Jean Vanier Quotes About Community

Quotes about: Community

• It is my belief that in our mad world where there is so much pain, rivalry, hatred, violence, inequality, and oppression, it is people who are weak, rejected, marginalized, counted as useless, who can become a source of life and of salvation for us as individuals as well as for our world. And it is my hope that each one of you may experience the incredible gift of the friendship of people who are poor and weak, that you too, may receive life from them. For they call us to love, to communion, to compassion and to community.

  Jean Vanier

  Pain, Compassion, Our World

• A community which refuses to welcome - whether through fear, weariness, insecurity, a desire to cling to comfort, or just because it is fed up with visitors - is dying spiritually.

  Jean Vanier

  Community, Insecurity, Dying

• The response to war is to live like brothers and sisters. The response to injustice is to share. The response to despair is a limitless trust and hope. The response to prejudice and hatred is forgiveness. To work for community is to work for humanity. To work for peace is to work for a true political solution; it is to work for the Kingdom of God. It is to work to enable every one to live and taste the secret joys of the human person united to the eternal.

  Jean Vanier

  Brother, War, Community

• A Christian community should do as Jesus did: propose and not impose. Its attraction must lie in the radiance cast by the love of brothers.

  Jean Vanier

  Christian, Jesus, Brother

  Jean Vanier, Ann Shearer (1989). “Community and Growth”, p.144, Paulist Press

• One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn't as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing.

  Jean Vanier

  Healing, Responsibility, Self Confidence

  "The Healing of Community" by Jean-Paul Bedard, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 3, 2014.

• ...Individualistic material progress and the desire to gain prestige by coming out on top have taken over from the sense of fellowship, compassion and community. Now people live more or less on their own in a small house, jealously guarding their goods and planning to acquire more, with a notice on the gate that says, 'Beware of the Dog.

  Jean Vanier

  Dog, Taken, Compassion

  Jean Vanier, Ann Shearer (1989). “Community and Growth”, p.16, Paulist Press

• One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn't as individuals.

  Jean Vanier

  People, Community, Way

  "The Healing of Community" by Jean-Paul Bedard, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 3, 2014.

• It is only when we stand up, with all our failings and sufferings, and try to support others rather than withdraw into ourselves, that we can fully live the life of community.

  Jean Vanier

  Live Life, Support, Community

  Jean Vanier, Ann Shearer (1989). “Community and Growth”, p.330, Paulist Press

• Community is not an ideal; it is people. It is you and I. In community we are called to love people just as they are with their wounds and their gifts, not as we want them to be.

  Jean Vanier

  People, Community, Want

  Jean Vanier (1992). “From Brokenness to Community”, p.35, Paulist Press

• 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

  Mean, Caring, People

  Jean Vanier (1992). “From Brokenness to Community”, p.35, Paulist Press

• Community is a sign that love is possible in a materialistic world where people so often either ignore or fight each other. It is a sign that we don't need a lot of money to be happy--in fact, the opposite.

  Jean Vanier

  Fighting, Love Is, Opposites

  Jean Vanier, Ann Shearer (1989). “Community and Growth”, p.310, Paulist Press

• Community begins in mystery and ends in administration. Leaders move away from people and into paper.

  Jean Vanier

  Moving, People, Community

• People are longing to rediscover true community. We have had enough of loneliness, independence and competition.

  Jean Vanier

  Loneliness, People, Community

• 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

  Talking, People, Community

  "Community And Growth". Book by Jean Vanier, 1979.

• 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

  Heart, Loving Life, Light

  "A L’Arche Serving of Love in Kolkata" by Rumni Saha, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 6, 2015.

• Every human activity can be put at the service of the divine and of love. We should all exercise our gift to build community.

  Jean Vanier

  Exercise, Community, Divine

• A community that is growing rich and seeks only to defend its goods and its reputation is dying. It has ceased to grow in love. A community is alive when it is poor and its members feel they have to work together and remain united, if only to ensure that they can all eat tomorrow!

  Jean Vanier

  Community, Working Together, Dying

  Jean Vanier, Ann Shearer (1989). “Community and Growth”, p.119, Paulist Press

• A growing community must integrate three elements: a life of silent prayer, a life of service and above all of listening to the poor, and a community life through which all its members can grow in their own gift.

  Jean Vanier

  Prayer, Community, Listening

• True peace can rarely be imposed from the outside; it must be born within and between communities through meetings and dialogue and then carried outward.

  Jean Vanier

  Community, Born, Dialogue

  Jean Vanier (2003). “Finding Peace”, p.16, A&C Black

• In any case, community is not about perfect people. It is about people who are bonded to each other, each of whom is a mixture of good and bad, darkness and light, love and hate.

  Jean Vanier

  Hate, Light, People

  Jean Vanier, Ann Shearer (1989). “Community and Growth”, p.42, Paulist Press

• The people with the best sense of what is essential to a community, of what gives and maintains its spirit, are often doing very humble, manual tasks. It is often the poorest person - the one who has a handica[p, is] ill or old - who is the most prophetic. People who carry responsibility must be close to them and know what they think, because it is often they who are free enough to see with the greatest clarity the needs, beauty and pain of the community.

  Jean Vanier

  Pain, Humble, Responsibility

• Machines help us do things more quickly and efficiently, but they can also destroy some community activities. Machines can also throw the weakest people out of work and this would be sad, because their small contribution to the housework or cooking is their way of giving something to the community. People who are capable of doing things very quickly with the help of machines become tremendously busy, always active, in charge of everyone - a bit like machines themselves.

  Jean Vanier

  People, Giving, Community

• People may come to our communities because they want to serve the poor; they will only stay once they have discovered that they themselves are poor.

  Jean Vanier

  People, Community, May

  Jean Vanier (1992). “From Brokenness to Community”, p.20, Paulist Press

• 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

  War, Our World, People

  Jean Vanier, Ann Shearer (1989). “Community and Growth”, p.177, Paulist Press

• A community is only a community when the majority of its members are making the transition from 'the community for myself' to 'myself for the community'.

  Jean Vanier

  Community, Majority, Transition

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