how to submit and reply to comments are also included with the Reading Schedule found by at following the the link in black bar.

As we begin our journey together, it’s always nice to know something about our companions. Over the next few days you are encouraged to introduce yourself. You may choose to share:

  • Your general geographic location
  • To whom or what you dedicate your days or energy, and why
  • How you came to “know/read” Henri Nouwen and whether or not you participated in a previous discussion
  • What you hope to experience during this discussion
  • Any thoughts and insights you gained from reading the Foreward

We begin our discussion of Sabbatical Journey – The Diary of His Final Year in earnest this Sunday, February 21st. In Sr. Sue’s words, “May the gift of Henri’s word and example shepherd us and lead us to find each other in friendship, welcome the questions arising from our search, share our joys and pains, and befriend death by trusting the One Who waits to catch and reunite us in everlasting joy.”

Meanwhile, welcome to each of you and I look forward to your introductions!

In gratitude,
Ray

RAY GLENNON: Ray came to know and trust Henri’s written word in a special way in 2004 when he discovered The Return of the Prodigal Son for sale after Mass in Singapore. He began participating in Henri Nouwen Society book discussions in 2010 and has served as a moderator since 2014. He developed and led a six-week adult education course on “Henri Nouwen and A Spirituality of Living.” Ray volunteers in his parish Confirmation program and other ministries. He and his wife are candidates in the Secular Franciscan Order (OFS). You may contact Ray by email at [email protected] and you can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/@RayGlennon.

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Announcing the book selection for Lent 2021!

Sabbatical Journey: The Diary of His Final Year

This year marks the 25th Anniversary of Henri Nouwen’s death. So it is particularly fitting that our Lent book discussion selection is the daily journal Henri kept during a year-long hiatus from L’Arche Daybreak. He died three weeks after writing the final entry.

For Henri, the sabbatical from Daybreak – a community for adults with physical and intellectual disabilities – was intended to be an opportunity to say no to all work except writing. What it became was a 365-day spiritual adventure.

Henri was most alive, invigorated and content in the company of friends. Few things were more meaningful and significant to him than to share in his friends’ joys, sorrows, and everything in between.

Sabbatical Journey is a loving, insightful account of the experiences and encounters that filled Henri Nouwen’s final year. As always, he writes from the heart, unafraid to admit his longing for friendship and intimacy or to expose the anxiety brought on by feelings of loneliness and isolation.

In current vernacular, it could be said that Henri “owned” his brokenness. Instead of hiding it – or hiding from it – the pages of Sabbatical Journey reveal a remarkable man living his fragility as faithfully as he could.

Join us Ash Wednesday, February 17th for greetings and introductions. Then beginning Sunday, February 21st we’ll accompany Henri on a year-long journey in six weeks!

Facilitated by Ray Glennon, our Henri Nouwen Book Discussion can be a meaningful addition to your Lenten season. We do hope you will join us.

A reading schedule will be posted prior to the beginning of the book discussion.

Need a copy of the book? It is available at many bookstores, or you can order it online through the Bookstore tab in the menu bar above. 

Crossroad Publishers is offering a 30% discount on the purchase of the book to all book discussion participants! To get the discount, use coupon code: promo30

Click here or on the Bookstore tab above to take advantage of this offer.

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Dec 20th to Dec 26th: 4th Week of Advent & Christmas – Living as the Beloved and Epilogue

Reading: Living as the Beloved and Epilogue (p. 129 to 149)

God not only says: “You are my Beloved.” God also asks: “Do you love me?” and offers us countless chances to say “Yes” to our inner truth. That is the
spiritual life: the chance to say “Yes” to our inner truth. (p. 131)

Friends,
In one of my favorite scripture passages, St. Paul urges us to “live in manner worthy of the call you have received.” (c.f. Ephesians 4:1) And what is that call? Throughout our Advent journey, Henri Nouwen showed us that we are called to be God’s Beloved. In these remaining days before Christmas, he offers a heartfelt meditation on living as the Beloved and tells how Fred responded to the book and how it came to be published.

Henri encourages Fred and each one of us to “claim your spiritual truth and to live in the world as someone who doesn’t belong to it.” (p. 130) Henri emphasizes, “If you really want to live in the world, you cannot look to the world itself as the source of that life. . . . the world is not the source even of its own life, let alone yours.” (p. 132) And Henri challenges me to what St. Francis of Assisi (Nouwen’s favorite saint) would call penance and today we call conversion or change, saying, “The change of which I speak is the change from living life as a painful test to prove that you deserve to be loved, to living it as an unceasing “Yes” to the truth of that Belovedness. Put simply, life is a God-given opportunity to become who we are. . . to say “Yes” to the one who calls us the Beloved.” (p. 133) This is my takeaway from our time together: At every moment of every day I have a choice. I can look to the world as the source of life and be disappointed or I can live as the Beloved and become who God created me to be. What will I choose today?

Rather than suggesting questions this week, I encourage you to reflect on the readings and your experience during our time together. To the extent you are comfortable, please share your thoughts and feelings, the ideas you are taking away from our discussion, or changes you would like to make in your life.

Here is something we don’t usually do but I hope you find it as meaningful as I did. I have a friend named Sean who is a long-time friend of L’Arche Daybreak where he came to admire Henri during the last years of his life. An avid reader of Henri’s books, Sean was discussing Henri’s life with a friend of his. He and she were reflecting on Henri’s skill as an exceptional listener and how he helped those around him to experience their own Belovedness–something that Henri had difficulty doing for himself. In a poem he wrote for his friend, Sean captured this probing snapshot of Henri and life as the Beloved. He gave me permission to share it.

I Give You a New Commandment
Cherishing others
Encouraging them to be themselves
To speak their stories simply and truly
We eagerly take in what they have to say
And take away their unspeakable shame

Curiosity
Wonder
Compassion
Admiration
Delight

These are our constant companions
These are the tools we use
To help others re-remember
Who they have always been
Although they did not know it at the time

Feeling the pain
Holding up the joy
Loving the whole thing
Skillfully practising alchemy
That comes easily to us, doesn’t it?

Telling our own stories
Finding out who we have been
Becoming visible ourselves
That’s not so easy for us

But we have to remember
We’re not so different from those whose stories we hear

Actually, I think we may have just stumbled upon
A new commandment

Love yourself as your neighbour

And if we can pull that one off
Well, that would be something

We also have an Advent and Christmas gift from the Henri Nouwen Society. At the bottom of this post is 30 minute recording that Henri made about the same time he was writing this book. I hope you enjoy hearing Henri describe what it means “To Be the Beloved” in his own voice. Some of you may have received this link in your email on Saturday too.

Looking ahead, in 2021 the Henri Nouwen Society will mark the 25th Anniversary of Henri’s untimely death at age 64 with a series of events and activities. For our Lenten book discussion (begins Ash Wednesday, February 17th) we will be reading and discussing Sabbatical Journey, Henri’s journal written during the last year of his life. I hope you will join us.

Finally, I want to thank each of you for what has been an extraordinarily rich discussion. The sharing was open, honest, insightful, inspiring, and deeply moving. Your presence and participation has made this Advent more meaningful for us all.

Wishing you and yours a Blessed and Merry Christmas. With gratitude,
Ray