By Michael W. Hughes and Kevin Burns. Co-published by Paulist Press and Novalis 2012. Reviewed by John McAlpine. 

I doubt whether there are many people serious about growing spiritually, who haven’t read, or at least heard of, Catholic priest and spiritual writer, Henri Nouwen.

Before his death in 1996, Henri authored 39 books and thousands of lectures, articles and letters. I have 26 of his books in my library so I guess that makes me “serious”, or at least a fan of Henri.

A decade after Henri’s death, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation commissioned the two authors of this book to prepare a three-part radio-documentary on the life and legacy of Henri. They interviewed 23 people who either knew Henri personally or who had studied his work at depth. This book (143 pages, plus 17 pages of references and resources) is an off-shoot of that initial work. In it the authors endeavour to capture and describe what inspired and drove Henri to be the genius he undoubtedly was.

Obviously God’s Spirit was at work in Henri but what was it in his unique human journey that provided the “grist for his writing-mill”? “Grist for the mill” means “all things are a potential source of profit or advantage”. Accepting his sexual identity as a (celibate) gay man in a less-than-friendly-to-gays-Church and conceding that he was truly lovable was some of Henri’s grist. Outgrowing notions of an over-stern God (notions inherited from his religious and familial heritage) was other grist.

It seems to me that similar grist is the lot of us all. Henri’s contribution to our human family has been the passion and energy with which he embraced his own grist, his willingness to share with us that grappling in all its pathos and his conviction that we are all beloved of God. No wonder Henri has captured the hearts of so many.

The authors describe Henri as: “a person called to announce God’s impartial and inclusive love, but who in his own life felt that love withheld; a person destined to address the wounds of others, but for a long period confounded by his own brokenness”. Daniel O’Leary writes of Henri’s eventual discovery: “We are treasured beyond measure by a mercy that does not depend on our worthiness — that carries no inspection for perfection.”

This book moved me deeply. It is well-researched and well-crafted. It allowed me to see Henri, warts-and-all, facing into flesh-and-blood human struggles and hungering for the Love that calls each one of us.