Sunday, January 2, 2011

What I'm Reading #14: Life of the Beloved (Henri Nouwen)

Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World, by Henri J. M. Nouwen

I love Henri Nouwen. His book The Inner Voice of Love was my first "What I'm Reading" post, and The Return of the Prodigal Son remains one of the most important books I've read in my life. I have called Nouwen my "spiritual twin" because I identify so strongly with his writing.

Life of the Beloved
was one of two more Nouwen books I bought online on a whim (the second I'm sure will turn up here soon enough). It interested me because Nouwen's goal in writing the book was to provide a window into the spiritual life for people who were thoroughly non-spiritual--this came at the request of a good friend of his. Nouwen uses the notion of the "Beloved" as well as the actions mirrored in Eucharist--taken, blessed, broken and given--to frame his discussion.

In the epilogue, Nouwen essentially admits that he failed to do what his friend asked. Being so immersed in the Christian worldview, he had, without realizing it, written in such a way that he employed assumptions that non-Christians simply couldn't understand. However, this book turned out to have an impact on many searching Christians; hence, we have it on our shelves today.

Nouwen traces the idea of the "Beloved" through 3 stages: Being the Beloved, Becoming the Beloved, and Living as the Beloved. Within the second are the 4 Eucharistic actions I mentioned above. One core aspect of being, becoming and living as the Beloved is explained in the section called "Blessed"--Nouwen insists that in blessing someone or something, you are not bestowing anything on it, but simply acknowledging, naming and affirming the blessedness inherent to it. So it is with our "Beloved-ness"--it is not something we have to earn or to be given by the world or by others; it is God's gift of who we are as God's beloved children.

I agree that this book didn't quite do the job Nouwen set out to do with it. The Eucharistic imagery is enough of a give away to show that didn't work. But it is still a lovely book that has been very helpful for me as a devotional jumping-off point lately. I probably have a lot of favorite quotations marked, so I'm going to stop writing now. Point being: read some Nouwen. Any Nouwen.


Favorite Quotations

"The greatest gift my friendship can gives to you is the gift of your Belovedness. I can give that gift only insofar as I have claimed it for myself. Isn't that what friendship is all about: giving to each other the gift of our Belovedness?"

"Isn't arrogance putting yourself on a pedestal to avoid being seen as yourself?"

"That is the great joy of being chosen: the discovery that others are chosen as well. In the house of God there are many mansions."

"Our sufferings and pains are not simply bothersome interruptions of our lives; rather, they touch us in our uniqueness and our most intimate individuality. ...each human being suffers in a way no other human being suffers."

"...the first step to healing is not a step away from the pain, but a step toward it."

"A happy life is a life for others."

"...when focusing on talents, we tend to forget that our real gift is not so much what we can do, but who we are. The real question is not 'What can we offer each other?' but 'Who can we be for each other?'"

"As those who are chosen, blessed, broken, and given, we are called to live our lives with a deep inner joy and peace. It is the life of the Beloved, lived in a world constantly trying to convince us that the burden is on us to prove that we are worthy of being loved."

"God is a Lover who wants to be loved."

0 comments:

Sunday, January 2, 2011

What I'm Reading #14: Life of the Beloved (Henri Nouwen)

Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World, by Henri J. M. Nouwen

I love Henri Nouwen. His book The Inner Voice of Love was my first "What I'm Reading" post, and The Return of the Prodigal Son remains one of the most important books I've read in my life. I have called Nouwen my "spiritual twin" because I identify so strongly with his writing.

Life of the Beloved
was one of two more Nouwen books I bought online on a whim (the second I'm sure will turn up here soon enough). It interested me because Nouwen's goal in writing the book was to provide a window into the spiritual life for people who were thoroughly non-spiritual--this came at the request of a good friend of his. Nouwen uses the notion of the "Beloved" as well as the actions mirrored in Eucharist--taken, blessed, broken and given--to frame his discussion.

In the epilogue, Nouwen essentially admits that he failed to do what his friend asked. Being so immersed in the Christian worldview, he had, without realizing it, written in such a way that he employed assumptions that non-Christians simply couldn't understand. However, this book turned out to have an impact on many searching Christians; hence, we have it on our shelves today.

Nouwen traces the idea of the "Beloved" through 3 stages: Being the Beloved, Becoming the Beloved, and Living as the Beloved. Within the second are the 4 Eucharistic actions I mentioned above. One core aspect of being, becoming and living as the Beloved is explained in the section called "Blessed"--Nouwen insists that in blessing someone or something, you are not bestowing anything on it, but simply acknowledging, naming and affirming the blessedness inherent to it. So it is with our "Beloved-ness"--it is not something we have to earn or to be given by the world or by others; it is God's gift of who we are as God's beloved children.

I agree that this book didn't quite do the job Nouwen set out to do with it. The Eucharistic imagery is enough of a give away to show that didn't work. But it is still a lovely book that has been very helpful for me as a devotional jumping-off point lately. I probably have a lot of favorite quotations marked, so I'm going to stop writing now. Point being: read some Nouwen. Any Nouwen.


Favorite Quotations

"The greatest gift my friendship can gives to you is the gift of your Belovedness. I can give that gift only insofar as I have claimed it for myself. Isn't that what friendship is all about: giving to each other the gift of our Belovedness?"

"Isn't arrogance putting yourself on a pedestal to avoid being seen as yourself?"

"That is the great joy of being chosen: the discovery that others are chosen as well. In the house of God there are many mansions."

"Our sufferings and pains are not simply bothersome interruptions of our lives; rather, they touch us in our uniqueness and our most intimate individuality. ...each human being suffers in a way no other human being suffers."

"...the first step to healing is not a step away from the pain, but a step toward it."

"A happy life is a life for others."

"...when focusing on talents, we tend to forget that our real gift is not so much what we can do, but who we are. The real question is not 'What can we offer each other?' but 'Who can we be for each other?'"

"As those who are chosen, blessed, broken, and given, we are called to live our lives with a deep inner joy and peace. It is the life of the Beloved, lived in a world constantly trying to convince us that the burden is on us to prove that we are worthy of being loved."

"God is a Lover who wants to be loved."

0 comments:

 

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