A Review of the Book "Reaching Out" by Henri Nouwen

Title: Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life
Author: Henri Nouwen
Publisher: Doubleday
Year: 1975
162 pages

Using personal anecdotes as examples, Henri Nouwen, in his book "Reaching Out", offers hope to his readers that "Christian spirituality is worth the effort." In his effort to do so, he writes about the importance of reaching out to the world in three ways - internally, externally, and spiritually - in order to create the intimacy with God that is the basis for Christian spirituality.

In the first section, Nouwen speaks about a move from loneliness to solitude. The culture of the world in the 21st century is one of a "keep busy" nature. We tend to live on schedules and routines and when there is a blank spot in our calendar, we automatically assume that we have either forgotten to do something or that we need to fill that time. It doesn't feel natural to simply sit in silence, or to enjoy brief periods of "alone-time", or find time for prayer. According to Nouwen, building in time for quiet solitude into your daily, or weekly, schedule can help to increase your compassion, for self and others, as well as your connection to God, as he declares, "in a surprisingly new way" (p. 62).

Nouwen then goes on to write about hostility versus hospitality. He states, "our changing relationship to ourself can be brought to fruition in an ever-changing relationship to our fellow human beings" (p. 64). A large part of the Christian spiritual life is creating space for the stranger, which is hard to accomplish if you haven't created space for yourself. By developing self-compassion, one is able to form hospitable environments for other human beings, develop compassion for others' situations, and to learn how to reach out to one's neighbour with love.

In the final section of the book, Nouwen discusses the hardest part of the Christian spiritual life, our relationship with God. While it seems that having a relationship with God would be something that would be assumed and come naturally for anyone calling themselves a believer, it isn't always that easy. Learning how to pray is important yet difficult. We have hard questions to ask of God, the bible is full of descriptions of a violent and vengeful God, and sometimes it's hard to have a conversation with someone who doesn't respond in the way we would expect. In this last section, Nouwen discusses some ways to put prayer into your life, as well as speaking on the importance of having both an individual and community-based prayer life.

"Reaching Out" is an excellent book for anyone who is looking for some guidance to improve their relationship with themselves, with others, and with God. While Nouwen doesn't give outright answers (to which he does warn readers in his introduction), he has an amazing ability to relate to his readers through personal examples and thoughtful questions. I would recommend "Reaching Out" to anyone wanting to do an examination of their spiritual life.