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Item consists of a sound recording of two addresses given by Nouwen to the 87th Annual Convention and Exposition of the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA). SR89 v1 consists of Nouwen's opening address entitled "The Hidden Treasure". SR89 v2 consists of Nouwen speaking on "Zabelka: The Reluctant Prophet".

Item consists of a talk by Henri Nouwen entitled The Lonely Search for God. SR88 v1 contains tape 1. SR88 v2 contains tape 2.

Item consists of a recording of Nouwen speaking in Washington, D.C. at the Peace Pentecost, a conference entitled, "The Rise of Christian Conscience: A national conference for Christian Nonviolence and Civil Disobedience". The conference was organized by the Sojourners Peace Ministry, Washington, D.C. SR61 v1 is entitled "Spiritual Basis." SR61 v2 is entitled "Prayer and Spirituality".

This item is a half-page article by Henri Nouwen entitled, ‘Hospitality Frees Guests’ published in the National Catholic Reporter, September 27, 1974, p. 11. Nouwen begins the article by stating, ‘If the first characteristic of the spiritual life is the continuing movement from loneliness to solitude, its second characteristic is the movement by which hostility can be converted in hospitality’. Nouwen suggests that if we meet others out of needy loneliness that will not create an open space of hospitality to help the other be who they should be. Nouwen states that he believes the biblical concept of hospitality ‘might offer a new dimension to our understanding of a healing relationship and the formation of a recreating community’. Hospitality creates ‘not a fearful emptiness , but a friendly emptiness where strangers can enter and discover themselves as created free…’.

Item consists of two copes of the same photograph of a drawing of Nouwen in profile while speaking and gesturing with his hands. The back of one of the photographs has an annotation in blue ink stating "1984".

Item consists of a photograph of an unidentified woman seated outdoors on a patio in Cap d'Estel, with a pool, a large body of water and a mountain in the background.

Item consists of a photograph of Nouwen's brother, Paul Nouwen, seated on a stone wall, his head turned to his left.

This item is an 11 page article by Henri Nouwen entitled, ‘Prayer and Health Care’, published in Review by the Catholic Health Association of Canada, Vol. 17, No. 4, Winter 1989, pp.5 – 16. This article is adapted from a lecture given by Nouwen for the CHAC’s 50th anniversary Day of Celebration, October 25, 1989 in Ottawa, ON. Nouwen begins by reminding his audience of the talk he gave 12 years previously on compassion and indicates that he would now like to speak on the source of compassion: prayer. Nouwen begins by writing about Jesus’ prayer which is the source of Jesus’ life-giving ministry. ‘Every aspect of Jesus’ ministry, every word, every action and every detail of his own journey bespeaks life…’ Nouwen states that from his prayer of listening Jesus understands he is the beloved and that he wants us to know that we are also. ‘Jesus wants each of us to be just as much a child of God as he is himself’. Nouwen then goes on to describe the stresses and pressures that prevent us from being able to hear the God who desires us and our need, over time, to turn to God, to live our lives for God. Nouwen then goes on to speak about freedom which will come from prayer as we learn to listen, to move away from obsessions and compulsions, to say ‘no’ to death forces. The last half of the article speaks about the discipline of prayer in three ways: discipline of the mind, discipline of the heart, and discipline of the body. Nouwen concludes by stating, ‘ …I call all of you to be men and women of prayer, men and women truly belonging to God, men and women who at every moment of your existence and every part of yourselves will give life, not in your own name, but in the name Him who said, “I come to bring life…” Folder also contains a loose leaf photocopy of the article with annotations.

Item consists of a photograph of Geoff Whitney-Brown standing outdoors next to his wife, Carrie, who is holding their infant daughter, Janet - all three are wearing colourfully decorated hats. A house, trees and a pond are visible in the background.

This item is two copies of a 4 page article by Henri Nouwen entitled,’ Seeing Christ: A meditation on Andrew Rublev’s Savior of Zvenigorod’, published in America, Vol. 154, No. 1, January 4 – 11, 1986, pp. 4 – 7. Nouwen begins this meditation on the icon by stating, ‘To see Christ is to see God and all of humanity. This mystery has evoked in me a burning desire to see the face of Jesus’. Nouwen then relates this to his love of the face of Christ as portrayed by Rublev in this icon. Nouwen begins by describing the damage to this 15thC image and then describes what he sees as a ‘tender human face’ and the colors ‘of inexpressible beauty’ which are used. The next focus for Nouwen are the eyes of Christ: ‘Their gaze is so mysterious and deep that any word that tries to describe them is inadequate’. Nouwen concludes the meditation by stating, ‘Seeing the Christ by Rublev is a profound event…seeing Christ leads us to the heart of God as well as to the heart of all that is human’. In an Afterword, Nouwen discusses the icon painting tradition and notes that beginning in the 6th C. there is a tendency to portray the face of Christ in a similar way in all icons and in a way which may be related to the face on the Shroud of Turin which may have been the actual face of Christ.

Item consists of photocopies of a typescript of "Marriage as Ministry". Nouwen argues that marriage as ministry has two functions: binding the wounds of the other, and healing the suffering guest. One copy is in the bound volume and one is a loose copy.

This item is a 5-page article by Henri Nouwen entitled ‘L’Arche in North America: Home, Healing and Hope’, published in ‘Letters of L’Arche’, No. 76, 1992, pp. 2 – 6. Nouwen is writing this at the time of the funeral of Pere Thomas Philippe, one of the founders of L’Arche. Nouwen senses that Pere Thomas’ legacy of the vision of L’Arche will continue to live, ‘he can bring a rich harvest’. Nouwen goes on to ask ‘how to be l’Arche in North America’? Nouwen sees three core words that will bear much fruit: Home, Healing and Hope. I. Home: Nouwen sees L’Arche as being home especially for the core members many of whom have experienced living in institutional places that were not ‘home’. Nouwen goes on to describe the sense of homelessness that many in North America experience: actual homelessness, but also places where people live without a welcome, places where people live in loneliness, places where people live alone together. Nouwen notes that the Assistants who come to L’Arche have and do experience this homelessness as well. Nouwen sees that home at L’Arche provides a place to be home but also to be a place of mission and a recognition that we are still journeying home. II. Healing: ‘The great paradox of L’Arche is that, while no one is cured, everyone is healed’. Nouwen speaks of the great suffering that has been experienced by the core members but also by the Assistants. All seek healing. ‘It is clear that we are all handicapped that we all need to offer each other healing by the way we live together’. III. Hope: ‘L’Arche invites people, barely respected or acknowledged by our society, to become witnesses of hope’. ‘Joy, peace, acceptance, truthfulness, the ability to welcome, to forgive and to celebrate; these are only some of the gifts handicapped people have to offer…This knowledge of the ‘gift of the poor’ has been a great inspiration in L’Arche over the years, and has made L’Arche into a true sign of hope’.

Item consists of a tape and a workbook designed as a program to be used by small groups. The tape is based on a day retreat by Nouwen in 1987 to youth at Convocation Hall, University of Toronto. Nouwen speaks on such topics as the broken world, the broken self, solitude and community. The workbook includes excellent photographs of the event.

Item consists of a photograph of Nouwen decorating a Christmas tree in the living room of the Green House. Wearing a blue and green plaid shirt, Nouwen has his right arm extended above him as he places a candy cane near the top of the tree.

Item consists of a photograph of Nouwen, wearing a blue striped t-shirt, swinging on a trapeze, a safety belt around his waist. Frank Hamilton, holding a camera, and Joe Jonas are visible watching from below.

Item consists of a photograph of Nouwen, wearing a blue collared shirt and tan pants, seated with Andriy (Andriiko) Swarnyk, aged 5 years, on his lap.

Item consists of a photograph of Nouwen standing behind Adam Arnett, holding him up with both arms.

Item consists of one wooden candlestick with five wooden bells attached to the round base, given to Nouwen by Zenia Kushpeta.

Item consists of a photograph of core member Rosie Decker and assistant Zenia Kushpeta seated and speaking together on stage during a skit.

Item consists of a photograph of Zenia Kushpeta playing the piano on stage during a skit.

Item consists of a small orange hard-bound notebook featuring musical notes on its cover. The notebook is entitled, "Adagio: Musical Reflections", but is otherwise blank.

Item consists of a large hard-bound notebook featuring a cat and spider on its cover. Notebook contains Nouwen's biographical notes on Lorenzo Sforza-Cesarini.

Item consists of a hard-bound, black, legal-sized notebook. Notes are regarding a prayer written in an unknown hand and sermons. Subjects of sermon notes include L'Arche; John 6:1-15; living in joy; John 21:17-19; Servant Leadership: The Disciplines of Discipleship; and Can You Drink the Cup? (Matthew 20:20-23).

Item consists of a small soft-bound notebook, likely purchased by Nouwen in Peru. Notes appear to be regarding vocabulary, scheduling, addresses, notes for sermons, and other miscellaneous notes.

Item consists of a copy of a published article by Nouwen entitled, "Spirituality and the Family" (Church Educator Supplement, June 1977).

Item consists of a typescript of a sermon for Advent, given by Nouwen at Durham Notre Dame. Nouwen discusses the Christ Event. He argues that other events in life make sense only through a knowledge of the Christ event. He concludes that solitude, prayer and the common liturgy are ways to remember this central event.

Item consists of a typescript of "Marriage and the Family", a lecture given by Nouwen in which he discusses the search for intimacy, unity and community through marriage and his own experience of celibacy.

Item consists of a typescript of "Marriage and the Family", a lecture given by Nouwen in which he argues that we do not marry to have our loneliness taken away, but to help each other to grow closer to God and to protect each other's solitude or sacred center.

Item consists of handwritten notes and a partial typescript of "Theology of the Word", a sermon and lecture given by Nouwen. He argues that in a culture where words are overworked, the word of God is full of power and beauty because it is alive, active and fruitful.

Item consists of handwritten notes and a typescript of a talk on supervising ministers given by Nouwen at the Berkeley Center on October 18, 1977. Nouwen argues that supervising ministers make life more transparent for students by interpreting nature, events, and people with a vision of how things really are. But supervisors can only do this when they themselves are moving from opaqueness to transparency. Nouwen talks about the importance of the spiritual life of the supervisor.

Item consists of a typescript of "On Mercy", a sermon given by Nouwen at Mercy Center (Madison, CT), in which he describes prayer as seeing what cannot otherwise be seen, especially in nature, in events, and in people. All of these are opaque unless we do not expect to see more, but within each of these the face of God may become visible. Prayer is also a discipline where we take time to listen and therefore leave behind our illusions of control, where we allow God to move from our heads to our hearts, and where we listen rather than speak to God.

Item consists of a typescript of "Prayer and Ministry", a sermon on the idea of theoria physica developed by the desert fathers. Nouwen explains that we need to see nature and time with new eyes; as gifts not to be taken, but to be received and appreciated. The discipline of prayer, giving time to God, looking with the heart, and being obedient, (Prakticos), leads us into the new way of seeing.

Item consists of a manuscript of "Compassion in Ministry and Medicine", a talk Nouwen gave to medical staff. Nouwen talks about care as the basis of cure, because we are together in our humanity. Concretely, care is listening to the questions; responding to the questions more as another human being rather than as an authority, and doing all this with a deep self-knowledge, especially of our own mortality.

Item consists of a typescript of "Prayer and Ministry", a sermon Nouwen gave on Luke 9:28-36. It is a commentary on the Transfiguration passage, when the disciples go with Jesus to the mountain to pray and Jesus is transfigured. Prayer is seen as an affirmation of the gift of life, not to be controlled but to be received and shared. Nouwen argues that when this happens we see our life and the world not as something dark, but more in the light; not opaque, but transparent.

Item consists of a photocopy of a typescript of "Powhatan Revisited", a paper Nouwen wrote about a visit he made to Powhatan, LA, a former parish where he worked for six months in 1962. The story is about his fellowship with the people there, the poverty and the people's relationships in and around the village.

Item consists of a typescript of "Spirituality and Clinical Pastoral Education", a talk in which Nouwen describes clinical pastoral education and spiritual formation in the spirituality of care. He takes consolation as one of the most important modalities of care, and talks about consolation as the creation of a climate where sorrow can be mobilized and as a way to deepen human sorrow to the level where it can be shared. Real consolation is not to take people away from their pain, but to create a climate where pain can be shared. Care means to cry out with. Care also means to go even deeper, to what Nouwen calls the basic human melancholy that artists and musicians connect us with.

Item consists of a typescript of "Pastoral Care and Spirituality", a talk on being a caregiver and caring. Nouwen is bringing together spirituality with clinical pastoral education for ministers who are to be carers. He outlines aspects of care as: sharing the suffering of others as opposed to trying to take it away, connecting the pain with the depth of human brokenness and thus deepening the pain, allowing the other to learn about care and become a carer, and doing all this in the context of a praying community.

Item consists of a typescript of "A Contemporary Monastic Experience", a talk given on Holy Thursday. Nouwen describes the death and resurrection of Jesus, not so much as an event that happened in the past, but as the Christ event that is being realized in us in the unfolding liturgical year. Living the liturgical year in the monastery allows one to 'live' the event without as many illusions about God or self, primarily because of the desert-like quality of monastic life.

Item consists of a manuscript of a sermon on the word 'patience', describing the negative and positive connotations. Nouwen describes a 'new time' not associated with clock time. He concludes that patience is a discipline of the compassionate life and is connected with the Pentecost.

Item consists of a typescript of a lecture on scarcity and abundance.

Item consists of a typescript of a short sermon for Advent.

Item consists of handwritten notes and typescript of a sermon for Ash Wednesday. Nouwen argues that entering into Lent is seeing once again the sorrow and the anger of God who yearns to gather us as a hen her brood, but we refuse. He invites us to enter again into the knowledge that God cannot love us unless we let God, and so we put ashes on our foreheads and again say, "We cannot live without you, God". File includes a page of notes in an unknown hand entitled, "The Crucifixion".

Item consists of a manuscript and partial typescript for a sermon on Mark 14:32-42, the story of Gethsemane. Nouwen advises us to simply go to the Garden and stay there with Jesus. He tells us not to sleep in His or our sorrow, but to stay awake and have no words to speak, but simply to stay. In so doing we see Jesus suffering but we also witness his fear, his request to have it taken away and his resignation to God's will, his faithfulness. Nouwen ends with the prayer of Thomas Merton, "Lord we have no idea where we are going."

Item consists of a typescript of "May His joy be in you and may your joy be complete", a sermon on joy, the priesthood and the Eucharist, which was written for the 40th anniversary of Fr. Thomas' ordination at the Abbey of the Genesee (Piffard, NY). Nouwen finds joy in the realization that all the suffering, all the success, and all the failure of a life are already taken up in the Eucharistic sacrifice, and thus we can experience the joy of our salvation.

Item consists of a manuscript of a sermon on joy, suffering and death. Nouwen argues that the world wants us to believe that suffering and joy are separate and that there is more suffering than joy. He says that God did not make death, that Jesus' life is announcing that death no longer has power over him. Jesus came to announce the Good News, a kingdom of peace and joy. He concludes that it is a mystery but it is true.

Item consists of a typescript for a sermon on Gezin and Kinderen.

Item consists of a typescript for a sermon on downward mobility. Nouwen comments on the busyness at Yale University. Though Nouwen does not use the term 'downward mobility', he says that we live in an exciting world as we prepare and do ministry. Nouwen asks whether the excitement leads us to a deeper understanding and closeness to God, or whether it is a distraction. He invites the students to help each other to create the climate where they can confess the contradictions and help each other to find good disciplines, like Jesus.

Item consists of a typescript of "Some Greeks", a sermon on John 12:20-37. In this sermon Nouwen explains that Jesus did not want to be popular, exclaiming, "If people want to see me or know me, it means they want that knowledge to make a difference in their lives". So when the Greeks ask to see him, he talks about the seed going into the ground and dying. Nouwen concludes that "if we want to know Jesus we must be prepared to follow him there".