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This month marks the tenth anniversary of the death of Henri Nouwen. The Dutch priest was a popular speaker, professor, and best-selling author whose more than forty books have sold in the millions. Henri Nouwen struck a chord because he wrote compellingly about the heart's deepest desires for communion with God and community with other people. These are the themes highlighted in My Sister, My Brother, a new book of excerpts from his writings.
Fellowship and community were not abstract ideas for Nouwen, but his guiding star. His life could be seen as a relentless quest for communion, as well as a relentless struggle against the obstacles to it, beginning with those within him.
Born in Holland in 1932, Henri Nouwen grew up in what he later described as a “very protected and safe environment.” His horizons expanded in ever-broadening circles after his ordination in 1957. He studied psychology, first in Holland, then in the United States. He taught at prestigious universities. Never an ivory-tower academic, he put a priority on relationships—most of all, on the importance of knowing God’s total, self-giving love.
“God desires to be fully united with us so that all of God and all of us can be bound together in a lasting love,” he wrote. He never…
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