The L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada Daily Thought with Jean Vanier for Sunday, 31 January 2016 "What Society Teaches Us"
When I was in the navy, I was taught to give orders to others. That came quite naturally to me! All my life I had been taught to climb the ladder, to seek promotion, to compete, to be the best, to win prizes. This is what society teaches us. In doing so, we lose community and communion.[Jean Vanier, From Brokenness to Community, page 18]
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The L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada Daily Thought with Jean Vanier Saturday, 30 January 2016 "Confusion"
Communion is not fusion. Fusion leads to confusion. In a relationship of communion, you are you and I am I; I have my identity and you have yours. I must be myself and you must be yourself. We are call to grow together, each one becoming more fully himself or herself. Communion in fact gives the freedom to grow. It is not possessivness. It entails a deep listening to others, helping them to become more fully themselves.[Jean Vanier, From Brokenness to Community, page 17]
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The L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada Daily Thought with Jean Vanier for Wednesday, 13 January 2016 "Fears"
Because I fear your grasping hand calling me to the unknown of love, because I fear my emptiness, my poverty, my call to death, I fear myself, I close my hearth, I shut myself from you, my despairaing brother. Your presence is a call. Do I turn away or do I dare? Love is the greatest of all risks. Do I dare leap into the cool, swirling, living waters of loving fidelity?[Jean Vanier, Tears of Silence, page 22]
The L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada Daily Thought with Jean Vanier for Wednesday, 13 January 2016 "Fears"
Because I fear your grasping hand calling me to the unknown of love, because I fear my emptiness, my poverty, my call to death, I fear myself, I close my hearth, I shut myself from you, my despairaing brother. Your presence is a call. Do I turn away or do I dare? Love is the greatest of all risks. Do I dare leap into the cool, swirling, living waters of loving fidelity?[Jean Vanier, Tears of Silence, page 22]
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The L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada Daily Thought with Jean Vanier for Saturday, 9 January 2016 "Loss"
When an activity or a person fills our lives, inspires us or gives us a zest for life, their absence can plunge us into this feeling of total emptiness. We live a kind of inner death. Life no longer flows forth in us. We are filled with a sense of loss and of grief; a heaviness, which resembles depression, permeates our whole being. This pain and this heaviness are not a sickness but a normal, natural reaction to a loss that touches the very meaning of our lives.[Jean Vanier, Seeing Beyond Depression, page 9]
The L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada Daily Thought with Jean Vanier for Saturday, 9 January 2016 "Loss"
When an activity or a person fills our lives, inspires us or gives us a zest for life, their absence can plunge us into this feeling of total emptiness. We live a kind of inner death. Life no longer flows forth in us. We are filled with a sense of loss and of grief; a heaviness, which resembles depression, permeates our whole being. This pain and this heaviness are not a sickness but a normal, natural reaction to a loss that touches the very meaning of our lives.[Jean Vanier, Seeing Beyond Depression, page 9]
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The L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada Daily Thought with Jean Vanier for Friday, 29 January 2016 "Preconceived Idea"
Some of the men and women I have been living with for a number of years now are still in quite deep anguish. They are more peaceful than they were, but there are still moments when anguish surges up in them. The essentials at such moments is to walk with them, accepting them just as they are, to allow them to be themselves. It is important for them to know that they can be themselves, that even though there are wounds, and pain in them, they are loved. It is a liberating experience for them to realize they do not have to conform to any preconceived idea about how they should be.[Jean Vanier, From Brokenness to Community, page 17]
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The L'Arche Canada of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada Daily Thought with Jean Vanier for Friday, 22 January 2016 "Progress"
Our L'Arche communities are also places of pain because they are founded on people who have been through a great deal of anguish. Today, in richer countries, hospitals and asylums may be cleaner, but the same men and women are still there crying out for a home and for love. Big institutions cannot be a home. Sometimes people have been put in residences, but frequently these residences are not a home either, and they are not well accepted by neighbors.[Jean Vanier, From Brokenness to Community, page 13]---------------------
The L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada Daily Thought with Jean Vanier for Thursday, 14 January 2016 "Misery"
The worthy lady, over rimmed glasses, saying: "lazy"; the bank manager shouting: "stupid" are right ... in a way. The miserable man knows it only too well. His misery is the awareness of his misery.
"I remain the vomit of my worthlessness ..."
He knows is worthlessness and has no hope. The man in misery is not ignorant, only lacking in strength that which springs from hope ... and he has no hope. His misery is greater because of his awareness. Therein lies his despair. He cannot rise, not feeling worthy to rise.[Jean Vanier, Tears of Silence, page 26]---------------------
The L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada Daily Thought with Jean Vanier fr Sunday, 10 January 2016 "Childhood"
A tiny child needs not only food and shelter but something more ... much more ... a feeling of love, that someone cares for him, ready to die for him, that he is really loved, that he is important ... precious. And, so he begins to live and begins to sense the value of his being. And, so it is that life rises in him and he grows in confidence in himself and in his possibilities of life and of creation.[Jean Vanier, Tears of Silence, page 84]---------------------
The L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada Daily Thought with Jean Vanier for Thursday, 28 January 2016 "No Solution"
Those of you who have had the privilege of accompanying people in distress and inner pain know that it is not easy to walk with them, without having any answers to their problems or solution to their pain. For many people in pain there is no solution; for a mother who has just lost her child or for a woman who has just been abandoned by her husband, there is no answer, there is just pain.
What they need is a friend willing to walk with them in all that pain. They do not need someone to tell them to try to forget the pain, because they won't. It is too deep. When a child has exerienced rejection, you can say all sorts of nice things to the child, but that will not take away the pain. It will take a long time for that pain to diminish and it will probably never completely disappear.[Jean Vanier, From Brokenness to Community, page 16]---------------------
The L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada Daily Thought with Jean Vanier for Friday, 29 January 2016 "Preconceived Idea"
Some of the men and women I have been living with for a number of years now are still in quite deep anguish. They are more peaceful than they were, but there are still moments when anguish surges up in them. The essentials at such moments is to walk with them, accepting them just as they are, to allow them to be themselves. It is important for them to know that they can be themselves, that even though there are wounds, and pain in them, they are loved. It is a liberating experience for them to realize they do not have to conform to any preconceived idea about how they should be.[Jean Vanier, From Brokenness to Community, page 17]
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The L'Arche Canada of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada Daily Thought with Jean Vanier for Friday, 22 January 2016 "Progress"
Our L'Arche communities are also places of pain because they are founded on people who have been through a great deal of anguish. Today, in richer countries, hospitals and asylums may be cleaner, but the same men and women are still there crying out for a home and for love. Big institutions cannot be a home. Sometimes people have been put in residences, but frequently these residences are not a home either, and they are not well accepted by neighbors.[Jean Vanier, From Brokenness to Community, page 13]---------------------
The L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada Daily Thought with Jean Vanier for Thursday, 14 January 2016 "Misery"
The worthy lady, over rimmed glasses, saying: "lazy"; the bank manager shouting: "stupid" are right ... in a way. The miserable man knows it only too well. His misery is the awareness of his misery.
"I remain the vomit of my worthlessness ..."
He knows is worthlessness and has no hope. The man in misery is not ignorant, only lacking in strength that which springs from hope ... and he has no hope. His misery is greater because of his awareness. Therein lies his despair. He cannot rise, not feeling worthy to rise.[Jean Vanier, Tears of Silence, page 26]---------------------
The L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada Daily Thought with Jean Vanier fr Sunday, 10 January 2016 "Childhood"
A tiny child needs not only food and shelter but something more ... much more ... a feeling of love, that someone cares for him, ready to die for him, that he is really loved, that he is important ... precious. And, so he begins to live and begins to sense the value of his being. And, so it is that life rises in him and he grows in confidence in himself and in his possibilities of life and of creation.[Jean Vanier, Tears of Silence, page 84]---------------------
The L'Arche Canada Foundation of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada Daily Thought with Jean Vanier for Thursday, 28 January 2016 "No Solution"
Those of you who have had the privilege of accompanying people in distress and inner pain know that it is not easy to walk with them, without having any answers to their problems or solution to their pain. For many people in pain there is no solution; for a mother who has just lost her child or for a woman who has just been abandoned by her husband, there is no answer, there is just pain.
What they need is a friend willing to walk with them in all that pain. They do not need someone to tell them to try to forget the pain, because they won't. It is too deep. When a child has exerienced rejection, you can say all sorts of nice things to the child, but that will not take away the pain. It will take a long time for that pain to diminish and it will probably never completely disappear.[Jean Vanier, From Brokenness to Community, page 16]---------------------
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