[For] me the whole question of peace-making is centered on trust. Trust that you are important, that you are precious, that you have something important to give to the world, to give to me. If we don't believe we are precious, what happens? We have anguish. - Jean Vanier, Essential Writings, ed. C. Whitney-Brown, pp. 59-60 (from "Encountering the Other")

- Jean Vanier, Essential Writings, ed. C. Whitney-Brown, pp. 59-60 (from "Encountering the Other")

People with intellectual disabilities, usually incapable of abstract thought, are often more able to welcome the presence of others. Less competitive, they are better at creating communion. This hidden capacity makes them more open to welcoming the presence of the God of love.

- Jean Vanier, Our Journey Home, Introduction xiI

Frank, who is 87, recently spent some time in the emergency ward of our local hospital. He was feeling quite sick and uncomfortable, and he kept turning from one side to his back to the other side and then repeating the process in reverse. As I sought to guide the tubes out of the way with each turn he made lest he become tangled in them or pull them out, I was commiserating with him and making gentle suggestions that he try not to roll around so much. Then Sylvia came to visit him. I left them alone for a few minutes. From the other side of the hospital curtain I heard her say in her commanding voice, “You stop that, honey! Lie still!” When I re-entered the cubicle, Frank was laying quietly and obediently still, his hand in Sylvia's, and I blessed Sylvia for coming!

By a L'Arche assistant

It is so important for a family to celebrate all together. It is so important for the children to laugh and play and sing with their parents and to see their parents happy to be together.

- Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 315

Let us simply stop and start listening to our own hearts. There we will touch a lot of pain. We will possibly touch a lot of anger. We will probably touch a lot of loneliness and anguish. Then we will hear something deeper. We will hear the voice of God... We will hear, "You are precious in my eyes and I love you." - - "Jean Vanier: Essential Writings" ed. C. Whitney-Brown, extracted from "Images of Love, Words of Hope."

Jean Vanier,

[When I left the Navy] another world opened up for me--the world of thought. For many years I studied philosophy. I wrote a doctoral thesis on Aristotelian ethics, and I embarked on a teaching career. Once again I found myself in a world where weakness, ignorance and incompetence were things to be shunned. Then, during a third phase, I discovered people who are weak, people with mental handicaps. I was moved by the vast world of poverty, weakness, and fragility that I encountered in hospitals, institutions, and asylums for people with mental handicaps. I moved from the world of theories and ideas about human beings in order to discover what it really meant to be human, to be a man or a woman. - extracted from "Our Journey Home," quoted in "Jean Vanier: Essential Writings, ed. C. Whitney-Brown, p. 29 , p. 13

Jean Vanier,

The beauty of human beings lies in their capacity to accept who they are, just as they are; not to live in a world of dreams and illusions, in anger or despair, wanting to be other than they are, or trying to run away from reality. They realize they have the right to be themselves. And there, they discover that they are loved by God, that they are unique and important for God and that they can do things for others.

Jean Vanier, Seeing Beyond Depression, p. 87

A few weeks ago, David and I went out for coffee, and we happened to sit at the same table where we had sat with Bill the last time that Bill had come out for coffee with us before he died. David had lived with Bill many years and I had lived with them both and been close to them over the years. We didn't say much to each other as we sat down but I was thinking of Bill. David was thinking about Bill too, because he looked at me and said "I wonder what Bill is doing? He's probably telling jokes to all the angels!" We laughed, and David added, "I miss him." I said, "I miss him too."

Jean Vanier,

We may not all be called to do great things that make the headlines, but we are all called to love and be loved, wherever we may be. We are called to be open and to grow in love and thus to communicate life to others, especially to those in need.

- Jean Vanier, Seeing Beyond Depression, p. 89

It is the most insignificant members who are at the heart of a community and who carry in their hearts those people who are blocked towards each other and who have different ideas concerning the community. It is the love of the hidden people which keeps the community united. The leader brings unity through justice, but these loving people are creators of unity just by being who they are.

Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p.263

In order to open a door we need a key. In order to open the door of our hearts and to discover the meaning and rhythm of life, we need a key. We can let ourselves remain locked up in a prison of sadness and refuse to live. So we need a key to open a door to life, the door to liberation. This key is trust: to trust that deeper than all the feelings of sadness and death, lies our hidden, true self, which is unique and important. It has a destiny, which is growth to the fullest life possible.

Jean Vanier, Seeing Beyond Depression, p. 51

At the heart of celebration are the poor. If the least significant is excluded, it is no longer a celebration. We have to find dances and games in which the children, the old people and the weak can join equally. A celebration must always be a festival of the poor, and with the poor, not for the poor.

Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 319

I am sure that poor people can be joyful. At times of celebration they seem to overcome all their suffering and frustration in an explosion of joy. They shed the burden of daily life and they live in a moment of freedom in which their hearts simply bound with joy. It is so too with people in community who have learned to accept their wounds, limitations and poverty. They have discovered liberation. They do not have to hide away. They are free.

- Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 319

When people come to honor success and power or to give out prizes to winners, they do not celebrate. They clap and applaud. They are proud if the winners come from their club or group or family or country. In some way they identify with the winner and feel they are the best. But there are so many who do not win, who have no success or power. Celebration is a shout of love, and of openness, not a feeling of power or superiority.

- Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 316

One of the signs that a community is alive can be found in material things. Cleanliness, furnishings, the way flowers are arranged and meals prepared, are among the things which reflect the quality of people's hearts. Some people may find material chores irksome; they would prefer to use their time to talk and be with others. They haven't yet realized that the thousand and one small things that have to be done each day, the cycle of dirtying and cleaning, were given by God to enable us to communicate through matter. Cooking and washing floors can become a way of showing our love for others. It is celebration to be able to give.

- Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 297

Welcome is one of the signs that a community is alive. To invite others to live with us is a sign that we aren't afraid, that we have a treasure of truth and of peace to share. If community is closing its doors, that is a sign that we are closing our hearts as well.

- Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 266

A community is like an orchestra: each instrument is beautiful when it plays alone, but when they all play together, each given its own weight in turn, the result is even more beautiful. A community is like a garden full of flowers, shrubs and trees. Each helps to give life to the others.

- Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 251

We must always remember; a community is never an end in itself; it is each individual person who is important. And people can grow in holiness and communion with God in the midst of a broken, dying community, and through persecutions of all kinds.

- Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 234

Even very limited and fragile people, if they can work with a leader who has vision, compassion and firmness, can do marvelous things. They participate in the leader's vision and they benefit from her/his gifts. The wealth of a community lies in the fact that all its members can share the qualities and gifts of others.

- Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 218

I discover more and more the marvelous way in which responsibility leads to spiritual growth. Of course it is a cross, and some people mope and groan under it. Others see responsibility as something deserved which brings prestige and advantages. But if we are aware of the gravity of responsibility and what it means to carry people, and if we accept the cross with all its implications, this is a marvelous way to grow.

- Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 211

So many in our world today are suffering from isolation, war and oppression. So much money is spent on the construction of armaments. Many, many young people are in despair because of the danger of nuclear war. 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 as 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, p. 177

If at L'Arche we no longer live with the poor and the broken and celebrate life with them, we as a community will die; we will be cut off from the source of life. They nourish us and heal our wounds daily. They call forth the light and the love within us.

- Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 186

[Prophets of peace] have lived and proclaimed a path of non-violence. They have been able to do this because they received support and lived with a community of men and women of like minds and hearts. "When I despair," said Mahatma Gandhi, "I remember that throughout history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it always...whenever you are in doubt that that is God's way - the way the world is meant to be. Think of that and then try to do His way."

Jean Vanier, Finding Peace, page 74

“Community is what we long for. We long for the recognition of another. We want to know there is someone who knows us and loves us. We desire a place of belonging and we are willing to work for it. …When you truly enter relationships in L’Arche you are stripped of barriers and limits and it is sometimes hard to find this elsewhere. So we come back to be stripped and filled again. Living community is not easy and it takes commitment. And it is, in my eyes, a beautiful way of life…”

Cathy MacMillan, Founding Director of L'Arche Halifax

The more a community deepens and grows, the more integrated it must be in the neighbourhood. When it begins, the community is integrated within the four walls of its house. But gradually it opens up to neighbours and friends. Some communities begin to panic when they feel that their neighbours are becoming committed to them; they are frightened of losing their identity, of losing control. But there are times to knock down the walls of a community. This is how a small community can gradually become the yeast in the dough, a place of unity for all and between all.

Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p.116

Sometimes the greatest resource of all can be a small gesture of kindness from someone who is poor. It is often a gentle look from someone who is vulnerable which relaxes us, touches our heart and reminds us of what is essential. One day I went with some sisters of Mother Teresa to a slum in Bangalore where they were looking after people with leprosy. The sores stank, and humanly speaking, it was revolting. But the people there had light in their eyes. When I left I felt inexplicable joy, and it was they who had given it to me.

Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 185

If we confine ourselves only to the work of God in 'our' group or 'our' church, we will miss something. Communities have so much to offer each other. But of course, to really appreciate the working of God in the hearts of other communities and churches, we have to be well rooted in our own; we have to belong. Otherwise we risk living in some confusion, without roots.

Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 174

Contact with people who are weak and are crying out for communion is one of the most important nourishments in our lives. When we let ourselves be really touched by the gift of their presence, they leave something precious in our heart. If we remain at the level of 'doing' something for people, we can stay behind our barriers of superiority. We have to welcome the gift of the poor with open hands.

Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, p. 186

Human Being: The person who is hungry, abandoned or in need is first of all a heart who needs to find another heart; someone who will listen, understand and love. Above all, they need friendship: friends who love them and are willing to do things with them.

Jean Vanier, An Ark for the Poor, p.57