Visitors are often astonished at the joy they sense at l’Arche. It surprises me too because I know how much suffering some people in our communities are carrying. I wonder then if all joy doesn’t somehow spring from suffering and sacrifice.

Visitors are often astonished at the joy they sense at l’Arche. It surprises me too because I know how much suffering some people in our communities are carrying. I wonder then if all joy doesn’t somehow spring from suffering and sacrifice. Can those who are rich and live in comfort and security with everything they need, and who refuse to be close to those who are suffering, be truly joyful?
Community and Growth

We must help each person to live more and more clearly and deeply from an inner confidence of being loved by God just as they are.
Community and Growth

Being a philosopher, being a naval officer, I spent a lot of time pretending and hiding. Living with people with disabilities I’ve touched my own brokenness, my own angers, my own powers of violence, my own capacity to hate. But maybe human wisdom is to discover that we are all broken. We must discover that before we can discover the path of wholeness.
Man Alive, CBC TV 1992

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