Thirty years after the death of Henri Nouwen, L’Arche Canada and L’Arche USA along with L’Arche around the world remember with gratitude a friend, teacher, and member of L’Arche whose life and writing continue to challenge and support people in their spiritual and life journeys.
Henri was born and raised in the Netherlands, and his life’s work and writings remain a living bridge between L’Arche communities in Europe and North America. Henri’s move to L’Arche Daybreak (Toronto) after his time in academia in the U.S. began a decade in which he was significantly changed. Through the ordinary, long days of shared life in L’Arche, he was welcomed, challenged, and transformed through the process of building close relationships with people with and without intellectual disabilities. The experience of building community together profoundly shaped his later writing, teaching, and ministry. Henri, in turn, gave L’Arche a remarkable gift. He found language for dimensions of shared life that can be difficult to name: vulnerability and mutuality, our need for one another, and the possibility and impact of belonging.
Henri also shared the public platforms available to him with people with intellectual disabilities, including in academic, faith, and spiritual settings. He created opportunities for their perspectives and contributions to be encountered directly. For many people, Henri’s writing and teaching offered a first encounter with L’Arche and a vision of community grounded not in a program or service model, but in relationship, mutuality, and our need for one another.
Perhaps that is because, thirty years on, Henri’s vision remains deeply relevant. In a world that can too easily measure people by productivity, achievement, or self-sufficiency, Henri’s life and writing remind us that needing one another is part of being human, and that human dignity does not depend on what we produce or accomplish.
We give thanks for Henri’s life and for the way he received, lived, and shared what he came to understand through life in L’Arche. We remember him as one among many whose lives and voices have shaped our communities. We renew our commitment to communities where we are open to being changed by one another, and where each person is known, valued, and able to contribute.
