Flying, Falling, Catching: An Unlikely Story of Finding Freedom

‘I am very grateful for Carolyn Whitney-Brown's accurate account of my brother Henri's inner feelings, hopes, wishes and despair. You brought Henri very close to me again.’
LAURENT NOUWEN, FOUNDER OF THE HENRI NOUWEN FOUNDATION

'Anyone who knew Henri, either through his writing or in person, will immediately recognise how beautifully he’s been brought to life in this book.’
GARY DONOHOE, PROFESSOR & CHAIR OF PSYCHOLOGY, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND

‘A beacon of hope.’
MARINA NEMAT, AUTHOR OF INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER PRISONER OF TEHRAN

During the last five years of his life, spiritual leader and teacher Henri Nouwen became close to a travelling circus trapeze troupe, The Flying Rodleighs. The lessons he discovered through his relationship with the troupe stimulated Nouwen to write in a genre new to him, creative non-fiction, and these writings are presented for the first time in Flying, Falling, Catching.

With care and insight, Nouwen’s colleague and friend Carolyn Whitney-Brown weaves Henri’s material into a dramatic narrative that imagines his life flashing before him during his first heart attack. We learn how Nouwen saw his own experiences reflected in the artistry, exhilarating successes, crushing failures and continual forgiveness that were integral to the act of The Flying Rodleighs.

A fascinating blend of autobiography and spiritual writing, Flying, Falling Catching offers an extraordinary new angle on a man who has inspired thousands. Through his own writings and Whitney-Brown’s narrative, we see him as a spiritual adventurer, someone who was transformed by diversity as he learned to view the world through many perspectives.

Nouwen’s story – including his participation in the Civil Rights movement, the friendships he made during the 1990s AIDS pandemic, and many other unexpected encounters – encourages us to embrace our vulnerabilities, and vividly reminds us that one of the greatest challenges we face is to avoid despair by reflecting on the meaning and significance of the lives we have lived, and are living.

Part inspirational Christian autobiography, part thought-provoking narrative, Flying, Falling Catching will surprise and delight long-term fans of Nouwen’s ministry and new readers keen to learn more about him. In offering a deeper understanding of an extraordinary yet very human spirit, it provides us with the motivation to search out our own spiritual adventure; like Nouwen, we too can learn to let go and fly – and not be afraid to fall.

Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932–1996), one of the most beloved Christian spiritual writers of the last 50 years, was the author of With Open Hands, Reaching Out, The Wounded Healer, Making All Things New, Spiritual Direction, and many other bestsellers. He taught at Harvard, Yale, and Notre Dame universities before becoming the senior pastor of L’Arche Daybreak in Toronto, Canada, a community where men and women with intellectual disabilities and their assistants create a home for one another.

Carolyn Whitney-Brown is a Canadian writer, speaker, illustrator and university teacher. She knew Henri Nouwen well when she and her family lived in the L’Arche Daybreak community from 1990 until Henri's death in 1996. She lives on Vancouver Island.