In the House of the Lord

In John 15 Jesus says, ‘Make your home in me, as I make mine in you.’ This is an invitation to intimacy. He adds, ‘Those who remain in me, with me in them, bear fruit in plenty.’ This is a call to fecundity. Finally he says, ‘I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.’ This is a promise of ecstasy.

Henri Nouwen’s In the House of the Lord relates the themes of intimacy, fecundity and ecstasy to the movement from the ‘house of fear’, where most of us live most of the time, to the ‘house of love’, which is the home of God. Henri Nouwen explores each theme in relation to the fear which thwarts it and the love which fosters it and examines the implications of the themes for Christians today.