Item 1622 - Letting go of all things

2 p. of textual records

This item is a 2 page article by Henri Nouwen entitled, ‘ Letting Go of All Things’, published in Sojourners magazine, May 1979, pp. 5& 6. This article is identified as a ‘response to “The Work of Prayer” a project of Sojourners to pray for peace in face of the arms race. Nouwen begins by asking what this call might mean: does it represent a failure of action? A turning to God because turning to people didn’t help much? A capitulation to quietism? A dramatic gesture? Nouwen believes not: ‘I believe that the Sojourners are discovering a dimension of prayer they did not see before…I see their call not as an invitation to retreat into a familiar piety , but as a challenge to make a radical move toward prayer as “the only necessary thing”’. Nouwen suggests prayer as a dying to self, an opening to God, is the ground from which people move out into the world of action. Nouwen concludes, ‘ When …our act of prayer remains the act from which all actions flow, we can be joyful even when our times are depressing, peaceful even when the threat of war is all around us, hopeful even when we are constantly tempted to despair.

Access copies (3) available in Access Copies - Published Works, Articles by Nouwen, Box 1.

Published in Sojourners 8, no. 5 (May 1979): 5-6.

Item features an illustration by Buu Chi.
File contains a letter from Jane Bouvier of Yale Divinty School addressed to Laurent Nouwen Sr. enclosing the article.

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