L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada for Thursday, 16 April 2015 "Our Gifts"

L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada for Thursday, 16 April 2015 "Our Gifts"
Envy is one of the plagues that destroys community. It comes from people's ignorance of, or lack of belief in, their own gifts. If we were confident in our own gift we would not envy that of others.[Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, page 51 ]
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L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada for Wednesday, 15 April 2015 "Move Beyond your Ideal"
The ideal doesn't exist. The personal equilibrium and the harmony people dream of come only after years and years of struggle, and then only as flashes of grace and peace. Peace is the fruit of love and service to others. I'd like to tell the people in communities, "Stop looking for peace. Give yourselves where you are. Stop looking at yourselves, look instead at your brothers and sisters in need. Ask how you can better love your brothers and sisters. Then you will find peace."[Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, page 34]
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L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada for Tuesday, 14 April 2015 "Community Evolves"
A community is only being created when its members accept that they are not going to achieve great things, that they are not going to be heroes, but simply live each day with new hope, like children, in wonderment as the sun rises and in thanksgiving as it sets. Community is only being created when they have recognized that the greatness of humanity lies in the acceptance of our insignificance, our human condition and our earth.[Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, page 110]
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L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada for Friday, 10 April 2015 "The Enemy Within"
There are more and more groups today oriented toward issues and causes. There are peace movements, ecological movements, movements for oppressed people, for the liberation of women, against torture, etc. If there is a consciousness within the movement that within each person there is a world of darkness, fear and hate, they can then radiate truth and inner freedom and work toward justice and peace in the world. If not, they can become very aggressive and divide the world between the oppressors and the oppressed, the good and the bad. There seems to be a need in human beings to see evil and combat it outside oneself, in order not to see it inside oneself.[Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, page 29]
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