an atheist who likes this book.

worth reading if as a non-believer you want to get a glimpse if the value of religion. i am walking the camino santiago and am discovering the value of silence.

1 person found this helpful

Very enlightening!

Will need to listen to it again, this time in my study with a pen and paper ready!

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A Little Learner

All in ministry should read and ask grace to apply. Helpful, clear and challenging and applicable now more than ever.

Amazing Book on Solitude, Silence, and Prayer

Drawing on the Desert Fathers, describes Solitude, Silence, and Prayer, and their place in ministry in today's church.

Enlightening and Challenging

I really appreciate this book, the use of simplicity has really open my eyes to a deeper revelation for the need of prayer.

A powerful book with Timeless truth for today’s Christian!

This book doesn’t spend time adding steps and task to Jesus ministry. In fact it encourages today’s very busy Christ followers to stop doing things that are built out of pride.

My favorite part is that becoming more like Christ is all of the “ministry work” we need to do and growing to be like Christ only comes in spending time with our father in heaven!

Once our worldly anger and pride are set aside “like Christ” people will see HIM in us and be drawn into a relationship with Christ because of our example.

Short and to the point!

Inclusion requires heart!

Nouwen gathers it together: simplicity of the mind, oneness in the spirit, and inclusiveness of the heart.

Great

Very informative. I enjoyed the entire text. I am looking forward to implant ting the principals discussed and taught. Thank you for providing this book in audio form.

Loving

A loving exhortation to love through the disciplines. And practical steps to turn our minds back to the foundational work. Robertson Dean has a lovely deep voice and interprets Nouwen's work as calm and reassuring. This book is not yet in ebook form so if you want it handy and for easy frequent instruction this audio book is the simplest way to keep it readily accessible.

Silence.

It’s hard to give anything but a five star rating to Nouwen. Sometimes I suspect the man had God ghost write his books. This one, a short introduction to the Desert Fathers and Mothers, the Abbas and Ammas, meditates on silence and contemplation. Ministers, he writes, tend to be doers, caught up in parish committees and ministries of caring. (I found his constant reference to ministers puzzling. Is this written for clerics? But then again, all Christians are called to be ministers.) We forget the need for silence, alone time with God. The Desert Fathers spent years in silence with God. But that did not make them alone or apart from the world. It made them more open and compassionate with those who came to visit them. Silence and contemplation, while they are fostered by spiritual practices of prayer and meditation, are less a state of mind to engage in at times and more a state of being to live at all times. Nouwen is always an inspiration.