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- Herausgeber: IVP Formatio
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022
Henri Nouwen's timeless wisdom reminds us once again of the transformation that love brings, both when we allow ourselves to give love with abandon and when we allow ourselves to receive love. Caregiving too often is reduced to a list of tasks—doing the things that another individual cannot do independently. In six weeks of daily devotions inspired by the words of Henri Nouwen and intertwined with Scripture and prayer, Hope for Caregivers summons us away from our lists for a few moments each day and draws us to a fresh framework for the experience of giving care.
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Contents
Introduction
MORE THAN 20 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH, Henri Nouwen’s life and writings on the spiritual life continue to touch millions of people in dozens of languages. Henri was born in the Netherlands in 1932 and was drawn to the priesthood in the Catholic church at a young age. After being ordained in 1957, he undertook further studies in psychology in the United States. In 1966 he accepted a position teaching psychology at the University of Notre Dame and wrote his first two books while there.
After earning a doctorate in theology, Henri spent ten years on the faculty of Yale Divinity School, where his classes were some of the most popular on campus. During these years, he also was publishing prolifically. Later, Henri became interested in Latin America and the many poor affected by both political turmoil and theological developments. For a time, he considered living and ministering in Peru.
He had a way of making every person feel as if he or she were the only thing that mattered, regardless of what else was going on.
Instead of Latin America, Henri accepted a position on the faculty at Harvard, but he remained restless. Despite the outward trappings of success as a professor and author, Henri struggled with depression and yearned for deeper meaning and personal connection with others. A chance meeting with Jean Vanier, the founder of L’Arche, an international movement of communities that welcome people living with disabilities, changed the path of Henri’s life, and he moved to Daybreak, a L’Arche community near Toronto in Canada. He served in a pastoral role, gave countless talks and retreats, welcomed hundreds who sought counsel, and still found time to write, eventually publishing over 40 books. He lived in a community setting, where those living with disabilities and those caring for them shared life together. Henri was asked to care for Adam, a man with severe disability. At Daybreak he felt he had at last come home, and he spent the final ten years of his life there.
Henri suffered a heart attack in 1996 and was buried close to his beloved Daybreak community. His legacy lived on in the work of the Henri Nouwen Society, the Henri Nouwen Trust, and the Henri J. M. Nouwen Archives and Research Collection and in the enduring values of compassion, community and ministry that shine through all his writings.
A LIVING LEGACY
During the ten years Henri spent at Yale, Dr. Scott Morris was a student in the divinity school, enrolled in courses Henri taught, served on a faculty-student committee with him, and attended compline services Henri led each day. As he wrestled with his own calling to establish a church-based health center at some point in the future, Dr. Morris even went for a week of silence in the Taize community in France at Henri’s suggestion. After he graduated from Yale and went on to medical school, Dr. Morris only ever saw Henri one other time. He’d heard Henri would be speaking near where he lived and made the effort to attend the event and to speak to Henri afterward. As was characteristic for Henri, he opened his arms wide for his former student. He had a way of making every person feel as if he or she were the only thing that mattered, regardless of what else was going on.
Dr. Morris completed both his theological and medical studies, moved to Memphis because it was one of the poorest cities in the country, and opened a faith-based organization to provide health care to people working in low-wage jobs without insurance or with inadequate insurance.
Caregiving is full of stories, and sometimes we need somebody to walk with us—someone who knows us well and whom we trust with parts of our stories that most people will never hear.
In 2016, a rare opportunity brought Henri Nouwen and Scott Morris back together again, when Karen Pascal, executive director of the Henri Nouwen Society and Legacy Trust, became interested in the work of Church Health, which is still caring for people in low-wage jobs 30 years later. In addition, Church Health publishes resources around themes of faith and health. Conversations turned to the topic of caregiving, which both brought Henri his deepest spiritual joy and is an ever-growing need among individuals and faith communities that Church Health reaches across the nation.
Church Health and Henri Nouwen Society and Legacy Trust have partnered to create resources that address the needs of people in caregiving roles, whether that be caring for a child with special needs, a family member with chronic illness, an aging parent, someone struggling for mental health, or any other role that requires an individual to step out of awareness primarily of the individual’s needs and into the circle of understanding of the care receiver’s needs. This was a topic close to Henri’s heart and shows up in many of his writings.
It is our deep joy to offer Hope for Caregivers, six weeks of daily devotionals that feature themes in Henri Nouwen’s personal letters and published writings paired with Scripture passages and brief reflections and prayers for caregivers.
CARING WITH HOPE
These daily devotionals are arranged around six themes:
1. The eyes of pain—we see you.
2. Our greatest gift—you are doing something hard.
3. An invitation to joy—the experience will change you.
4. The prayer of caring—you are not alone.
5. The voice of love—you are God’s beloved.
6. Rise to new life—love triumphs.
Each week, a letter that Henri wrote in his personal correspondence shows his understanding of the taxing issues of being a caregiver and sets the tone for the meditations that follow. Start each day’s reading with a nugget of insight from Henri Nouwen. A Scripture verse follows, as well as a few lines of reflection and questions that weave together Henri’s insight and the verse to offer encouragement and self-understanding even if all you have is a few minutes to ponder these thoughts. Wrap up with a sentence prayer. Maybe there are days when you can’t find the words to pray, but the prayer of the devotional can be your own.
Hope for Caregivers works well for private reading and reflection. Caregiving is full of stories, and sometimes we need somebody to walk with us—someone who knows us well and whom we trust with parts of our stories that most people will never hear. If you have a companion like that in your life, Hope for Caregivers might be something that you’d like to read together. Even if geography or responsibilities do not allow you to be physically together every day, you can read separately and then share reflections and encouragement on the phone or in an e-mail by using the reflection questions to spur your thoughts and the prayer as a reminder to pray for each other.
Another way to use Hope for Caregivers is in a support group setting. We realize it’s unlikely that a group of caregivers can meet in person every day for six weeks. However, it might be an encouragement to the whole group to know that others are reading the same devotions and wrestling with the same questions. Then when you are face-to-face, you have a basis for your sharing and discussion. Even if not everyone is reading along at the same pace, if you lead a support group, you might like to flag devotions that you feel are especially pertinent to the people in your group.
No matter how you choose to use Hope for Caregivers—individually, with a friend, or in a group—our prayer is that it brings you encouragement in finding meaning and significance in your caregiving relationships.
You are God’s beloved. Never forget.
Start your story here
WEEK 1
The Eyes of Pain
Much of caregiving is unseen by anyone but the caregiver, who may also feel unseen. The experience of caregiving becomes a lens for seeing life.
THIS WEEK CONSIDER THIS QUESTION
What is your story of seeing and being seen as a caregiver?
AFTER READING YOUR VERY pain-filled but also very grace-filled letter, I had only one desire—to come visit you. More than anything I wanted to spend some time with you, to offer you my love and friendship and to learn from you who has been tempted so much. I realize that I cannot come to you and you cannot come to me.
I simply want to ask you to trust that the Lord will continue to give you the strength to live through your pains with your husband and your son. Your letter shows that you have a great faith, courage and confidence, even though you yourself do not feel it as much. But God has not left you alone. I am sure that he will give you all the strength you need to be faithful in the midst of your agony.
THE HEART OF BEING HUMAN
In the realm of the Spirit of God, living and caring are one. Our society suggests that caring and living are quite separate and that caring belongs primarily to professionals who have received special training. Although training is important, and although certain people need preparation to practice their profession with competence, caring is a privilege of every person and is at the heart of being human. When we look at the original meaning of the word profession and realize the term refers, first of all, to professing one’s own deepest conviction, then the essential spiritual unity between living and caring becomes clear. I look at care as helping others to claim for themselves the spiritual truth that they are—as we are—children of God, brothers and sisters of each other, and parents of generations to come.
God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.
REFLECTION
Offering care easily becomes reduced to tasks—the sometimes unpleasant activities that the care receiver cannot do independently. But that is a detached mindset. Caregiving as a calling or privilege is not rooted in tasks but in connection between human beings. The writer of 1 John tells us that this connection is through love, first from God and then through us as we see each other as human beings all beloved by God. Through love, living and caring are one.
How do you respond to the idea of caregiving as a privilege at the heart of being human?
What has been your most privileged moment in your caregiving story?
God of generations to come, show the realm of your Spirit and fill your people with overflowing love in the unseen moments of caring. Amen.
LISTENING FOR GOD
The word obedience includes the Latin word audire
