Sabbatical Journey: The Diary of His Final Year [Paperback]

Henri J. M. Nouwen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000

In September 1995, Nouwen took a year's sabbatical to write, pray and visit family and friends. Although he had little time to write, as a spiritual discipline he kept a daily journal enriched with vivid observations and soul-searching reflections. Sabbatical Journey records the flowering of friendship and prayer during what would be his final year on earth.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Priest and writer Nouwen went from teaching in American universities to serving severely handicapped people at L'Arche Daybreak in Canada. He kept this diary during a sabbatical that turned out to be the last year of his life. Some diaries seem a record of random events, but a remarkable unifying feature of Nouwen's record is his daily celebration of the Eucharist, alone or with friends who happen to be around him. Another is his genuine engagement with the hundreds of people he encounters. Nouwen's fans will welcome occasional glimpses into his inner life. For example, after recording factual events for days, he will mention that he has been struggling with anguish, loneliness and the need for acceptance. Throughout, he ponders what to do after his sabbatical and his desire (mixed with fear) to break out of the roles his church and public expect of him. By the end, he feels ready for a new direction. Anyone who already knows and enjoys Nouwen's writing will want to read this book. Readers unfamiliar with Nouwen might prefer to read some of his other works first, however.

Copyright 1998 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: The Crossroad Publishing Company (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824518780
• ISBN-13: 978-0824518783
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #404,238 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

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poignant and beautiful, May 19, 2000

By 

Sophia (the Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sabbatical Journey: The Diary of His Final Year (Hardcover)

This journal was written during the last year of Henri Nouwen's life, ending approximately one month before his death. In it, he describes his struggles with other people, his difficulty discerning what God intends for him, the direction his ministry is to take, and, woven throughout the book, are the continual, endless and beautiful themes of God's reconciling love, the Eucharist, forgiveness, friendship and love.

It is especially heartening (although sad for him) to read of his own struggles with others, his sadness and depression, his occasional hurt feelings, and to know that, great as he was, Nouwen struggled with the same problems of alienation and sadness that afflict us all. Yet, somehow, he found the strength to go on, and to inspire millions. Some of his beliefs may be upsetting to more traditional and conservative Christians, but were obviously products of much thought, energy and prayer. A very moving and inspiring book.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another view through another window, January 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sabbatical Journey: The Diary of His Final Year (Hardcover)

This is not really a sermon, more a sermon lived out. This diary shows in clear detail some surprising things that Nouwen believed. I'm sure more conservative Christians are going to go postal when they read this. But, this diary also shows clearly what Nouwen valued most: his relationship with other people. While Nouwen is an intimate and transparent writer, here you see what he has lectured and written on lived out in his life, through birth, death, celebration, Eucharist, and endless writing and revising. It's not an autobiography, but it is the closest one can get to understanding this priest who loved God and others.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An astounding journey by an amazing man, July 29, 2001

By 

Tanja L. Walker "Tanja L. Walker" (Norman, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sabbatical Journey: The Diary of His Final Year (Paperback)

This was my second Henry Nouwen book (the first was a book of selected writings edited by his friend Robert Jonas, with whom he stayed during part of the sabbatical described in this book), and I can assure you, this will not be my last Nouwen book. I have long been intrigued by this Catholic priest so often quoted by my Protestant pastors, and this book was recommended by one of them at a low point in my life.

Nouwen's spirituality and humanity come through so well through the pages of this journal. His reflections as he celebrates the Eucharist on a nearly daily basis are a source of spiritual food that sustains not only his community of friends (and he has many!) but his readers as well. He also writes about the tug of war he feels between wanting to write more, yet wanting to be available as a pastor for his friends, to preside over their weddings and baptisms and funerals. The anguish he feels over the death of Adam, a young disabled man who brought him to the Daybreak community he pastored for the last decade of his life, brought tears to my eyes. And he talks candidly about his hurts and disappointments, his anxieties and his fatigue, a haunting undercurrent, given the knowledge that three weeks after his final entry, he died of a massive coronary.

In short, you have to love, respect, and listen to a priest with the courage to write "...my faith and unbelief are never far from each other. Maybe it is exactly at the place where they touch each other that the growing edge of my life is" (p. 143). I am sorry I will never meet Nouwen in person, but I look forward to getting to know him better through his writings, and I look forward to someday meeting him in God's kingdom in Heaven.