In Search of the Healing Spirit

The late Dr. Nass Cannon Jr. (MD) was a physician for the indigent poor for over forty years and an internationally renowned scholar of the theologian and monk, Thomas Merton. In Search of the Healing Spirit follows a narrative arc across several essays of Dr. Cannon's analysis and reflections on life and Thomas Merton's theological contributions. First articulated by Dr. Cannon at the outset of his journey to serve the poor, the guiding principle of the book is an exploration of what it means to be broken and called to heal each other, ourselves, and the world. As Dr. Cannon writes, "I am a physician who views his root identity as one called to heal. Yet, I experience myself as broken, as one admonished by the phrase, 'Physician, heal thyself.' Perhaps you, too . . . experience yourself as a broken healer. Let us together explore some notions regarding the healer as broken, examine the nature of healing, and consider the relationship of the healer to one healed." From this position as a broken healer, which implicitly embodies Merton's contemplative spirituality, Dr. Cannon's meditations over the course of his life of service increasingly weave in Merton's contributions in search of the true self on such pressing--and universal--topics as grief and loss, the eternal nature and healing power of love, and to do what we can for each other with the time we are given. Dr. Cannon's writings engage a twenty-first-century audience with insights--drawn from fifty years of study--that can aid lay persons, clergy, and academics to better understand what it means to be a broken person and through that brokenness to heal themselves and the world.