In January, 1990. Henri Nouwen was in France writing. Things were not going smoothly for him so he decided to take a three-day pilgrimage to Lourdes to give his "anxious heart a rest." This sturdy little book is the journal he kept while he was at this sacred center of healing and renewal.

Since it was off-season there were only a few other pilgrims at Lourdes. Nouwen vowed to try to draw closer to Jesus whom he wanted as "the heart of my heart, the fire of my life, the lover of my soul, the bridegroom of my spirit." He envisioned Mary as the one who would help him get closer to her son.

Nouwen was purified in the waters; he felt reconnected with the mystery of Jesus' resurrection as he encountered a large stone that had been rolled away in the Stations of the Passion. Last but not least, he felt the freedom that was his treasure, a gift given through grace. He concluded that Lourdes reminded him that "purity, simplicity, and freedom belong to the heart and can be lived anywhere."