The only necessary thing

The only necessary thing

-         Henri Nouwen -

       Henri Nouwen was born in Holland in 1932 and ordained a Catholic priest in 1957.  He experienced the community life with O.C.R. - Order of Cistercians, Reformed (Trappist) brothers and experienced with the poor in Latin America. He  wrote over 40 books on spirituality and the spiritual life, because for him, a life of faith is a life of prayer. He died in 1996 but his spirit is alive. Drawn from his life, from his thoughts, his feelings, and the struggle with prayer and his belief that prayer is the only necessary thing.

“The only necessary thing” is a book focuses about prayer life. It helps us know how to pray, how to be closer to God in prayer, experience the embrace and the love of God, experience the presence of God is working in our body and experience the will of God in solitude and silence. This book includes many themes as desire, prayer, belovedness, listening, discipline, community, intercession, forgiveness, challenge, solitude, and much more, but the only necessary thing is prayer. Among more than the forty books that Henri Nouwen wrote, this book  is one of the best-selling book on the subject of prayer. A reader said that: “ The Only Necessary Thing is not the usual book on how to pray and what makes prayer so important. It is a collection of a man's writings on his passionate believe in the Savior, and therefore, his conversations with Him. Morever, it is a journey to the core of prayer, and that prayer is journey to the core of life”. When this book came to Vietnam, it has translated to Vietnamese by father Dominican Nguyen Duc Thong  of  Redemptorist Congregation. This book attracted not only  priests, brothers, sisters but also young people who want to learn the way how to pray, how to keep relationship with God and how to be closer to God. Truly, it is a valuable book for everyone who wants to developt prayer life to encounter Jesus in this life.

      Beginning for this book, Henri Nouwen wrote : if we desire God, we will more and more want to spend much time to God and only Him. Therefore, prayer becomes the most grace that we can get from god, because when we stay with God, we will discover that desire to find God will teach us love, guide all other desires, help us pay attention and control ourselves and temptation. Morever, God, also, desire to find us. He wants to have many chance to beside us, so he wants us to pray. Sometimes, He wanted to talk with us, so He knocked our hearts and our minds but we replied : “ Sorry, I am busy”. That time, He was jealous, because He loved us so much, He only wanted to say “Hello” and ask “How are you?”, but we did not only respond Him but also ignore Him. Truly, God wants to have a relationship with us to his love can reach out us, so God wants us more than we want God.

After desire, he took us to prayer. He wrote : Prayer must be our first concern and spiritual life does not have prayer like Gospel does not have Jesus Christ. Prayer requires that we stand in God's presence with open hands, naked and vulnerable, proclaiming to ourselves and to others that without God we can do nothing. When we pray, we will be able to face with our troubles and encourage us to leave our “safe place” and go to a new place. Therefore, we have to abandon ourselves and remain in God. If we lose the presence of God in our life, we will feel this life is a burden. However, Prayer requires discipline. Discipline means to create boundaries around our encounter with God. To keep discipline in prayer, the only solution is a prayer schedule that we will never break and make it becomes our most important task.

In prayer, we must have solitude. Solitude is time and space that we spend to God, only him. In the solitude, we can listen to God, discover our weaknesses. We need quiet time to feel the presence of God. We should spend our time for God, maybe are a minute, an hour, or a morning… to open heart, open our hands to willingly welcome God. Therefore, the solitude to feel the presence of God is core of all prayer. When we spend time to God that mean we do not talk with friend, do not phone, do not listen to music, do not read book, surely, there are many temptation come to us in time. So we have to try to remain in solitude, through Jesus and in Him we just overcome them. Only in the solitude, we just aware who we are, our personalities, our weaknesses and all is the present of God. Morever, the solitude is very important with community life, because in solitude we will be closer together, common worship to pray, aware the necessity of each other in community. After that we will help and encourage together to improve completely. The more we train ourselves to spend time with God and God alone, the more we will discover that God is with us at all times and in all places. Then we will be able to recognize God even in the midst of a busy and active life.

To have true solitude, we can not do by themselves but we must need Holy Spirit. Prayer is not we do something, but Holy Spirit do something in our mind. By the way, prayer is a work of Holy Spirit. He guides, helps and promotes us to be closer God, to know how to talk, how to aware our life. He is very important in our prayers, because God has sent Him to with us. Therefore, before we pray, we have to ask God send to us Holy Spirit. When we believe in God to ask Him send Holy Spirit to us, we also trust in Holy Spirit and spend our mind, our heart, our thoughts to Him working.

When we had a desire, a solitude and Holy Spirit, so it is time to listen the voice God. Prayer is listen to God’s voice, experience the love of God. We feel to want to come back the beloved house that God wants to give us. That is a peaceful and beautiful place where we can hear God calls us is belovedness. However, to go to this place, we can not remain in old man, we have to willingly abandon ourselves, open hands, naked, accept the solitude and only Him. Surely, it is very difficult, but with the desire and the help of Holy Spirit we can reach out the place that God wants us to rest. That time, God will embrace us and He will give us know why he jealous is because He love us so much and He only wants to spend time to beside us. However, He also wants to occupy our whole heart, our whole mind, our whole body. Only Him and us.

How do we listen to God’s voice? We have to learn the way how to listen. In our life, there are so many noisy sound inside and outside, so we have try more, pay attention more and we must need a discipline that we have to practice everyday. Henri Nouwen wrote : we only need to spend ten minutes each day for God, but must ten minutes everyday. We do not forget that. If we do not have discipline, we will feel sad, bored, tired, and afraid because when we try to keep solitude, there are many things will return to my mind. They make us unhappy, unsafe and we can forget the presence of God. That time we can not to pay attention to listen to God’s voice. Morever, we can read a sentence of Gospel and repeat it until learn by heart or we can start with some simple prayer as my love, or Jesus, I love You, or, Here I am Lord… we also have to be  patient, do not give up. We have to show the desire that we want to meet God, want to spend time and space for only Him.

Henri Nouwen wrote that: Prayer is not only a part of life, but also is all of life, so we have to pray and incessant prayer. Like solitude and listen to God’s voice, we have to practice to pray everyday. The true prayer is not easy because if you only sit down and talk or ask much with God that is not true prayer. God does not need this thing. He really wants us to spend our time, our life for Him, is moment have only God and us and experience the presence of God with us. Truly, we tell much about prayer and have many books teach us how to prayer, but we forget that prayer is not what we learned, but that is a true love, a true desire, a true passion we want to belong to God. Therefore, it is not easy to start praying, we have to had a process practicing everyday, a silent space, pay attention and ask Holy Spirit guides us.

There is a important factor in prayer life is community. In this life, we can not live alone and if we are priests, brothers, sisters who want to follow God that community is a important part in our life. Through community, we will encourage, support and help in prayer, common worship together, remember together in our mind. Jesus said that: “where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18,20). Truly, God always invites us to community where we can aware brotherhood, sisterhood that God sent to us. We will share together in prayer, support in spiritual life, love together as God has loved us, aware the value of common worship, pray together and proclaim the presence of God in our life. Sometimes, in our life, there are many things make us sad, unhappy, tired, bored, and want to give up, but we have community where we can rest, can share, receive encourage and support together.

In this life, especially in community, we always have to face with hurt from our brothers, our sisters, our relatives. Sometimes, it is very difficult to forgive and it makes us pain. We think that when we pray with God, we offer these pain to Him and ask Him heal, but in our heart, we have not been willing to forgive for their mistakes. Forgiveness is a necessary thing that we always have to face in prayer. We dare to accept our pains, dare to open our heart to forgive, to love our enemies who hurt us. We can not come to God with a full of hateful heart, a feeling that does not want to forgive for those who hurt us. Therefore, instead of anger, we have to pray for them. When we pray for them that mean we willingly forgot and tried to love them by the way God taught us.

The last thing in this book is Eucharist. Have you ever put your body or your mind before the presence of Eucharist? This thing is very important in prayer. It helps us pay attention and avoid unnecessary thoughts, especially we can imagine the presence of God when we look at Eucharist where God is resident. We let our mind, our soul experience to link between us and Jesus through love and desire to be with Him. Sometimes we only need to experience is enough.

      I love this book. The Only Necessary Thing is a journey to the core of prayer, and that prayer is journey to the core of life, of God’s love. There is so much more to be explored and experienced with the love of God in life. Prayers lead us not to dwell on self-pity and struggles of life, but to a new dwelling place, God's Heart, where all hurt can be healed. I learned the way to deepen more in prayer and experience the presence of God anh His love. I prayed much, but I did not aware the moment I want to spend for God, want to beside Him, want Holy Spirit promote in my body. Through this book, I had a plan for my prayer, I will try more and practice everyday, because I want to experience the true happiness when I know that the only necessary thing for my life is God through prayer.