Jean Vanier Thoughts

The Journey out of Adolescence

An adolescent lives in hope, searching for a place where he can put down roots. As an adult he comes back down to earth when he settles down with others. But in doing this, he is soon forced to face all his difficulties in relationships, his fears and blockages. He then experiences guilt. He is pretty well obliged to recognize all that is broken within him. How can he be helped to become free from all this brokenness and guilt, so that he can live with responsibility and fecundity in a realistic and humble way?
- Jean Vanier, Our Journey Home, p. 121

Developing Inner Peace

The qualities of developing an inner strength and peace, and the capacity to listen and talk and cooperate with others cannot be confined to certain people. They are necessary in the exercise of all forms of authority, beginning with parental authority. Developing them demands time and help from friends and people who can accompany us and in whom we can confide.
- Jean Vanier, Our Journey Home,p.119
Share what's interesting to you

ShareAuthority

At L’Arche I have discovered two kinds of authority: an authority which imposes, dominates and controls; and an authority which accompanies, listens, liberates, empowers, gives people confidence in themselves and calls them to be aware of their responsibilities. There is no discussion. The person who exercises this kind of authority may well have a sense of the truth. But he does not know how to walk with another on his journey; he does not really respect him.
- Jean Vanier, Our Journey Home,p.110
what's interesting to you

The Risk

Adolescents live the risk of searching. Adults live the risk of love and fecundity. Often, the person for whom we are responsible leads us where we do not want to go. Is this not the case with so many parents who have been opened up and changed by their children?
- Jean Vanier, Our Journey Home,p.110

The Fecundity of Love

Fecundity (meaning fruitfulness and the capacity to give life) exists not only in families. It is implied in all human relationships, especially those where one person cares for another. A good teacher is not just somebody who knows her subject and knows how to teach; she loves and appreciates her students, and respects them as individuals. By being respectful, welcoming and loving, she gives them confidence and makes them open to what she has to teach them. This is equally true for priests, doctors, social workers and psychologists, or for those who work with the poor in the slums of Latin America. It is true whenever people meet and in all activities involving collaboration.
- Jean Vanier, Our Journey Home,p.108

Discovering Freedom and Joy

Becoming more realistic about the sacrifices one is prepared to make in order to remain faithful, about the difficulties in relationships, and about human suffering, through commitment and communion, one discovers a new freedom and the joy of giving life.
- Jean Vanier, Our Journey Home,p.106

Leaving the Heights of Idealism

There comes a moment (and these days it tends to be when people are nearer the age of thirty than twenty) when people feel a kind of call to put down roots and become fruitful, to give life. They are tired of uncertainty and instability, of searching and being on the move; they long to stop. They want to make a permanent commitment to someone who will be their companion on the journey for the rest of their life, or to others in a community life, where people can work together towards an ideal. They know that they are never going to live with an absolutely perfect person; they have begun to accept themselves as they are, and other people likewise. They leave the heights of idealism and dreams to come gradually down to earth.
- Jean Vanier, Our Journey Home,p.105

Those who find stability

Other young people find structure and stability through their values, moral, social, intellectual and religious. Their stability is strengthened when they become committed to political, social or religious movements. These young people have then made the transition from the faith and values they received from their parents to a faith and set of values they have claimed as their own. These values inform their choices and the friends they make.
- Jean Vanier, Our Journey Home,p.104

L'Arche Assistants

We welcome many assistants aged between eighteen and thirty for periods varying from three months to three years. They are looking for an experience of life and community. They have not yet found a place to put down their roots; they are searching for it. For some people, putting down roots is difficult because they have so many possibilities before them. They are frightened of choosing too quickly, of losing their independence, or of being disappointed, so they put off making a decision.
- Jean Vanier, Our Journey Home,p.103

My Third Stage of Life

It was in the third stage of my life, at the age of thirty-six, when I became responsible for the people of l’Arche, that I really entered adulthood. The navy had helped to structure my capacities for action and, in some way, my psychological and physical energies. It had helped me to make discipline a part of my life.

The spirituality that I learned and lived through being with Father Thomas, as well as the philosophical and theological knowledge that I gained, shaped and strengthened my mind and spirit. All this prepared me to settle down, to put down my roots, to take on permanent responsibility for others, to find a place where I was able to give others life and to live communion more fully. At L’Arche I began to understand what adult life really is.
- Jean Vanier, Our Journey Home,p.103