A Letter of Consolation - Softcover

Henri J. M. Nouwen, (1932-1996) was the author of With Open Hands, Reaching Out, The Wounded Healer, Making All Things New, and many other bestsellers. He was the senior pastor of L'Arche Daybreak in Toronto, Canada, a community where men and women with mental disabilities and their assistants create a home for one another.

"An essay in the form of a long letter to [Nouwen's] father after the death of his mother. One might well pass it on to anyone who is going through a period of grief after loss." -- Christian Century

"Recognized for the depth and warmth of his spiritual communication, Father Nouwen grapples with death, a particular death-his mother's....An intelligent, loving letter to a Christian facing a powerful enemy, death." -- Lutheran Libraries

"What Nouwen has come to realize is that a battle against death is a natural Christian rejection, like Jesus' in the garden, of the cruel absurdity of being cut off from life. Only the promise of the Resurrection, the unimpeachable guarantee that love is stronger than death, can make that separation tolerable, even graceful." -- America

"An essay in the form of a long letter to [Nouwen's] father after the death of his mother. One might well pass it on to anyone who is going through a period of grief after loss." (Christian Century )

"Recognized for the depth and warmth of his spiritual communication, Father Nouwen grapples with death, a particular death--his mother's...An intelligent, loving letter to a Christian facing a powerful enemy, death." (Lutheran Libraries )

"On the long road it's good to have Nouwen and his diving rod. Deftly he bends toward the drop of spiritual wisdom caked in the most ordinary things." (Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J., author of Dead Man Walking )