Light Through the Crack

A deeply moving and engaging work of Christian spirituality in the tradition of Henri Nouwen, written by his close friend and literary executrix. Sue Mosteller has had a rich life as a spiritual adventurer and as a member and leader of L’Arche Community, where she first met the great spiritual writer Henri Nouwen. In Light Through the Crack, she tells her own story and the stories of the people she has known throughout her life. She writes about her family and her upbringing; the fifty years she has spent with the Sisters of St. Joseph; her thirty years of involvement with L’Arche Daybreak Community, where people with disabilities and those who assist them create a home together; and her close, twenty-year friendship with Nouwen. With grace and humor she explores the relationships she has formed and the difficulties that go with them. Through her varied experiences, she has learned that it is impossible to live with people over the long term and hide your flaws and vulnerabilities. Leonard Cohen once wrote in a song: “There is a crack in everything/That’s how the light gets in.” Combining revealing memoir and the inspirational stories of others, Mosteller brings to life the meaning of that resonant phrase and illuminates why human weaknesses, the “cracks” in our personalities, are actually the greatest sources of light for the world.