Description. In this best-seller the eminent spiritual guide Henri Nouwen describes three movements in our search for union with God. From loneliness to solitude explores our experience of our own selves and our longings. The second movement from hostility to hospitality focuses on our relationships with others.
In the third movement the challenge is to progress from illusion to prayer. Nouwen's plan leads us through good times and struggles, joys and sorrows, to joyful union with God. Yard king performance manual. Nouwen says the journey is?frightful as well as exhilarating because it is the great experience of being alone, alone in the world, alone before God.?
As we are transformed in love, painful passages and tensions become signs of hope.
Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life. New York: DoubleDay. Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra A ministry friend once distinguished problems from polarities.
He argued that problems, unlike polarities, have solutions while polarities can only be managed. For example, an umbrella manages our response to rain, but does not solve the problem posed by rain; having an umbrella simply makes rain more tolerable.
Ministry would be more tolerable, my friend advised, if I learned to manage polarities rather than treating them as problems to be solved. Because unsolvable polarities are everywhere in life and ministry, I never forgot my friend’s advice. Three Polarities Three polarities lie at the heart of our spiritual life says Henri Nouwen. In his book, Reaching Out, he describes them as: an inner movement from loneliness to solitude, an outward movement from hostility to hospitality, and an upward movement from illusion to prayer (20). These movements each potentially involve progress—hence, the term, movement—but for Nouwen this progress is tentative and subject to lifelong tension (39).
He writes: “the spiritual life is that constant movement between the poles of loneliness and solitude, hostility and hospitality, illusion and prayer.” (20) Tension suggests a struggle with polarity both in heart and mind. Spirituality This struggle with both head and mind components distinguishes writing in spirituality from theology where the logic of the mind is more narrowly the focus. Nouwen focuses immediately on the question— “What does it mean to live a life in the Spirit of Jesus Christ?”—and links this question to one Jesus himself poses: “Some say.others say.but what do you say?” (16-17) What we say is immediately pertinent.
Nouwen sees spirituality discussions as intensely personal. In this setting or any other, “we have to face and explore directly our inner restlessness, our mixed feelings towards others, and our deep-seated suspicions about the absence of God.” (17). In these three movements, Nouwen is clearly inviting us into his spiritual struggles and the tone of the book is captured in its title.
Reaching Out Study Guide Nouwen Prodigal Son
Reaching out: The three movements of the spiritual life. New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Image Books. In this book Henri Nouwen proposes that man can grow spiritually closer to God by choosing three directions or movements when the choices arise.
Reaching Out Nouwen Summary
The first movement is from loneliness to solitude. Loneliness is the feeling that no matter how surrounded by people one may be, one is alone and lonely. Solitude on the other hand refers to that of being centered in life, content in experiencing life as it is occurring. When one makes that transition from loneliness to solitude, there is freedom in engaging in others’ lives. Life is no longer to be lived in scarcity and fear. Instead, life is to be lived in “fearless play” (Nouwen, 1975, p.
The second movement is from hostility to hospitality. Nouwen (1975) makes the case that most people view strangers with a sense of wariness, concerned that the strangers may rob them of life’s treasures. By emptying themselves, hosts no longer fear anything will be taken. Instead, they see the strangers as guests providing gifts of knowing God more fully through the lives of the guests. Nouwen (1975) identifies three particular types of hosts: parents, teachers, and helping professionals. By viewing their children as their most precious guests rather than property, parents can live life more freely. By viewing their students as guests, teachers can insure their students realize how valuable they are.
Finally, by viewing their clients or patients as guests, helping professionals can provide a safe and free environment in which their patients or clients can become known. To be an inviting host, one needs to create a safe, free environment in which the stranger or guest can share views or feelings that may not be congruent with those of the host. Nouwen (1975) suggests that the host become poor in mind and poor in heart. Poor in mind refers to being tolerant of the thoughts and opinions of the guest. By emptying one’s mind of presuppositions, one is able to receive the gift of the guest by being fully engaged in the guest’s world. Poor in heart refers to being willing to put aside the feelings that naturally come up, and feeling what the guest is feeling.
The third movement is from illusion to prayer. Nouwen (1975) postulates that most people live their lives in an illusion of immortality. They do not believe that they will die and do not put God as the center of their thoughts and life. Once people realize that they need God as their director in life, they awaken to a more fulfilling life in Christ. Nouwen (1975) suggests three essentials for praying: the Bible, silence, and a spiritual guide. Reading from the Word and then reflecting in silence how the Bible relates to one’s current life experiences is an excellent method for growing closer to God. Finally, having a spiritual guide who can encourage is invaluable.
Reaching Out Book
Nouwen (1975) concludes his book by clarifying that prayer is not to be done only in solitude, but in community with Christ’s church.