Item 1659 - Caring presence: reflections

1 p. of textual records

This item is a 2 column article by Henri Nouwen entitled, ‘Caring Presence’, published in SCJ News, October, 1983, Vol. 5, No. 2, p. 4. This item is an excerpt from Nouwen, Henri: Out of Solitude. Nouwen begins the article by asking, ‘What does it mean to care?’ He suggests that the word ‘care’ has often been misused and offers several examples. Nouwen goes on to say ‘… we tend to look at caring as an attitude of the strong toward the weak, of the powerful toward the powerless’. However, Nouwen suggests that real caring is when another shares our pain, touches our wounds with a ‘gentle and tender hand’. Nouwen concludes by stating, ‘To care means first of all to be present to each other…presence is a healing presence because they accept you on your terms and they encourage you to take your own life seriously…’.

Published in SCJ News 5, no. 2 (October 1983): [4].
This item is an excerpt from, Nouwen, Henri: Out of Solitude, Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, Indiana, 1974.

Added by L Joson, 9 November 2017
Revised by L Joson, 22 June 2018