THE WAY OF THE HEART by Henri Nouwen

I recently read Henri Nouwen's 1981 publication The Way of the Heart: desert spirituality and contemporary ministry (Seabury). Not wanting to forget what I learned, I thought I would summarize the book here.

Nouwen asks, "The pressures in the ministry are enormous, the demands are increasing, and the satisfactions diminishing. How can we expect to remain full of creative vitality, of zeal for the Word of God, of desire to serve, and of motivation to inspire our often numbed congregations? Where are we supposed to find nurture and strength?" He suggests we ask the desert fathers.

Nouwen draws from the Sayings of the Desert Fathers of the 4th and 5th Centuries, who moved to the desert in Egypt to become hermits (from the Greek word for desert). After Christianity became legal in the Roman empire and persecutions of Christians had ceased, many faithful sought after new ways to 'witness' (meaning of 'martyr') for Christ. Many followed the example of St. Antony. While at church, Antony heard Jesus' command to the rich young ruler: "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." Antony took it to heart for himself, sold most of his wealth and moved to the edge of town, after which he sold all he had, moved to the desert to 'flee the world,' to find God and pray continually.

As an outline for his text, Nouwen uses the story of Arsenius, who asked, "Lord, lead me in the way of salvation." He heard a voice say, "Arsenius, flee from the world and you will be saved." So he moved to the desert to live alone. Having prayed the same prayer again, he heard a voice say, "Arsenius, flee, be silent, pray always, for these are the sources of sinlessness." Hence Nouwen examines the three disciplines of solitude, silence and continual prayer.

Solitude. In order to flee compulsive living and our false selves, we may flee everyone, find ourselves alone with God, and enter into conversation with Him, in whose image we were created. There we may take off our masks, be seen for what we really are, and be remade into a new creation. We don't flee just for privacy, but to be alone with God just as his Son Jesus did in his days on earth. "The goal of our life is not people. It is God. Only in him shall we find the rest we seek" (40).

The result? Compassion. This pattern is evident in the life of Christ, as it was in the life of his servant Antony, who after twenty years alone in the desert was a new man. Returning to civilization, "Those who saw him described him as balanced, gentle, and caring. He had become so Christlike, so radiant with God's love, that his entire being was ministry" (32). As we return from lonely places, we will have found space in our hearts for the world loved so dearly by God. We will then be able to love others as God has loved us.

Silence. It is hard to imagine the world before the advent of the printing press. Words were harder to come by in print, and most people were illiterate. Today our world is full of so many words that we become distracted from what really matters, and often feel the loss of meaning in what people say. God himself has much to say about silence in the scriptures. "When words are many, sin (lit. 'error, wandering, missing the mark') is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise” (Proverbs 10:19). See also James 1:19-27, and 3:1-12.

"Pilgrimage is silence," the fathers said. To flee the world and sin, be silent. Silence also guards the fire within. Our hearts are like saunas or cabins with a hearth. The longer the door of our mouth is open, the more warmth is let out. Do you want to keep your spiritual fervor? Let your words be few. "[T]oo many words . . . weaken our faith and make us lukewarm. But silence is a sacred discipline, a guard of the Holy Spirit" (56). Silence also teaches us to speak. "Silence is the home of the word. Silence gives strength and fruitfulness to the word. We can even say that words are meant to disclose the mystery of the silence from which they come" (48). Without silence, no one (including ourselves) will ever believe or care about what we have to say.

Continual Prayer. We flee people to be with God, and are silent to hear him. Solitude and silence provide the place for prayer. The apostle Paul said, "...pray continually...for this is what God wants you to do in Christ Jesus" (1 Thess. 5:17 and 18b). But how?

Nouwen notes that we often think of prayer as a mental exercise. Instead, the desert fathers learned that after prayers have been continually upon our lips, they easily enter into our hearts, where we may pray them with our whole selves, in earnest. Nouwen suggests:

1) The prayer of the heart is nurtured by short, simple prayers. Choose any phrase from scripture, such as "The Lord is my shepherd, I lack no thing," or "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me." These are easily remembered and easily repeated.

2) The prayer of the heart is unceasing. Don't say it once and stop. Instead, repeat it throughout your day. When we say something repeatedly, we begin to believe it, whether it's true or not. Why not have God's truth always upon our lips? We don't repeat it thinking God will hear us better if we say it over and over again. We repeat it to let it move from our lips to our mind, and finally into our heart. Then we can own the prayer, and perhaps even stop speaking it aloud as we repeat it often in our heart to the Lord. "Pray without ceasing."

3) The prayer of the heart is all-inclusive. While we could probably never list all our needs before the Lord (that would take forever), we can bring to him all our needs with a few words. This is what Jesus gave us in the Lord's prayer. In just a few words, we can ask God for all our needs, and for the needs of the whole world. Don't pray "My Father," but "Our Father . . . give us our daily bread . . . forgive us our sins . . . do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil." In this way, we can pray for the whole church and the whole world. Are these too big for God? Certainly not. Instead of praying "God, be merciful to me, a sinner," say, "Lord, have mercy on us," and thus direct your prayer for all whom God cares for.

I posted this because I found these thoughts refreshing. "Lord, lead me in the way of salvation."

"Flee, be silent, and pray always, for these are the sources of sinlessness." While few of us will become hermits for life, we ought to work these principles into our lives to find God and his peace.

+ When and where will we flee every day this week?
+ When and how often will we silence our mouths and our hearts to hear others and the Lord himself?
+ What heart-prayers will we begin to pray continually?

MONO

Dear friends,

I have been diagnosed with infectious mononucleosis.

Please pray that my symptoms don't worsen, that I take care of myself, that I do my homework diligently, suffer joyfully and gracefully, and be freed from selfishness.

Thank you, and life, peace, mercy and health be to all.

"Lord God, your Son our Savior gave his back to be whipped and his face to be spit upon; give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed, through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."

Thanks be to God (1)

Last night, as my roommate and I were delighting ourselves in the Lord, he gave us the desire of our heart.

We were in our room, lights out, ready to sleep, praying. One of our suite-mates was whistling and carrying on a conversation outside in the living area. Mid-prayer, my roommate asked, ". . . and quite honestly, Lord, that whoever's making noise out there would shut up." To the surprise and delight of our ears, just moments after we prayed that, the whistling stopped and they went into their room and closed the door. We thanked the Lord then and there.

I don't know how likely it is that our suite-mate could have heard my room-mate say "shut up." Our doors are made of heavy, solid wood, we were more moaning than speaking, but my roommate did emphasize those words with more volume. It doesn't matter--whether he heard us or not, our prayer was answered, and for that we were thankful.