A Ministry of Vulnerability: Gabrielle Earnshaw on Henri Nouwen

At one of the lowest points in Henri Nouwen’s life, he gave a series of lectures on the importance of following Jesus in an age of anxiety. Drawn from those talks, this new work reveals what sustained Nouwen to remain faithful to the teachings of Jesus and led him to become an icon of compassion and vulnerability. Here he writes eloquently about calling and purpose, fear and hope. And he explains why—with so many choices available to the twenty-first-century seeker—the greatest reward for those looking for spiritual direction is rediscovering Jesus’s teaching on love. Along the way, Nouwen offers warm, insightful, practical habits to help readers navigate the narrow, sometimes arduous, but ultimately fulfilling road of conviction and faith.

Henri J. M. Nouwen was a Dutch-born Catholic priest who left a highly acclaimed academic career at Harvard to share his life with people with mental disabilities as pastor of one of Jean Vanier’s L’Arche communities in Toronto, Canada. He was the author of thirty-nine books, including many bestselling and influential titles such as The Return of the Prodigal Son, The Inner Voice of Love, and The Wounded Healer. He died in 1996.

Gabrielle Earnshaw is a historian and founding archivist of the Henri Nouwen Archives in Toronto, Canada. She has been the adviser to the Henri Nouwen Legacy Trust for eighteen years and is consulted throughout the world on Nouwen and his literary legacy. She is the editor of Love, Henri and You Are the Beloved, drawn from the works of Henri Nouwen.