Bread for the Journey by Henri J. M. Nouwen

First published: New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997

Genre(s): Nonfiction

Subgenre(s): Devotions; guidebook; handbook for living; meditation and contemplation

Core issue(s): Compassion; daily living; devotional life; discipleship; wisdom

Overview

Henri Nouwen was a professor who taught at Harvard University and Yale University before becoming the senior pastor at the L’Arche community called Daybreak in Toronto, Canada, a post he held until his death in 1996. L’Arche is a community of people with disabilities living together. Nouwen was a prolific writer and wrote numerous books on spirituality and daily living. Bread for the Journey is an important book that gives new hope and inspiration for how to live.

Nouwen first began this book with the intention of writing a devotional work that touched on matters relating to all people of faith. However, the more he wrote, the more he realized that he had to deal with Jesus, the center of his life. This devotional book is therefore Christo-centric; its ideas and images center on Christ as savior, teacher, creator, and peace giver. The book is organized as a calendar: Nouwen provides one short inspirational thought for each day of the year. He covers many important issues to help his readers live authentically, holistically, and in a deeper relationship with the divine. Nouwen tries to open his readers’ hearts and minds so that they can focus more intently on God’s presence in and purpose for their lives. According to Nouwen, developing a relationship with God is a lifelong journey; this book is intended as spiritual bread for that journey.

Touching on topics both joyous and sad, Nouwen describes human experiences: loneliness, suffering, loss, and how one can deal with such experiences. He advises that, rather than harbor these feelings, we live through and overcome them: In the depths of pain and sorrow, for example, it is better to have risked the work of loving than not to love at all. Rather than hoard material goods for ourselves, Nouwen reminds us that, paradoxically, the more we keep, more we lose, not only in material goods but, more important, in relationships. Nouwen’s message reflects the experience of the Israelites, who collect manna and were warned by God not to take more than was necessary for a day. God’s message is as true today as it was for the Israelites: We live in a capitalist and a consumer society where enough never seems sufficient. Nouwen warns us of the cost of such overabundance: We need to reflect on the damage we are causing the earth and one another as we live with more than we need, at the expense of others. Nouwen’s ideas relate to the Asian term han, the “unjust suffering” experienced by the poor and the oppressed; the earth also experiences han as human beings take too much from it for their own greed and selfishness. Nouwen asserts that we are living on this earth as one family and must act as stewards, rather than exploiters, of our precious earth and its resources, including each other.

An inspirational and motivational work, Nouwen’s daily meditations offer life-changing thoughts for approaching one’s daily life in a world of suffering, pain, loneliness, separation, and fear. Nouwen’s words enter our hearts to warm us with encouragement and strength. Taken meditatively, in tiny morsels like the bread of the book’s title, these words are designed to sustain one’s spiritual life as bread sustains one’s physical body.

Christian Themes

Chief among the work’s many themes are that Christianity is love. Nouwen emphasizes that love must be reflected in action, not merely feeling. Although our material culture emphasizes the good feelings of love, love cannot be sustained by feeling alone. Nouwen advises that we act upon our love—that we create love by our actions; the feelings will follow.

One of the most important Christian values is to love one’s neighbor, and Nouwen asks the question of how we can do that. Reiterating Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, who crossed the road to help a stranger, Nouwen notes that in many cases people erect barriers against those who are different from them, just as the Israelites did against the Samaritans. A modern example is the barrier between Western, mainly Christian, and Middle Eastern, often Muslim, nations. We tend to objectify and vilify others rather than seeing them as our neighbors. Once we stop objectifying people, we will realize that they are like us: mothers who care about their children, fathers who worry about their family’s future, and brothers and sisters who want the best for one another. Like the Good Samaritan, we need to cross the road to become neighbors.

Jesus is central to Nouwen’s theology. Nouwen devotes many of his devotional days to helping readers understand the complexity of Jesus. For example, Nouwen assigns one day to each of the different characters of Jesus based on the Sermon on the Mount. He describes Jesus as the blessed one, poor, gentle, mournful, hungry, thirsting for uprightness, merciful, pure of heart, a peacemaker, and persecuted. These aspects of Jesus reveal to us what it means to be in the world but not of it. If we follow the example of Jesus, we too will see God in the present moment. The ability to live this way will enrich our lives and comfort us in our pain and sadness.

Another theme is God’s relationship with us. Nouwen describes this by examining the difference between a contract and a covenant. Contracts, in which each side promises to keep its part as long as the other keeps to its agreement, can be broken. The word “covenant,” however, means “coming together.” God does not make a contract with us, but a covenant. God comes to us so that we can have a lasting relationship with God. God wants all our relationships to reflect a covenant; thus marriages, friendships, and community should all reflect God’s covenant with us. If only our society could see relationships not as adversarial contracts, preventing two sides from splitting, but rather as covenants, broken relationships would be a rarity.

Sources for Further Study

Kushner, Harold. When All You’ve Ever Wanted Wanted Isn’t Enough: The Search for a Life That Matters. New York: Summit Books, 1965. A search for a meaningful and purposeful life which is beyond the mere gathering of material goods or material success. A complement to Nouwen’s work.

Nouwen, Henri J. M. Finding My Way Home: Pathways to Life and the Spirit. New York: Crossroad, 2001. This is a devotional book complementary to Bread for the Journey.

Nouwen, Henri J. M. The Road to Daybreak: A Spiritual Journey. New York: Doubleday, 1988. This book reveals Nouwen’s spiritual journey and struggle to decide to live at the L’Arche community in Richmond Hill, Ontario. The book provides strength to the readers as it encourages and helps people who also struggle with life decisions.

Schut, Michael, ed. Simpler Living Compassionate Life: A Christian Perspective. Denver, Colo.: Living the Good News, 1999. A compilation of excerpts from contributors such as Henri Nouwen, Richard Foster, John B. Cobb, Jr., Frederick Buechner, and others on how to live an abundant life. These essays touch on many aspects of life, including time, wealth, nature, community, and relationships.