Jean Vanier
Jean Vanier
Jean Vanier, CC GOQis a Canadian Catholic philosopher, theologian and humanitarian. He founded L'Arche in 1964, an international federation of communities spread over 35 countries, for people with developmental disabilities and those who assist them. Subsequently in 1971, he co-founded Faith and Light, with Marie-Hélène Mathieu, which also works for people with developmental disabilities, their family and friends in over 80 countries. He continues to live as a member of the original L'Arche community in Trosly-Breuil, France...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth10 September 1928
CountryCanada
The Word became flesh to communicate to us human beings caught in the mud, the pain, the fears and the brokenness of existence, the life, the joy, the communion, the ecstatic gift of love that is the source of all love and life and unity in our universe and that is the very life of God.
Communion is mutual trust, mutual belonging; it is the to-and-fro movement of love between two people where each one gives and each one receives. Communion is not a fixed state, it is an...
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.
We have to remind ourselves constantly that we are not saviours. We are simply a tiny sign, among thousands of others, that love is possible, that the world is not condemned to a struggle between oppressors and oppressed, that class and racial warfare is not inevitable.
When children are loved, they live off trust; their bides and hearts open up to those who respect and love them, who understand and listen to them.
Community is a sign that love is possible in a materialistic world where people so often either ignore or fight each other. It is a sign that we don't need a lot of money to be happy--in fact, the opposite.
Each person with his or her history of being accepted or rejected, with his or her past history of inner pain and difficulties in relationships, is different. But in each one there is a yearning for communion and belonging, but at the same time a fear of it. Love is what we most want, yet it is what we fear the most.
When we love and respect people, revealing to them their value, they can begin to come out from behind the walls that protect them.
Love is to recognize that the other person is a person, is precious, is important and has value.
Love is an act of endless forgiveness.
Growth begins when we start to accept our own weakness
Each person is sacred, no matter what his or her culture, religion, handicap, or fragility. Each person is created in God’s image; each one has a heart, a capacity to love and to be loved.
To love someone is to show to them their beauty, their worth and their importance.
Love doesn't mean doing extraordinary or heroic things. It means knowing how to do ordinary things with tenderness.