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‘Sabbatical Journey is utterly simple, outlining Henri’s thoughts and activities on the final lap of his journey home. His beliefs about the journey and the home are scattered throughtout, witnessing to his life-long desire and struggle to live his vocation by his ever-growing, ever-changing faith in God. This testimony alone renders it a precious record.’ Sue Mosteller in the Introduction In the year before his death, Henri Nouwen was given a sabbatical from l’Arche Daybreak, his mandate to say ‘no’ to all work except writing. During that year, he promised himself that he would not let a day pass without writing down the things that were happening within and around him. The journal he kept has become Sabbatical Journey, his final book. The book brims with Henri Nouwen’s life and spirit and contains a quiet, hidden depth and beauty. In his journal, as in life, he is first and foremost priest and pastor, his passion for the daily celebration of the Eucharist a thread running through the whole book. He comments on the Scriptures in conjunction with social issues, current events, a book, or an artwork, and makes connections between his insights and his life experience. It is this dialogue between his mind and his heart’s lived reality that characterizes his spirituality and that makes Sabbatical Journey such a rich source of spiritual reading. Henri made his final entry in the journal on 30 August 1996, only three weeks before his death. The book is the embodiment of words he wrote a few years earlier: ‘… I believe that this lonely task of befriending my death is not simply a task that serves me, but also a task that may serve others. I have lived my whole life with the desire to help others in their journey, but I have always realized that I had little else to offer than my own, the journey I am making myself.’ HENRI J.M. NOUWEN was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest who left a highly acclaimed academic career to share his life with people with mental disabilities as pastor of l’Arche Daybreak Community, Toronto. |
