What makes us human is not our mind
BUT OUR HEART,
Not our ability to think but our ability
TO LOVE.
More About this Book
A Nouwen classic. This is Nouwen’s best-selling book!
Exhausted from a six-week lecture tour across the U.S. in 1983, Nouwen seeks rest in the L’Arche community in France. During his stay, a painting of Rembrandt catches his attention: The Return of the Prodigal Son. Sustained reflection on the painting slowly emerges into awareness of a new vocation coming to flower in his heart, his own personal call to “come home,” to make his home with L’Arche. Identifying with each of the three main figures in the painting, Nouwen crafts a fresh interpretation of a classic story, concluding: “Though I am both the younger son and the elder son, I am not to remain them, but called to become the Father.” Ultimately, it expresses all Nouwen wanted to say about love.
Themes: God, Identity, Spiritual Life, Vocation, L’Arche Trosly-Breuil, L’Arche Daybreak, Rembrandt, Home, Homecoming, First Love/2nd Love, Love, Art, Surrender, Innermost self, Receiving love, Emotional crises, Spiritual maturity, Aging, Seeing/Looking/Vision, Compassion, Being the Beloved, Addictions, Being Lost, Loneliness, Inner Freedom, Forgiveness, Repentance, New childhood, New innocence, Joy, Jesus, Spiritual reconciliation, Conversion, Resentment, Complaints, Self-rejection, Mercy, Choices, Reborn from above, Trust, discipline of Gratitude, Jesus as model, Fatherhood, Unconditional Love, Maternal Love, Self-concept, Celebration, Competition, Power, Control, Grief, Generosity, Dreadful emptiness, Handicapped people, Suffering, Community, Blessing, Hands
Random House, 1992
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