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Letter from Jean Vanier - January 2010
Dear friends,
I like this time of Christmas. God becomes flesh. He becomes small to teach us to love and to be open to those who are suffering and who are in difficulty. Of course God is in our world but he waits silently for us to turn to him and call him to our help. In the book of the Apocalypse we read that God stands at the door and knocks. If anyone hears and opens the door, God will come in and eat with them. In the Biblical sense, eating with someone means becoming their friend. God wants to make us his friends. But there can be no love or friendship without freedom. If we turn God away, he still waits for us to open the door to him. God is a prisoner of our freedom. The God of compassion cannot exercise his compassion in the world without going through our intelligence, wisdom, capacities and heart. God is not a God of violence but rather a God who invites and who waits with love to give his love to everyone.
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Letter from Jean Vanier - September 2009
I was deeply happy in the monastery of Orval in August. The silence, the monks’ singing and praying, the Eucharists, the forest, my bedroom at the end of the corridor: so many things delighted me and brought me peace. I liked being there, having the time to pray, read, write, rest and walk in the woods. I loved to give thanks, for L’Arche, for Faith and Light, for life, for my life. This monastery is one of these small places that are so essential in our wounded world, which is in continual movement and change, so absorbed by individualism, personal success and the values advocated by the media. The monastery evokes peace, a place where God is, and reveals that love and universal brotherhood and sisterhood are possible. Read...
Letter from Jean Vanier - May 2009
Spring has arrived and I am happy. I love listening to the birds sing and contemplating the flowers pushing up through the earth. The work at Val Fleuri has been completed, and we have left the two temporary homes. Life is returning to normal. Father Gilbert came to bless Val Fleuri, now larger and renovated. We are happy to be back there together again. For me, life is calmer, I am in good health, I go to bed earlier, I get up earlier and I have a nap after lunch. Life is good! I like to stay in touch with Jean-Christophe and Christine, who are doing an admirable job of uniting us all in L’Arche despite our great diversity. Read...
Letter from Jean Vanier - November 2008
Dear friends, I feel humbled and grateful at all the cards, letters, mails, gifts, calls… (and pots of jam) wishing me well and offering prayers as I passed the gate into my 80 years. This letter, as you can see is a collective “thank you”. Read...
Letter from Jean Vanier - May 2008
Dear friends, here I am in Kenya. You may well ask, “Why has my pilgrimage brought me to this African country which went through a lot of turmoil recently”? Well, it’s a long story! For me it began in Bangalore when I gave a retreat in October 2006. At this retreat there was a young Italian priest named Father Gabriele. Here is his story. Read...
Letter from Jean Vanier - January 2008
At a retreat that I gave in Lithuania last October for Faith and Light groups and people who wanted to start l’Arche, there was a mother who shared very movingly about her life.
When her daughter was born with a disability she saw it as a disaster. Whenever she used public transport and people would look at her and her daughter with curiosity and sometimes malevolence she at times felt that she didn’t want to live anymore. Then one day she went into a church where she saw a group of people, some of whom had disabilities, who were happy, laughing and dancing. It was a Faith and Light community. Afterwards she joined Faith and Light and what she had seen as a disaster became a blessing.
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Letter from Jean Vanier - September 2007
At present I am in the monastery at Orval: a gentle time of quiet, of peace, of prayerfulness. A time to assimilate all that I have lived these last few months and particularly Barbara’s death. I still have difficulty realising that she has gone. Bill Clarke was able to be with her a day before she died. She was so present at the Eucharist he celebrated in her hospital room. It was a real gift for her that he was able to be with her. For me, I had the grace of bein g with her, holding her hand, during her last two hours. She opened her eyes, looked at me, we prayed, her breathing and her heart stopped. Her departure was gentle and peaceful; she left without a groan, without a murmur, no word of complaint, no apparent agony; a falling asleep as a little child in the arms of God. Her last breath was for Bill when he arrived to say mass a second time. Barbara died as she had lived, humbly and silently. Read...
Letter from Jean Vanier - May 2007
First of all I would like to tell you about what we have been living here in Trosly as Jacqueline, Barbara and Claire move into a new phase of greater fragility and with the sudden death of Patrick Mathias. Read...
Letter from Jean Vanier - November / December 2006
I am starting this letter in Bangalore (India) where I am giving a retreat to the elder members and friends of our communities of Asha Niketan in India. Yesterday I finished a first retreat for young people and for those who have been in an Asha Niketan for a short time. When I arrived in Bangalore last Tuesday I was deeply moved to be welcomed by all four communities gathered together for a day of celebration. 150 all together! 60 came from Kolkata - a 36 hour train ride! - 40 from Nandi Bazaar, 20 from Chennai and 30 from Bangalore. I met many of our Indian brothers and sisters a long time ago. I felt like weeping with emotion as I was greeted by Srinivas, Veeran, Modhu, Mitran and many of the other men and women I had known in the very early days of Asha Niketan. Some of them had been quite violent and have become now people of peace; they have been transformed to become builders of community. ... Read...
Letter from Jean Vanier - June 2006
From June 2nd to June 4th, an important Conference on « Initiatives for Peace » was held in Paris, organised by Christian Renoux, former President of MIR (International Movement for Reconciliation). It brought together some 150 organisations involving thousands of men and women who are working for peace, men and women who are determined to move from the ways of violence and to the paths of listening, unity, dialogue and non violence. I had the joy of participating in a round table discussion with Adolfo Perez Esquivel (a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize) and Hildegarde Goss-Mayr, who for the last fifty years has been struggling for non-violent solutions to conflict in various parts of the world. I shared about L’Arche and Faith and Light and how we want to be communities of peace. I was inspired by all the people who believe that they can do something for peace in different situations and who are also committed to humanitarian projects in areas of poverty. Read...
Letter from Jean Vanier - November 2005
It will soon be Christmas, a season that reveals a message of gentleness, of intimacy in the family, of gifts and celebrations and of the joy of little children, Christmas carols, sparkling lights in the streets, the crib and midnight services. I remember Christmas mornings when I was a child. My brother Bernard and I slept in the same room. We would rush to look under our beds where we would always find our mother’s stockings filled with gifts, and at the bottom, nuts and tangerines (which at that time were “Christmas fruits”). ... Read...
Letter from Jean Vanier - June 2005
A few weeks ago we were in Assisi for the meeting of the Family of L’Arche : 350 delegates from all the l’Arche communities throughout the world. A radiant sun warmed our hearts and spirits in this city of “Il Poverello”, the poor one. We felt the presence of Francis and Clare. This gathering in Assisi at this moment was prophetic. L’Arche is at a turning point. We realise more and more the challenges facing l’Arche. So many changes have taken place in our societies. We need to rediscover how to live l’Arche today. Our communities, our shared life with people who are fragile and vulnerable, want to be places of mutual friendship, affection and commitment. That means that we have to respond to state requirements and be competent; competence and friendship call forth one another. ... Read...
