Reaching Out Study Guide Nouwen

Product DescriptionWith the clarity and depth characteristic of the classics, this spiritual bestseller lays out a perceptive and insightful plan for living a spiritual life and achieving the ultimate goal of that life - union with God.Nouwen views our spiritual 'ascent' as evolving in three movements. The first, from loneliness to solitude, focuses on the spiritual life as it relates to the experience of our own selves. The second, from hostility to hospitality, deals with our spiritual life as a life for others. The final movement, from illusion to prayer, offers penetrating thoughts on the most mysterious relationship of all: our relationship to God. Throughout, Nouwen emphasizes that the more we understand (and not simply deny) our inner struggles, the more fully we will be able to embrace a prayerful and genuine life that is also open to others' needs.Reaching Out is a rich book to be read, reread, pondered, and shared with others.

'It does not offers answers or solutions,' Nouwen cautions, 'but is written in the conviction that the quest for an authentic Christian spirituality is worth the effort and the pain, since in the midst of this quest we can find signs offering hope, courage, and confidence.' This is my second taste of Nouwen, and it has been even better than the first ('The Inner Voice of Love'). This book is a valuable component of the amazing turnaround of my depression.Some Christians say that when you find yourself burnt out and needy, you should go back to the basics. They offer no new solutions, and point you back to daily quiet times and church attendance and service.

Reaching out: The three movements of the spiritual life (1975). Got interested in reading the books of Nouwen. Questions through prayer and solitude.

But here is a book that offers a completely new and refreshing look at God and life. It offers a chance to slow down, to deal with your own heart and soul before rushing to 'perform' as a Christian should. Nouwen shows that only when we take time to love and hear ourselves, to become comfortable with who we are and be content with solitute, only after those steps are taken can we reach out to others in true love. We simply must love ourselves and deal with our hurts and needs before we can help and learn from others.We often reach out to others when we are hurting. We are afraid to deal alone with our needs. We are desperately seeking someone or something to drown out our own voice, to give us new answers. We watch television, listen to music, read books, socialize.

This book points us back into ourselves. For we are indeed God's children, and the Spirit is in us. When we learn to be still, we can offer that very stillness and peace to others. We can commune with God in prayer. We can break the illusions of business, of our circumstance ruling us.

And we can once again be in touch with ourselves, others, and our God.This is a life-changing, pain-shattering book. In these pages, we meet the Healer, the God who loves us infinitely and takes the time to fill us up and heal our wounds. We meet the God who gives us the peace to live a centered life, not a chaotic one. As a Christian for 40 some years, I have searched for ways to more effectively live out my devotion to God. Nouwin's book Reaching Out came into my life after 40 some years in a legalistic cultish church and about 3 years in a more grace-filled church where I made some major moral mistakes.Nouwin's perceptive and astute words described my experience so well. '.we constantly find ourselves clinging to people, books, events, experiences, projects and plans, secretly hoping that this time it will be different.

We keep experimenting with many types of anesthetics, we keep finding 'psychic numbing' often more agreeable than the sharpening of our inner sensitivities.' His prompting to turn loneliness into solitude where I can possible hear myself and God has been like water in the desert to me. I look forward to the time usually each day where I set the timer and try to empty my mind of noise and hopefully 'descend with the mind into the heart'.

Nouwen opened the path for me to understand how I interact and react to God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the things and people of our world. For many years I have worshipped God.

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I never realized that I was doing so on my terms, not His. My interaction with other people was based on my need for control, not the needs of others even though I considered myself a caring person. Henri Nouwen opened my eyes to damage I was doing to others and myself.

'Reaching Out' changed my attitudes, understanding, and heart.If you are serious about walking in Jesus's steps, try 'Reaching Out'. Your walk with God will never be the same. It takes me a long time to finish this book.

I just could not stop going back to the previous chapters, reflected on it and amazed by the insight and spiritual depth of Nouwen. I read it in bed times, and in the subway. Whenever I go into the lines, my spirit was lifted up high, thanking God who let me know myself and Him more. The 3 movements: from loneliness to solitude; hostility to hospitality; illusion to prayer are all essential elements of the answer to the question 'how to live a spirit-filled life in the name of Jesus Christ'.

Each sections are as wonderful and unmissable as the others. This book gave me a brand new dimension of understanding on 'Christian's spiritual life', on caring and interacting with others and on the nature of our Almighty God. I was so impressed that I spent several nights translating around 10 pages in the second part into Chinese and read it in my church fellowship. I thank Him again and again for leading me to read this. Reaching Out was written by a mystic, Catholic priest who was born in Holland but spent most of his life in the United States. The author, Henri Nouwen, gained an impressive following during his teaching years at Notre Dame, Yale and Harvard Universities and wrote 40 books on spirituality (.). In 1975, while teaching at Yale, Nouwen wrote Reaching Out which included a special edition inclusion of Beyond the Mirror - an account of Nouwen's perceived near-death experience and the spiritual enlightenment which resulted in some of the views expressed in Reaching Out.According to Nouwen (1975), the path of spirituality is a journey between polarities in three separate areas.

The first area includes the distance between solitude and loneliness; this encompasses reaching toward self. The second area involved reaching toward others and is described as the polarity between hospitality and hostility. Finally, Nouwen discusses the third area, prayer verses illusion, the reaching toward God. The author explains that each individual finds himself somewhere between the extreme poles at different times of his life but that our goal, as Christians, is to remain on the side of solitude, hospitality, and prayer.Nouwen (1975) posited that loneliness is the sad condition of the fallen human heart which causes us to react to others in selfish ways. He explains that we feel lonely no matter how many people we have around us because it is a condition of the heart and attitude rather than a lack of fellowship. Solitude, on the other hand, is described by Nouwen as a place where we are comfortable with our selves and are therefore able to be comfortable with others.

In a place of solitude we are no longer desperately reaching out for others to meet our needs, rather our focus is turned inward and looks to God as our source.The goal of living a victorious Christian life requires that we have a hospitable attitude toward mankind and nature, rather than approaching it with hostility (Nouwen, 1975). When we begin seeing our friends, employers, children and acquaintances as travelers who are passing through this life with us, we are more able to treat them with hospitality.

This attitude self-corrects the hostile attitudes of ownership and debt toward one another. For example, rather than seeing children as your possessions, which will in turn cause pride when they do well, and shame when they do poorly, we should see them as fellow travelers whom we have been given the task of caring for and raising.

Nouwen explains that this helps us correctly discipline them when they are young as well as let them go when they are adults.Lastly, Nouwen (1975) speaks about the importance of the last polarity: illusion verses prayer. Not only was this the most important area to discuss, according to Nouwen, it was the area he was the most familiar with since he worked with the Trappist Monks in the Abby of Genesse in New York (. Nouwen had a great deal of experience seeking expertise in the art of prayer and stated that it was the most basic task of our lives and yet the most illusive one. He wrote: '.it is very hard to come in touch with it, to get a grasp on it, to get hold of it, or even - to put a finger on it.' Henri Nouwen provides a plan for living a spiritual life and attaining the ultimate goal of unity with God. His plan is laid out in three 'movements': (a) Loneliness to solitude, (b) hostility to hospitality, and (c) illusion to prayer.In addressing loneliness to solitude, our relationship with ourselves, Nouwen points out that 'it is this most basic human loneliness that threatens us and is so hard to face' (1976, p.

We do everything we can to avoid pain; physical, mental, and emotional. We must learn to enter into our loneliness and change it to one of solitude. The beginning of spiritual life is a movement from 'restless senses to restful spirit' (p. Solitude is seen as an '. Inner quality that does not depend on physical isolation' (p.

37).Our relationship to other people is described in Nouwen's second movement, hostility to hospitality. Here Nouwen identifies three types of relationships: parents and children, teachers and students, and professionals and clients/patients (p. In all relationships '. The concept of hospitality can help us to see that we are called not to own but to serve each other and to create the space where that is possible' (p. The Christian witness has two inseparable sides, receptivity and confrontation, that must remain balanced. While receptivity leads to neutrality without confrontation, so confrontation leads to aggression without receptivity (p. 'Real receptivity asks for confrontation because space can only be welcoming space when there are clear boundaries, and boundaries are limits between which we define our own position' (p.

98).In Nouwen's third movement, he discusses illusion to prayer. This is the movement where Nouwen says we reach out to God. It is the movement that '. Makes possible the movements from loneliness to solitude and from hostility to hospitality and leads us to the core of the spiritual life' (p.

Illusion is the idea that we see ourselves as immortal. We know we all will die, yet we tend to eternalize ourselves and our world. Nouwen states that there are two visible symptoms of our illusion: sentimentality and violence.

Sentimentality is seen in a clinging relationship where individuals cling so hard to others and believe they cannot live without the other. 'This intimacy can lead to depression and despair when it is masked with immortality' (p. Violence is shown in our relationships when we treat others, and ourselves, as property '. To be defended or conquered and not as gifts to be received: p.

Moving from illusion to prayer is possible because of the gift God gave us through his son Jesus Christ. Through Jesus' sacrifice we can have an intimate relationship with God because of the Spirit he sent to us.

Nouwen continues talking about how prayer has been studied and approached. He gives three rules that are always observed in Scripture (Luke 10:42): 'a contemplative reading of the word of God, a silent listening to the voice of God, and a trusting obedience to a spiritual guide' (p. How these are implemented may be different for different people.While I can agree with Nouwen's movements, I felt something missing throughout the first movement. I feel more should have been noted that our loneliness is a direct result of our separation from God. It is when we are in touch with God, focused on Him, we can find solitude and contentment with ourselves. Nouwen talked a lot about facing the pain and becoming comfortable with ourselves, but I felt like he failed to show that it is in coming close to God that we are able to face the pain and feel comfortable with ourselves.

That movement didn't feel complete.Nouwen's suggestion that prayer is a gift is an interesting concept (p. I've never thought of prayer in that way, but it certainly makes sense in that it is what God offers to us as a way of communicating with Him.

The innate longing we have to be intimate with God is only experienced as we spend time with Him through our acceptance of Jesus Christ. Prayer offers us that opportunity to commune with God. I do agree that we each have a way of praying that works best for us. I first read this book in college, it was an assigned text for a philosophy course.

When I began to read it, I could not put it down. I could not believe that this uplifting book was an assigned text. The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life: From Loneliness to Solitude; From Hostility to Hospitality: and From Illusion to Prayer have changed my life.

Since then I have read this book several times. I have bought it for my family members and recommended it to my friends and clients. I recommend this book or any book written by Henri J.M.

Nouwen for all human service professionals or anyone seeking a more spiritual life. This book has made a profound impact on my life. I've read thousands of books in my eighteen year academic journey, but few have made an impact as this one ('A Tale of Three Kings' by Gene Edwards is the other). Henri Nouwen has a way with words. He frames concepts in an extraordinary way. He sees human suffering with unusual insight and grace. He is a gifted thinker, no doubt, and writes with exceptional clarity.

I can't say enough about this little book. Through academia, I've learned to read 30 pages per hour, but here every hour I read 3 pages. It was that profound.If you have experienced trauma, broken relationships, betrayal, loneliness, doubt, shattered faith, or disillusionment with church people, then this book is for you. Nouwen has taught me to see relationships in a different light.

And he has given me answers and solutions for resolving trauma in my own life and in the lives of others. It is not a heavy read but is immensely profound. It shows that one does not need to write complex to be intellectually moving. Every Christian needs to read this book in order to understand the nature of relationships and God's plan for fellowship with one another. I highly recommend it. I'm a baptist so I admit this was a hard read for me. I really enjoyed the third movement and was able to gleam a great deal of application from it.

While I appreciated the application I struggled to see how he got there. The first two movements contained very little scripture and the argument he was building seemed to be built primarily on philosophy and monastic tradition. I do wish he would have spent more time defining his terms (solitude, hostility, etc.). I will say the book left me with a desire to meet the author.

I would love to sit down with him and pick his brian. This is my second order of 7 or more books.

The first time I read the book I loved it so much that I bought some to give away. My current order is for a book study with women. I shared with them how much I love Henri Nouwen's Reaching Out and the 3 movements of gaining inner peace with self and a deeper spiritual relationship with God that gives us the genuine ability to have hospitality for others. I guess my excitement won them over. I also use this book in my counseling with people who have addictions, mental health and tram concerns. This book stimulated discussion and growth in our weekly spirit group.

The three movements are: from loneliness to solitude, from hostility to hospitality, and from illusion to prayer. Key is this quote: 'We do not have to deny or avoid our loneliness, our hostilities, and our illusions. To the contrary: When we have the courage to let these realities come to our full attention, understand them and confess them, then they can slowly be converted into solitude, hospitality and prayer.' Discussing this book helped our group develop the author's habit of owning up to our weaknesses, and helped us to realize more deeply that spiritual maturity is not a life without weaknesses but an ability to acknowledge them and be open to their healing.