Last week I introduced you to the late Henri Nouwen. Now I introduce you to someone who was an inspiration to Henri Nouwen. This person's name is Jean Vanier, who is most known for his founding of the L'Arche movement. L'Arche started started in 1964 as a model of Christian living and life that brought together those with mental disabilities (and often physical) with those who do not have these disabilities. What was different about the L'Arche model is that those with and those without live together as complete equals. When Vanier first started L'Arche he thought he would be helping those with disabilities but he ended up finding out that they were helping him as much as he was helping them. He came to find that those with disabilities often knew the deeper truths of life and God much better than those without the disabilities. It provided an opportunity for real, authentic, selfless love to grow.
Henri Nouwen, who you watched preach in the video last week, was so inspired by this model of living that the last several years of his life were spent living in an L'Arche community in Toronto. A brilliant man who taught at Notre Dame, Harvard, and Yale, who had sold hundreds of thousands or even millions of books, who was a much sought after speaker all over the world, gave all that up to live with a young, severely disabled young man named Adam. Nouwen would have never done that had it not been for Jean Vanier. One of the things Jean Vanier has said that has helped me and humbled me immensely is that God calls us not to be great in the eyes of the world, but instead God simply calls us each to be "a little friend of Jesus." That is what I want to be. I want to be a little friend of Jesus.
Please take a few minutes to watch the following video of Jean Vanier and then to avail yourself to any of the other resources about him. Perhaps by learning from his life and example we will be opened up to love God and love others in similar ways.
Please take a few minutes to watch the following video of Jean Vanier and then to avail yourself to any of the other resources about him. Perhaps by learning from his life and example we will be opened up to love God and love others in similar ways.
If you cannot watch the embedded video above click on this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_xDRTXb-_o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_xDRTXb-_o
http://www.jean-vanier.org/en/the_man/profile
About L'Arche Communities International
http://www.larche.org/en/home
Audio Interview with Jean Vanier
http://www.onbeing.org/program/wisdom-tenderness/234
Audio Interview about L'Arche Communities
http://www.onbeing.org/program/larche-community-brokenness-and-beauty/116
