I am struck by how sharing our weakness and difficulties is more nourishing to others than sharing our qualities and successes.
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.
We are not called by God to do extraordinary things, but to do ordinary things with extraordinary love.
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.
To love someone is to show to them their beauty, their worth and their importance.
Love doesn't mean doing extraordinary or heroic things. It means knowing how to do ordinary things with tenderness.
If we are to grow in love, the prisons of our egoism must be unlocked. This implies suffering, constant effort and repeated choices.
Growth begins when we start to accept our own weakness
When we love and respect people, revealing to them their value, they can begin to come out from behind the walls that protect them.
All of us have a secret desire to be seen as saints, heroes, martyrs. We are afraid to be children, to be ourselves.
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.
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.
People cannot accept their own evil if they do not at the same time feel loved, respected and trusted.
Every human activity can be put at the service of the divine and of love. We should all exercise our gift to build community.
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But let us not put our sights too high. We do not have to be saviours of the world! We are simply human beings, enfolded in weakness and in hope, called together to change our world one heart at a time. (163)
When children are loved, they live off trust; their bides and hearts open up to those who respect and love them, who understand and listen to them.
I have discovered the value of psychology and psychiatry, that their teachings can undo knots in us and permit life to flow again and aid us in becoming more truly human.
![[Happiness] comes when we choose to be who we are, to be ourselves, at this present moment in our lives.](https://quotes.thefamouspeople.com/images/quotes/jean-vanier-25521.jpg)
[Happiness] comes when we choose to be who we are, to be ourselves, at this present moment in our lives.
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Every act of violence is also a message that needs to be understood. (23-24)
Envy comes from people’s ignorance of, or lack of belief, in their own gifts.
![At the heart of the celebration, there are the poor. If [they] are excluded, it is not longer a celebration. [...] A celebration must always be a festival of the poor.](https://quotes.thefamouspeople.com/images/quotes/jean-vanier-25523.jpg)
At the heart of the celebration, there are the poor. If [they] are excluded, it is not longer a celebration. [...] A celebration must always be a festival of the poor.
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.
Look at your own poverty welcome it cherish it don't be afraid share your death because thus you will share your love and your life
We work for peace every time we exercise authority with wisdom and authentic love.
Our humanity is so beautiful, but it needs to be transformed
That is the fundamental question; how to trust that she has a heart and that she can, little by little, receive love, be transformed by love, and then give love.
An ethics of desire is good news for those of us who have become allergic to an ethics of law.
The friend of time doesn't spend all day saying: 'I haven't got time.' He doesn't fight with time. He accepts it and cherishes it.
We human beings are all fundamentally the same. We all belong to a common, broken humanity. We all have wounded, vulnerable hearts. Each one of us needs to feel appreciated and understood; we all need help.
The language of elitism smells bad! It is not healthy to believe that we are the only ones to have captured truth and even less healthy to condemn others.
