It was January 1990, the dawn of a new decade, and Henri Nouwen, world-renowned spiritual writer, was in France but his writing wasn t going well. Frustrated and discouraged, he decided to go to Lourdes, even though it was the off season, to give his anxious heart a rest. This profoundly inspiring journal is the result of his three-day stay. Lourdes restored Nouwen s inner peace and helped him return to his sacred center. He realized, of course, that he did not need to be at Lourdes to find peace and joy. The purity, simplicity, and freedom he experienced belong to the heart and can be lived anywhere. Whether we have been to Lourdes or not, does not matter. This small journal is bound to touch our own restless and searching hearts and help us to find again our own sacred center, the living Christ within us.