The Return of the Prodigal Son Anniversary Edition: A Special Two-in-One Volume, including Home Tonight

by Henri J.M. Nouwen

LISTENING Breathe deeply and find a still rhythm for exhaling preoccupations and for inhaling peace. In your imagination take your place silently beside Jesus and walk together up the mountain in the evening. Sit apart and watch him situate himself to pray. Watch him enter into communion with the One who sent him into the world. Imagine his communion with Love Divine. Stay and listen. The desert fathers counselled, “Go into your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.” Set aside a period of time in nature or at home, at a church or temple, a library or anywhere you will not be disturbed. Sit, walk, meditate, pray, read, whatever pleases you. Pay attention. —From Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest by Wayne Muller, 1999, Bantam Books, New York, p. 178. Now go alone to the mountaintop and imagine yourself in the presence of the One who sent you into the world. Be still. Wait. Don’t speak but rest in the presence. Listen. JOURNALING Write what you witnessed on the mountaintop. Note your feelings while you were present there with Jesus in communion with Love Unending. What was difficult for you? Write what you heard in your imagination. What were you feeling as you ascended the mountain alone? Write what transpired as you tried to imagine yourself in communion with God’s Spirit. Write your emotions, what you heard, your thoughts, and your feelings. COMMUNING Quietly enter into that privileged place in the depths of your heart and abide with Love. Give yourself ...