Henri Nouwen, author, lecturer, and spiritual mentor to many, was born in the Netherlands in 1932. An ordained priest and gifted teacher, he taught at several universities worldwide, including Notre Dame, Harvard, and Yale. His prolific writing career produced such notable works as With Open Hands, The Return of the Prodigal Son, and The Inner Voice of Love. In the mid 1980s, he became involved with L'Arche, an international movement of communities that welcome people with disabilities, and he was pastor for the L'Arche Community of Daybreak in Toronto, Canada, from 1986 to 1995. After his death in 1996, his brother Laurent founded the Henri Nouwen Stichting, a foundation to further Nouwen's works particularly in the Netherlands, to support the Henri Nouwen Literary Centre in Canada, and to assist L'Arche. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

In times of suffering, simplistic answers ring empty and hollow. But Henri Nouwen, beloved spiritual thinker and author, offers real comfort in the concrete truth of God's constancy. Nouwen suggests that by greeting life's pains with something other than despair, we can find surprising joy in our suffering. He suggests that the way through suffering is not in denial, but rather in living fully in the midst of the trials life brings our way.