Item 1586 - Contemplative reflections on torture

1 p. of textual records

This item is a half-page article by Henri Nouwen entitled, Contemplative Reflections on Torture, published in Sojourners, July-August 1976, p. 20. This article which is an excerpt from Nouwen’s book ‘Genesee Diary’ is a short reflection on his personal response to the political upheaval in Chile and the torture of many there. Nouwen begins by stating that he has read reports on the crisis which he finds ‘so disturbing, so overwhelming in their description of terror, that I could hardly sleep last night’. He speaks of his struggle to accept that this goes on while he is living quietly at the monastery but reflects that his understanding of some of the psalms which are part of the daily prayer there, help him with this struggle. He wonders if he is feeling compassion for the victims or more that he is feeling mostly anger at the perpetrators. ‘Maybe it is realistic to recognize these feelings and be thankful that the psalms give me a chance to express them even in the intimacy of prayer. Maybe these feelings have to be led directly to the center of my relationship with my God who is “slow to anger”.'

Published in Sojourners (July - August 1976): 20.
There is artwork at the top of the article of 3 chained hands.
This item is an excerpt from: Nouwen, Henri, The Genesee Diary: Report from a Trappist Monastery, Image Books, Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1976.

Added by L Joson, 8 November 2017