by F. Johna
“Show me your way, O Lord!” The longing expressed in the Psalms (see 25:4, 27:11, 86:11) by the soul seeking God is the same urgent call heard today from people who have entered on the pilgrim’s road of faith. Many have described this road and made it clear that it is no broad avenue, but a narrow path leading to the “gate of life” (see Matt. 7:13).
The “search for the way” is a recurrent theme in Henri Nouwen’s books, which are road signs pointing to decisive commitment, to deep love of God and our fellow men and women. In those books silence and prayer emerge as the place and breath of faith; conversion and renewal, painful leave-taking and bold new beginnings appear as way stations for opening ourselves again and again to the urgency of love. Christian life on this road is never closed up. It continually realizes itself amid the world, in deeds of love, in creative activity for people.
The way through Lent comprises “putting aside the works of darkness,” “putting on the works of light,” and the daily exercise in prayer. As Henri Nouwen, a master of prayer, says, “Praying is first and foremost listening to Jesus, who dwells in the very depths of your heart. He doesn’t shout. He doesn’t thrust himself upon you. His voice is an unassuming voice, very nearly a whisper, the voice of a gentle love. Whatever you do with your life, go on listening to the voice of Jesus in your heart. This listening must be an active and very attentive listening, for in our restless and noisy world God’s so loving voice is easily drowned out. You need to set aside some time every day for this active listening to God if only for ten minutes. Ten minutes each day for Jesus alone can bring about a radical change in your life.”
The texts in this anthology, chosen from the works of Henri Nouwen (see p. 181), aim to prompt and guide the reader for such a period of prayer and recollection. As a Lenten handbook it presents the man or woman at prayer with God’s Word in a brief text from the liturgical reading or the Gospel of the day in question. The Meditation that follows leads into the reality of one’s own life and to the translation of faith into reality that is summed up in a concluding Prayer.
May this Lenten book serve as an invitation to dare once more to take the Easter path of following Christ.