Review of The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom by Henri J.M. Nouwen

My daughter gave me this book for my birthday along with Nouwen’s The Return of the Prodigal Son (which I haven’t read yet but will soon). I read much of this book while my husband Greg was in physical therapy.

Nouwen (1932–1996) was a Roman Catholic priest and spiritual writer who lived in the Netherlands, the United States, and Canada. In late 1987 he suffered an emotional breakdown and spent the next six months in therapy. During this lowest point in his life, he kept a journal detailing what he learned as he healed. His closest friends urged him to share these writings, but he resisted for more than eight years.

At first, I had a hard time relating to the book, because it is written in second person. I read it as though it were directed at me, and I didn’t see how the concepts applied to me. But then I realized it was a journal which Nouwen had written to himself. Once I made that breakthrough, the book became much more meaningful to me. His insights are valuable to a person who wants to draw closer to God, and that is my desire.

The Inner Voice of Love consists of 63 short entries, only one or two pages each, with titles such as Keep Living Where God Is, Know Yourself As Truly Loved, and Separate the False Pains from the Real Pain.

I really need to read this book again, and in the new year I plan to read it as a devotional, one small section at a time, and meditate on what I find in it.