The Genesse Diary

About 35 years ago I read The Genesee Diary by Henri Nouwen, a journal of the six months he spent in a Trappist Monastery. It remains my favorite Nouwen book, one which I have re-read several times, and am due to read again.

Nouwen writes: This is the great adventure of the monk: to really believe that God loves you, to really give yourself to God in trust, even while you are aware of your sinfulness, weaknesses, and miseries.

Of course, this is the great adventure for us all (as Nouwen points out in the book).

It is a wondrous thing, and not what we could ever expect. God’s mercy is infinite beyond our imaginings. It is not sin which keeps one from God but the desire to keep sins to oneself. As we surrender our sin, and our strange and hopeless attempts to bluff our way to God, our Lord may finally begin to truly work in us and on us.