The L'Arche Canada in Richmond Hills, Ontario, Canada - Jean Vanier - Daily Thought - Saturday, 23 December 2017 "The Responsibility of Community"

The L'Arche Canada in Richmond Hills, Ontario, Canada - Jean Vanier - Daily Thought - Saturday, 23 December 2017 "The Responsibility of Community"
I once spent an evening with some Franciscans who share an apartment in a black quarter in Chicago. I very much liked their prior, who demanded a real discipline of the novices. They had to sleep for a certain number of hours a night and eat well. "If we do not care for our bodies, and if we do not find a rhythm of life we can sustain for years to come," he said, "it is not worth us being here. Our job is to stay. It is too easy to come and live among the poor for the experience, to exploit them for our own spiritual ends and then to leave. What we have to do is stay." (Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, page 178, L'Arche Canada | L'Arche Canada Foundation | Jean Vanier Online)
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The L'Arche Canada in Richmond Hills, Ontario, Canada - Jean Vanier - Daily Thought - Friday, 22 December 2017 "Finding Security"
Over-active people, it seems, can be fleeing from their own cry for friendship and love, from their own sensitivity and maybe from inner anguish and agitation. They may be afraid of their emotions, of their own sexuality. They need to reflect on their own deep needs and to rediscover the child in themselves which is crying because it feels alone. Our bodies need to relax, but so do our hearts, in secure and unthreatening relationships. (Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, page 178, L'Arche Canada | L'Arche Canada Foundation | Jean Vanier Online)
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The L'Arche Canada in Richmond Hills, Ontario, Canada - Jean Vanier - Daily Thought - Thursday, 21 December 2017 "Communities as a Sign of Peace"
Today, as never before, we need communities of welcome; communities that are a sign of peace in a world of war. There is no point in praying for peace in the Middle East, for example, if we are not peace-makers in our own community; if we are not forgiving those in our community who have hurt us or with whom we find it difficult to live. Young people, as well those who are older, are sensitive to this vision of peace. It must continually be announced so that hearts and minds are nourished. (Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, page 17, L'Arche Canada | L'Arche Canada Foundation | Jean Vanier Online)
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