File 125 - Letters from Fr. Dennis O'Neill

2 cm of textual records

File consists of letters, postcards, and cards sent to Rev. Dennis O'Neill from Henri Nouwen. File also includes two books by O'Neill, "Lazarus Interlude: A Story of God's Healing Love in a Moment of Ministry" and "Passionate Holiness: Marginalized Christian Devotions for Distinctive People". One typed note refers to the book "Love in a Fearful Land" which Nouwen sent to O'Neill. File also includes one scanned and printed colour photo. The photo is a picture of Nouwen and Nathan Ball standing in the kitchen of St. Clotilde rectory in Chicago in the early 1990's.

Fr. Dennis first got to know Nouwen through his books. He read many of them, beginning with The Genesee Diary. In 1981 he had this experience with a man who attempted suicide, and died two weeks afterwards as a result. He hadn’t known the man before, but they had an intense experience together. O’Neill wrote a book (Lazarus Interlude) on the this experience and sent Nouwen a copy of it, because he thought Henri would appreciate it. He didn’t hear anything back (this was during Nouwen's Harvard years). A year later O'Neill was trying to get the book published, and asked Nouwen to write the introduction. He called his office at Harvard and explained the situation to Henri. Henri hadn’t seen the book, but once he dug around his office he found it. Henri read it that night, and shared it with some of his friends. The next day he called O’Neill to say he would be willing to write the intro.

The letters from Nouwen to O'Neill are all originals:

• October 1982: handwritten, 1 page letter, written from Switzerland
• November 10, 1984: handwritten, postcard, written from Cambridge on a L'Arche Trosly-Breuil postcard.
• December 20, 1984: handwritten note, written from Boston, MA
• March 3, 1986: one-page, handwritten note, written from France. Includes four blank postcards and one picture of an icon.
• April 9, 1986: handwritten postcard, written from France
• April, 14, 1986: handwritten postcard, written from Southern France
• April 25, 1986: handwritten letter from France, includes a blank post-card
• April 30, 1986: typed form letter addressed "Dear Friends," written from Cambridge.
• June 30, 1986: handwritten postcard, written from France
• January 30, 1987: handwritten postcard
• December 28, 1995: handwritten postcard, written from Germany

Title based on contents of the file.
O'Neill shared written memories of Henri. A copy is in this file. The original is in the Memories of Henri file.

Revised by T Wong, 22 February 2022