From AudioFile
What is our place in the world in God's eyes? How can we blend service and spiritual worship with the harshness of the everyday world? How can we, imperfect and each broken in our own way, feel beloved by the Almighty? Nouwen ponders these topics in an open letter to a troubled friend. Methodically, the former instructor at both Harvard and Yale walks us through analogies and insights that bring us to a place of feeling beloved. His comments on his final years serving as pastor to the mentally disabled of L'Arche Daybreak community in Toronto serve as counterpoint to his theories. D.J.B. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

ANNOTATION

A spiritual master shows us how to live a life of spiritual assurance in the midst of difficult life situations. This book was born in response to personal requests asked many times by a variety of people--many of whom are far removed from any traditional religious base--for Nouwen to describe the way to live a spiritual life in a material world. Nouwen's answer is both a challenge and a promise that life works, has deep meaning, and is worth all the pain and struggle.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This spiritual classic began as a simple request from one friend to another. Fred Bratman, a secular journalist and writer, asked friend and renowned author Henri Nouwen to write a book explaining the spiritual life in terms that he and his friends could understand, avoiding theology and technical language. "Speak to us about a vision larger than our changing perspectives and about a voice deeper than the clamorings of our mass media. Speak to us about something or someone greater than ourselves. Speak to us about... God." Nouwen's answer has become one of the most cherished books of our era. "All I want to say to you is, 'You are the Beloved.'" To know God, Nouwen writes, is to know that we are beloved -- beloved before our birth, beloved regardless of our successes and failures, and beloved even in the midst of great suffering and anguish.

FROM THE CRITICS

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