While I was in seminary I began a blog about my experiences so that my church family I left behind in Philadelphia could see what it was like to live at the seminary.
That blog is no longer exists, but I thought I would re-post a few of the entries.
From Brokenness to Community
From Brokenness to Community is a book by Jean Vanier. It is originally from a lecture series at Harvard. Jean Vanier lives in France and talks about what he has learned from the adults with disabilities that he lives with. By living and working with these people he himself has found healing. He earned a doctorate in Philosophy and then met two men with Down's Syndrome when his life was changed. The three of them lived together and he started what we would call a residential home. There are several of these homes (L'Arche community) across France and the world (numbering over 100). He lives at the L'Arche community in Trosly-Breuil, France. Communal living is hard. Here are some thought provoking quotes from the book:
Community is a wonderful place, it is life-giving; but it is also a place of pain because it is a place of truth and of growth--the revelation of our pride, our fear, and our brokenness
...For they call us to love, to communion, to compassion and to community...
When we talk of the poor, or of announcing the good news of the poor, we should never idealize the poor. Poor people are hurt; they are in pain. They can be very angry, in revolt or in depression.
...the greatest pain is rejection, the feeling that nobody really wants you "like that"...
Many people in our world today are living in deep inner pain and anguish because as children they were not valued, welcomed, loved.
To be in communion with someone means to walk with them.
But this communion is not fusion. Fusion leads to confusion.
Communion gives freedom to grow.
Elitism is the sickness of us all.
...if someone is called to live with wounded people...he or she has to discover God's presence--that God is present in the poverty and wounds of their hearts.
Community is a place of conflict: conflict inside each one of us. There is first of all the conflict between the values of the world and the values of community, between togetherness and independence. It's painful to lose one's independence, and to come into togetherness--not just proximity--to make decisions together and not all alone.
...inside the churches...a yearning for solidarity, a cry coming from people for togetherness and love.
Faces don't lie
Community means the respect and love of difference
The greatest persecution can come from inside our communities; people who have fallen into mediocrity do not want others to rock the boat."
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