Sharing Life
Stories of L'Arche Founders
What does it take to begin a spiritual community? Jean Vanier and other founders of early L’Arche communities tell stories of risk, joy, pain, and growth from life shared with people with intellectual disabilities in France, Canada, India, USA, UK, Ivory Coast, Haiti, and Honduras.
Follow the adventures of nine remarkable people inspired by Jean Vanier to begin L’Arche communities in the 1960s and 70s: an entrepreneurial couple with backgrounds in business, theology, farming, and flying; a German woman who left after WWII and began an international student house in Montreal; a pioneer in the British palliative care movement at the peak of her medical career; an American Benedictine nun and a diocesan priest responding to Vatican II and the Vietnam War; a poetry-loving philosophy professor from Quebec; a French Jewish woman seeking a new vision for society after the 1968 student uprisings; a young Canadian who grew up in liberal Protestant and Evangelical traditions seeking to follow the teachings of Jesus wholeheartedly.
In this twenty-first century, as we move beyond myths of individual achievement to become more aware of interconnections and social ecosystems, these stories reveal how each founder boldly sought out people of very different cultures and abilities. Through sharing life they became friends, built community, struggled, and grew in faith together.
Includes a study guide with questions for individual reflection or group discussion.
ISBN: 978-08091-5431-9
Paperback
$22.95
Other Formats Available:
eBook
$15.38