It is difficult to make people understand that the ideal doesn't exist, that personal equilibrium and the harmony they dream of come only after years and years of struggle, and that even then they come only as flashes of grace and peace. Jean Vanier More Quotes by Jean Vanier More Quotes From Jean Vanier Community means caring: caring for people. Dietrich Bonhoeffer says: "He who loves community destroys community; he who loves the brethren builds community." A community is not an abstract ideal. Jean Vanier caring mean people Love is an act of endless forgiveness. Jean Vanier forgiveness love-is love [Happiness] comes when we choose to be who we are, to be ourselves, at this present moment in our lives. Jean Vanier our-lives who-we-are moments Our danger is to think that happiness will come from outside of us, from the things we possess or the power of our group, and not from within us, from the inner sanctuary of our being. Jean Vanier groups sanctuary thinking To be lonely is to feel unwanted and unloved, and therefor unloveable. Loneliness is a taste of death. No wonder some people who are desperately lonely lose themselves in mental illness or violence to forget the inner pain. Jean Vanier pain lonely loneliness All of us have a secret desire to be seen as saints, heroes, martyrs. We are afraid to be children, to be ourselves. Jean Vanier secret hero children Many people confuse authority and the power of efficiency, as if the first role of people with responsibility is to take decisions, command effectively and so exercise power. But their role first of all is to be a person to whom others can turn for help and advice, to provide security, to affirm, to support, to encourage and to guide. Jean Vanier responsibility exercise people The poor are always prophetic. As true prophets always point out, they reveal God's design. That is why we should take time to listen to them. And that means staying near them, because they speak quietly and infrequently; they are afraid to speak out, they lack confidence in themselves because they have been broken and oppressed. But if we listen to them, they will bring us back to the essential. Jean Vanier speaks-out broken mean We cannot grow spiritually if we ignore our humanness, just as we cannot become fully human if we ignore our spirituality. Jean Vanier spirituality grows humans Community begins in mystery and ends in administration. Leaders move away from people and into paper. Jean Vanier community people moving This evolution towards a real responsibility for others is sometimes blocked by fear. It is easier to stay on the level of a pleasant way of life in which we keep our freedom and our distance. But that means that we stop growing and shut ourselves up in our own small concerns and pleasures. Jean Vanier distance real mean When people love each other, they are content with very little. When we have light and joy in our hearts, we don't need material wealth. The most loving communities are often the poorest. Jean Vanier loving-life light heart Many people are good at talking about what they are doing, but in fact do little. Others do a lot but don't talk about it; they are the ones who make a community live. Jean Vanier community talking people There is nothing stronger than a heart which loves and is freely given. Jean Vanier stronger given heart Loneliness is the fundamental force that urgees mystics to a deeper union with God... An experience of God quenches this thirst for the absolute but at the same time, paradoxiacally, whets it, because this is an experience that can never be total; by necessity, the knowledge of God is always partial. So loneliness opens up mystics to a desire to love each other and every human being as God loves them. Jean Vanier loneliness fundamentals desire If we are to grow in love, the prisons of our egoism must be unlocked. This implies suffering, constant effort and repeated choices. Jean Vanier effort ego choices We don’t know what to do with our own pain, so what to do with the pain of others? We don’t know what to do with our own weakness except hide it or pretend it doesn’t exist. So how can we welcome fully the weakness of another if we haven’t welcomed our own weakness? Jean Vanier welcome weakness pain 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. Jean Vanier struggle class love-is We all know well that we can do things for others and in the process crush them, making them feel that they are incapable of doing things by themselves. To love someone is to reveal to them their capacities for life, the light that is shining in them. Jean Vanier crush shining light 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. Jean Vanier our-world war people
