Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World

This spiritual classic began as a simple request from one friend to another. Fred Bratman, a secular journalist and writer, asked friend and renowned author Henri Nouwen to write a book explaining the spiritual life in terms that he and his friends could understand, avoiding theology and technical language. "Speak to us about a vision larger than our changing perspectives and about a voice deeper than the clamorings of our mass media. Speak to us about something or someone greater than ourselves. Speak to us about... God." Nouwen's answer has become one of the most cherished books of our era. "All I want to say to you is, 'You are the Beloved.'" To know God, Nouwen writes, is to know that we are beloved -- beloved before our birth, beloved regardless of our successes and failures, and beloved even in the midst of great suffering and anguish.