The L'Arche Canada Foundation in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada with Jean Vanier's Daily Thoughts for Sunday, 2 October 2016 "A Vulnerable Heart"

The L'Arche Canada Foundation in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada with Jean Vanier's Daily Thoughts for Sunday, 2 October 2016 "A Vulnerable Heart"
In our deepest selves, below the levels of action and understanding, there is a vulnerable heart, a child who loves but is afraid to love. Silent prayer nourishes this deep place. It is the most important nourishment of all, because it is the most secret and personal.[Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, page 191]

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Jean Vanier's Daily Thought

>> Image from: Expo Haiti-Quebec (Jonathan Boulet-Groulx)
"New Start"
Each one of us with our bodies, our hearts, our minds, is beautiful. Each one of us has our own cycle of growth which brings with it ups and downs, summer and winters, good times and bad times; setbacks and times of drought are part of life. They are phases we have to go through, and a new start is always possible.[Jean Vanier, Seeing Beyond Depression, p 41]
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The L'Arche Canada Foundation in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada with Jean Vanier's Daily Thoughts for Saturday, 1 October 2016 "The Secret Garden"
Prayer is like a secret garden made up of silence and rest and inwardness. But there are a thousand and one doors into this garden and we all have to find our own.[Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, page 190]

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Jean Vanier's Daily Thought

>> Image from: Expo Haiti-Quebec (Jonathan Boulet-Groulx)
"Finding Happiness"
Happiness is accepting and choosing life, not just submitting grudgingly to it. It comes when we choose to be who we are, to be ourselves, at this present moment of our lives; we choose life as it is, with all its joys, pain, and conflicts. Happiness is living and seeking the truth, together with others in community, and assuming responsibility for our lives and the lives of others. It is accepting the fact that we are not infinite, but can enter into a personal relationship with the Infinite, discovering the universal truth and justice that transcends all cultures: each person is unique and sacred. We are not just seeking to be what others want us to be or to conform to the expectations of family, friends, or local ways of being. We have chosen to be who we are, with all that is beautiful and broken in us. We do not slip away from life and live in a world of illusions, dreams, or nightmares. We become present to reality and to life so that we are free to live according to our personal conscience, our sacred sanctuary, where love resides within us and we see others as they are in the depth of their being. We are not letting the light of life within us be crushed, and we are not crushing it in others. On the contrary, all we want is for the light of others to shine.
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