What if your greatest gift as a leader isn’t your strength, but your weakness?

In this session, Wil Hernandez invites us into the countercultural wisdom of Henri Nouwen—a spirituality that begins not with perfection, but with belovedness. In a world that rewards control, competence, and curated personas, Nouwen’s life and work remind us that freedom comes when we drop the mask and embrace our humanness. 

Through stories of Nouwen’s own struggles and breakthroughs, Wil explores what it means to live and lead from a place of vulnerability, to see contemplation not as an escape but as a way of being, and to root our identity in the truth that we are God’s beloved—unconditionally and always. This is an invitation to stop striving, let go of the leash of control, and rediscover the sacred center where authenticity and grace meet.

Speaker bio: 

Wil Hernandez, PhD, Obl. OSB, was born and raised in the Philippines. Prior to moving to the U.S. for graduate studies, he served full-time with an international, interdenominational parachurch organization for 18 years. He graduated with a PhD in practical theology with a concentration in spirituality in 2005 with additional summer studies at the University of Notre Dame and Loyola Marymount University.

Wil is the founder and president of CenterQuest (www.CQCenterQuest.org) – an ecumenical hub for the study and practice of Christian spirituality - which hosts a School of Spiritual Direction hybrid program (online/residency combination) with a current emphasis in Asia. A trained counselor and spiritual director, Wil devotes a big part of his time “companioning” others on their spiritual journey, aside from teaching courses and conducting retreats and seminars focusing on the spirituality of Henri Nouwen in both Catholic and Protestant institutions across the U.S. and abroad. He is the author of four books on Nouwen (a trilogy published by Paulist Press and an introductory work by Skylight Paths Publishing).

A Benedictine Oblate of Saint Andrew’s Abbey in Valyermo, CA, Wil's most recent work was a journal he wrote when he got stranded in a Benedictine Abbey in southern Philippines during the height of the pandemic titled "Accidental Monk: A Chronicle of Struggle, Faith, and Surrender" (https://accidentalmonk.info).