The Genesee Diary. Report from a Trappist Monastery

'Just as a whole world of beauty can be discovered in one flower, so the great grace of God can be tasted in one small moment.'This observation is central to the probing spiritual journal of Henri Nouwen, written during his seven-month stay in a Trappist monastery. During this period he had a unique opportunity to explore crucial issues of the spiritual life and discover ‘a quiet stream underneath the fluctuating affirmations and rejections of our little world’.Nouwen participated fully in the daily life and routine of the Abbey of the Genesee in upstate New York - in work and in prayer. He relates here the typical human experiences and questions that had somehow prevented Christ from being the centre of his existence. From the early weeks in the Abbey - dominated by conflicting desires and concerns - to the final days of Advent, by when he had found a new sense of calm expectation, Nouwen never loses his critical honesty. Insightful, compassionate, often humorous, always realistic, The Genesee Diary is both an inspiration and a challenge to those who are in search of themselves.