Behold the Beauty of the Lord: Praying with Icons [Spiral-bound]

Henri J. M. Nouwen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1987

This is a book of meditations penned by famed Catholic writer Henri Nouwen, growing out of his contemplation of icons during sojourns at l'Arche, a community for people with mental handicaps in Trosly, France.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 80 pages
• Publisher: Ave Maria Press (April 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877933561
• ISBN-13: 978-0877933564
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #515,414 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Henri Nouwen was born in Holland in 1932 and ordained a Catholic priest in 1957. He obtained his doctorandus in psychology from Nijmegen University in the Netherlands and taught at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard. He experienced the monastic life with Trappist monks at the Abbey of the Genesee, lived among the poor in Latin America with the Maryknoll missioners, and was interested and active in numerous causes related to social justice. After a lifetime of seeking, Henri Nouwen finally found his home in Canada, as pastor of L'Arche Daybreak - where people with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers live together in community.

Henri Nouwen wrote over 40 books on spirituality and the spiritual life that have sold millions of copies and been translated into dozens of languages. His vision of spirituality was broad and inclusive, and his compassion embraced all of humankind.

He died in 1996. His work and his spirit live on.

Henri Nouwen pronounced his name "Henry Now-en." For more information on his life and work, please visit www.henrinouwen.org .

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to pray with icons: great for devotees and iconoclasts, October 3, 2001

By 

Wyote (Seoul) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Behold the Beauty of the Lord: Praying with Icons (Spiral-bound)

Henri Nouwen was one of the most trusted and respected spiritual writers and counselors when he was alive. His words have blessed many thousands of people in many traditions. I especially recommend this one.

Although Nouwen was a Roman Catholic priest, in this book he explores Eastern Orthodox spirituality, teaching us how to pray with icons. His teaching, from an Orthodox perspective, is doctrinally sound and very insightful. The book has four secions, one for each of the icons: The Holy Trinity (a famous icon by St. Andrei Rublev--see the movie), the Virgin of Vladimir (a beautiful icon painted by St. Luke the Evangelist, according to legend), the Savior of Zvenigorod (also by Rublev), and Pentecost. The icons are reproduced beautifully on fold-out portions at each end of the book, so that you can read and ponder the icons simultaneously.

If icons are to you just pictures or religious decorations, this book will teach how to look more deeply, to see the spiritual significance of their details, to see the Gospel in their art. You will, if you are willing, naturally be led to pray and to receive them as revelations of spiritual reality. But if you are skeptical, perhaps from an iconoclast tradition, at least you will begin to understand why icons are so precious in Orthodox tradition.

48 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Different Way Into Contemplative Prayer, December 13, 1999

By 

James H. Dobbins "jdobbins" (Goldvein, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Behold the Beauty of the Lord: Praying with Icons (Spiral-bound)

This book is very important for anyone who is being introduced to icons. Several important themes emerge. Icons are not just art; icons are a way into contemplative prayer, and are therefore one way to let God speak to you. This book is very practical as well as very spiritual. The author provides a series of meditations on four different icons. Through those meditations we discover new things about our own relationship with God while we get a glimpse into the author's relationship. He also shows us how we must become accustomed to using icons for prayer, a process that is not natural for many of us who grew up in the western Church. The book takes us away from the shallow view of icons as mere art, even primitive art, and shows us why icons are said to be written, not painted. The book shows how icons speak to us of the relationship we each have with God, and how that can be expressed through our use of icons for contemplative prayer. I highly recommend this book. James H. Dobbins, Ph.D. [e-mail]

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Praying with icons: wordless truth, beauty, and intimacy, March 24, 2000

By 

Connie S Regener (Orange County, Southern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Behold the Beauty of the Lord: Praying with Icons (Spiral-bound)

As a Protestant minister, I learned how to be a "wordsmith" and pray nice things. But in this book the author opened up a new--though ancient--dimension of prayer. This is prayer without words, prayer that focuses on being in God's presence rather than performing in God's presence. I found myself using the right side of my brain to touch and feel what was holy--a divine mystery. In the meditation on the icon of the Holy Trinity, we are invited to spend time "living in the house of love". This involves putting one's self into the picture, that is, sitting with the trinity and experiencing God as loving presence. Nouwen leads us through his experience, like a trusted guide showing the way, while encouraging us to walk the trail ourselves. With four beautiful colored illustrations, it's a gift you need to give yourself--but one that's hard to resist giving to others!