With Burning Hearts: A Meditation on the Eucharistic Life (Hardcover)

~ Henri J. M. Nouwen (Author), Duccio (Illustrator) "Every day I celebrate the Eucharist..." (more)
Key Phrases: contrite heart

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

One of the most popular of contemporary spiritual writers offers a profound and beautiful reflection on the meaning of the Eucharist for ourselves and our communities. The word "eucharist", Nouwen tells us, originally comes from the Greek for "thanksgiving". And while the ancient source provides one dimension of the Christian experience, Nouwen finds that the wisdom of prior insights no longer suffices in a world changing as rapidly as ours. What we need is to realize the intimate connection between celebrating the Eucharist, and living a "eucharistic life". With Burning Hearts seeks a fuller understanding of Eucharist through the story of the disciples on their way to Emmaus from Jerusalem after the crucifixion (Luke 24: 13-35). They did not know they travelled with the risen Christ until they recognized him suddenly in the breaking of the bread. Marveling, they asked one another, "Did our hearts not burn withing us while he was talking to us...? Their story models the order of the eucharistic celebration: the coming together in our brokeness before God, the hearing of the Word, the profession of faith, the offering of the meal, and the going forth as Jesus bid them, to renew the face of the Earth. Henri Nouwen shows us how the eucharistic event is intensely human, revealing the deepenst of human experience: saddness and loss, attentiveness and invitation, intimacy and engagement. Just as the disciples on the road to Emmaus passed through all these stages so our participation in the Eucharist mirrors each one. Along this five-step journey, the disciples travel, grow, and learn. Their hearts at first are laden with failure and loss, then come to burn with recognition,and finally to burst open with gratitude and new life. This is the "eucharistic" moment: the goal of thanksgiving, of giving thanks to the One who has made us whole. From mourning to discernment, from invitation to intimacy, and finally from community to the charge to go forth and witness: With Burning Hearts calls us to experience all of this journey, to know that what we celebrate and what we are called to live are one and the same. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 100 pages
• Publisher: Orbis Books; Gift edition (September 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570755086
• ISBN-13: 978-1570755088
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #230,634 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, May 16, 2006

By	Steven R. McEvoy "MCWPP" (Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Recently I heard a priest from Opus Dei state that Henri Nouwen's books are not spiritual writing, that all of Nouwen's books are about Nouwen. After finishing this volume I would have to disagree lately, but not completely, this book like many of Nouwen's draws from Henri's personal experience, but all writers write from the lense that filters all we see and do. How could our life experience not affect how we see the world.

Nouwen states in the introduction: "Every day I celebrate the Eucharist. Sometimes in my parish church with hundreds of people present, sometimes in the Daybreak chapel with members of my community, sometimes in my father's living room with just him and me. Very few days pass without my saying, `Lord, have Mercy,' without the daily readings and a few reflections." p.9 The rest of the book is a series of reflections on the Christian life through the filter of the Eucharist and through the eyes of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. The five sections in the book are:

1. Mourning Our Losses: "Lord Have Mercy"

2. Discerning the Presence: "This is the Word of God"

3. Inviting the Stranger: "I Believe"

4. Entering into Communion: "Take and Eat"

5. Going on a Mission: "Go and Tell"

Each section draws us into a deeper understanding of our life, and our life as a people of the word and of the Eucharist.

The first section focuses on loss, our loss of what we believe in, what we hope for and what we sometimes dream of. After loss the disciples questioned their following Jesus, and if we are honest sometimes we doubt as well. "We remember the time that Jesus was so real for us that we had no question about his presence in our lives. He was our most intimate friend our counselor and guide. He gave us comfort, courage, and confidence. We could feel him, yes, taste and touch him. And now? We no longer think of him very much, we no longer desire to spend long hours in his presence. We no longer have that special feeling about him." p. 27,28. through the losses we have in our life we have come to have periods of doubt and struggle with our faith, we come bruised and broken by this world. "We come to the Eucharist with hearts broken by many losses, our own as well as those of the world." p. 31 but Nouwen goes on to give us hope, our hearts are broken and we experience loss so that we can also be healed and restored, so that through the Eucharist we can receive the water of God's grace.

After we have a renewed hope and have begun healing we must discern the presence of God in our lives. He declares "We cannot live without words that come from God, words to pull us out of our sadness and lift us up to a place from where we can discover what we are truly living." p.51 In this section we are reminded that God's words give life, we are nourished by them, challenged, encouraged and admonished. "Without the word, our life has little meaning." p.60 As Catholics as Christians how could we not live immersed in the Word, in the guidebook God has given to us.

Inviting the Stranger, "Interesting, stimulating, and inspiring as all these strangers may be, when I do not invite them into my home, nothing truly happens." p.69 Jesus stated that he stands at the door and knocks, the question is do we invite him in? Do we want him to permeate our whole life? Do we want to have Jesus be a part of our everyday life? This section asks many good questions that if we are honest will challenge us.

Communion is central to the Catholic faith. It is what unites Catholics around the world, we are a people who share a common table, and Nouwen focuses on what that means to us. "We can't really live without bread that is taken, blessed and broken, and given. Without it there is no fellowship, no community, no bond of friendship, no peace, no love, no hope. Yet, with it, all can become new!" p.80,91 Later he states: "God desires communion; a unity that is vital and alive, an intimacy that comes from both sides, a bond that is truly mutual. Nothing forced or `willed,' but a communion freely offered and received. God goes all the way to make communion possible." p.87 Through the Eucharist we can have communion with God and through that communion with each other.

Finally our life as people of the word and of the table we are given a mission. Nouwen tells us "It is not just the Eucharist, but the Eucharistic life that makes the difference." p.106 Through those two things we are prepared and called to mission, the mission to live as Catholics, as people who make a positive difference in the lives of those we impact and those who cross our path. "We have a mission to fulfill and it is good that we are excited about it, but first we have to listen to what others have to say. Then our stories can be told and bring joy." p.109 Nouwen also sows us a vision of what that life would look like: "In the Eucharist we are asked to leave the table and go to our friends to discover with them that Jesus is truly alive and calls us together to become a new people - a people of the resurrection." p.110

The meditations and reflections in this book, will draw you closer to the Lord's supper, and through that to the people in your life. It is beautifully illustrated with artwork by Duccio Di Buoninsegna, the combination of words and pictures will feed your soul and challenge your mind.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Walk Down the Road With the Gentlest of Writers, February 9, 1999

By	Peter Stephens (Virginia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: With Burning Hearts: A Meditation on the Eucharistic Life (Hardcover)

Henri Nouwen explains the Lord's Supper in the context of the two disciples' walk with Jesus down the road to Emmaus at the end of Luke's gospel. He sees five interrelating movements in the celebration of the Lord's Supper, each movement corresponding to an event along the disciples' walk. This is a meditation, not a theological treatise, so the soul and the mind share the road. Nouwen's meditations are challenging and joyous, and this is one of the best I've read. Going on any trip with Henri Nouwen brings joy, whether it's into a painting ("Return of the Prodigal Son"), into the desert ("Way of the Heart"), across a calendar ("Bread for the Journey"), or into his own anguish ("Inner Voice of Love"). I was so taken with Nouwen challenge to a "eucharistic life" in this book that I have celebrated the Lord's Supper by myself several times.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A manual for letting go of pain and loss, July 17, 2007

By	Veronica Singh (Ottawa, Canada) - See all my reviews

Henri Nouwen introduces a new and life-changing idea: living losses Eucharistically. He starts by acknowledging that life is full of "dark" and "agonizing" losses: "It is a world of endless losses, and many, if not most, of our fellow human beings walk with faces downcast on the surface of this planet." We go through life mourning...just like the two disciples walking to Emmaus, ruminating on their loss of Jesus.

Nouwen says that must mourn for our losses. We must "shed tears over them and allow ourselves to grieve deeply," acknowledge "the painful truth of our brokenness," and "experience the abyss of our own life" where "everything is constantly shifting and changing." In doing this, we realize that we are not the only ones with losses: in fact, all of humanity is "moaning and groaning" with the pain of losses.

Then Nouwen reveals that "there is a blessing hidden in our grief" - a gift is hidden in our tears. He says that suffering can actually lead us to gratitude. But what is the gift, and how do we recognize it? Nouwen says that "through mourning our losses we come to know life as a gift."

We need to gain a contrite heart, by realizing that our losses are connected with evil, and that there is evil in our own hearts - and so, "we are willing to take responsibility, even for the pain we didn't cause directly: blaming is converted into an acknowledgment of our own role in human brokenness." We begin to cry: "Lord have mercy". We cry out for the "healing of our cynical hearts", and we "dare to believe" that there may be a gift hidden in our pain.

We come to the Eucharistic celebration. We meet Jesus in the sacred Scriptures, though which he speaks to us. And we realize that we have a role to play in the salvation of the world: "The great temptation of our lives it to deny our role as chosen people and so allow ourselves to be trapped in the worries of our daily lives." Jesus makes our hearts burn. He encourages us to "let go of our hardened hearts and become grateful." We learn that our losses were not an end, but a "necessary way to freedom" and a "suffering leading to glory."

We receive the Eucharist, and enter into communion with Christ. "It is at that place of communion that we cry out: `God, my God, why have you abandoned me?` It is at that place, too, that our emptiness gives us the prayer: `Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit.'" Because, as Nouwen explains, "Communion with Jesus means becoming like him. With him we are nailed on the cross, with him we are laid in the tomb, with him we are raised up to accompany lost travelers on their journey." We no longer belong to the world that brings us so many losses, so much pain: "There we belong to Christ and Christ to us, and with Christ we belong to God."

We are then called to bring the good news to others - we have a mission. We must learn to listen to their losses, and then to tell them: "Didn't you know that what you are complaining about can also be lived as a way to something new? Maybe it is impossible to change what has happened to you, but you are still free to choose how to live it." We can lead them "from despair to hope, and from bitterness to gratitude...breaking through the boundaries of death." There is a light that shines in the darkness.

This very basic summary, leaving much out, only scratches the surface. Nouwen proposes a truly radical and profound way of living life with joy and gratitude rather than resentment, anger, bitterness and disillusionment. What Nouwen proposes takes much thought and much effort, and it is not necessarily immediately easy to understand. But for those who want to try, his book offers a way out of pain and suffering through the only means that can truly liberate us: Christ.