The Wounded Healer

What does it mean to be a healer in the modern world?

In this hope-filled and profoundly simple book, Henri Nouwen offers a radically fresh interpretation of modern ministry. Here he inspires devoted men and women who want to be of service in their church or community, but have found the traditional ways of ministry alienating and ineffective.

According to Nouwen, we are called to identify the suffering in our own hearts and make that recognition the starting point of our service. We must be willing to go beyond our professional, aloof roles of service and leave ourselves open as fellow human beings with the same wounds and suffering as those we serve. We heal from our wounds.

Henri J. M. Nouwen was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest who left a highly acclaimed academic career to share his life with people with mental disabilities as pastor of l'Arche Daybreak Community, Toronto, Canada. He died in 1996.