Letter from Jean Vanier

Trosly, May 2008
Dear friends,
Here I am in Kenya. You may well ask, “Why has my pilgrimage brought me to this African country which went
through a lot of turmoil recently”? Well, it’s a long story! For me it began in Bangalore when I gave a retreat in
October 2006. At this retreat there was a young Italian priest named Father Gabriele. Here is his story. He is a
parish priest in the diocese of Nyahururu, Kenya. One day 10 years ago when visiting a family whose home he
had been asked to bless, he heard a noise. In response, he opened a cupboard door to find Thomas hidden there,
a boy with a severe disability. The family was embarrassed and ashamed at having such a child. It was out of this
encounter that the community which came to be known as Saint Martins was born. This strange and unexpected
meeting aroused the curiosity of Father Gabriele.
“Are there other people with disabilities in the
parish?” He spoke to the other priests and
ministers and it seemed that 5 or 6 such people
were identified in the immediate area. He then
called together a group of people, volunteers
from the area, to see what could be done to
answer the most serious needs. This group of
volunteers went from doorway to doorway. Within
a year or more they discovered, over quite a
large area (more or less 40 km x 40 km), about
2,000 people with disabilities, the vast majority
hidden away in back rooms. They also
discovered orphaned children, many of whom
had been looking after their parents and relatives
dying of AIDs, and were themselves HIV+.
Gradually other miseries were also discovered:
abandoned widows, young boys becoming
delinquent in the streets, abused girls and
women and so on.
As all these miseries and needs became known, local people came
forward, to help those in pain. Of course the volunteers, filled with good
will and the desire to serve, were inexperienced. It became apparent
over time that motivation can dwindle and fade, and the question
became how to help maintain the level of commitment? Formation
sessions, both professional and spiritual, were needed. All the churches
in the area were contacted. Gradually over a thousand volunteers have
come forward to be trained and committed. So was born a vast
movement, radically ecumenical, bringing life to people in need and
also transforming those who felt called to serve.
You can imagine that I wanted to see and touch the totality of this
African realization, a movement of compassion and competence
serving the needs of people in a large area, working hand in hand with
churches and local government (not always very present). Just
imagine!.... the volunteers going into villages, meeting all the mothers
with severely disabled children, helping them and their neighbours to
share amongst themselves, empowering them to come together to
share, to pray together, giving them support, and helping them to find
professional resources when necessary.
I am accompanied by Martha Bala, who had met Father Gabriele in
Bangalore and who had been head of our community in Calcutta during
Jean and Father
Gabriele
Kenya
Letter from Jean Vanier, May 2008 - 2 -
the 70s. We were able to see and touch this amazing work born in the Spirit and inspired and guided by the spirit
which is spreading over this whole area. We came to see the reality, and to meet the people. We rejoiced in a
special way to meet Andrew and all the L’Arche community from Kampala. They had traveled, 39 of them, for 14
hours in a rented bus to be with us, first in Nairobi where I gave
a retreat at Tangaza University, and then here in Nyahururu.
For me it was a great joy to be with our community, overflowing
with celebration and love. Grace flowed from the presence of
Dorothy and Maimuna in their wheel beds which carried their
twisted bodies and radiant faces.
It has been a full and beautiful time giving the retreat this week
to all the volunteers of St Martins, but also to many of the
people of the area, mothers, fathers and young people, 300 in
all. At different moments during the week when I was not
giving a talk, we were able to leave the retreat centre to visit
various locales where Saint Martins operates.
The first morning in Nyahururu we met with the leaders of Saint
Martins, and listened to their witness. We were in amazement
and thanksgiving to God for all that the Holy Spirit is
accomplishing through all these men and women of different
Christian churches so deeply united in love. This unity radiates
through all that is being done there. We attended a special
mass in a hall of Saint Martins, where mothers with disabled
children from the surrounding area had been invited to attend
for the day, and many had traveled long distances to be there.
The HIV+ orphan boys and girls were there as well, in special
T-shirts for the occasion, and performed a beautiful dance for
everyone, with candles which they held high as they sang.
Later that week we visited these same children in their home, Thalita Kum, where they again sang and danced for
us, and where we were able to interact with them a little more. We were very moved by their joy and their beauty.
HIV+ children are brought to this home when they are first identified as sick and abandoned. There they are given
nutritious food, and for those who require, appropriate medications. When they are well and strong enough, Saint
Martins places them with individual families.
In the Gospel of Luke (cf 7.18 ss) we see that at one moment John the
Baptist in prison goes through a period of anguish and doubt. Was his
cousin Jesus really the one that was to come: the Messiah? So he sends
messengers to check with Jesus: “Are you the one, or should we expect
another?” Jesus answers: “Tell John that the blind see, the lame walk,
and the good news is announced to the poor”. That is the sign that the
Messiah is present; that is the sign of God’s work.
Here, through Saint Martins, a wonderful work of God is rising up,
revealing that when the poverty and deep needs of people are uncovered
and manifested, many rise up as volunteers to give support, and enter
into a relationship of friendship with those in need. This is a revelation of
what is church, as the different churches unite in compassion to serve the
broken body of Christ.
I am a pilgrim. We are all pilgrims. My life has been a pilgrimage. Soon I
will be going though the gate of my 80th birthday. I feel excited. What is
that gate opening up for me? A new life?
Many of you know Jacqueline. She was the secretary of Père Thomas
and I knew her at l’Eau Vive in 1950. When I started L’Arche she was
there helping Père Thomas. She helped us to furnish, decorate,
sometimes buy and redo houses. She was a precious presence to many.
Now she has Parkinson’s disease. We could not keep her in the
community because of all the care she needed. She has a room in a
nearby home for old people, but people go frequently to bring her to the
Farm at L’Arche, to live the Eucharist with us. I am deeply touched by her; she is in a wheelchair, has great
difficulty speaking and we have difficulty understanding her when she does speak. However, through all that she is
radiant, and there is a beautiful peace that shines through her weakness. She has become a presence of love.
A HIV+ child
welcomed by Saint
Martins’
Jean with Dorothy and
Maimuna
Letter from Jean Vanier, May 2008 - 3 -
I hope and pray that when the moment of greater weakness
comes for me, that I can laugh and rejoice and be happy with
what will be given to me. Shakespeare in King Lear says through
aging…we will be like birds in a cage (a weakening body)
“So we’ll live, and pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh at
gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues talk of court news; and
we’ll talk with them too,- who loses and who wins; who’s in,
who’s out;- and take upon’s the mystery of things, as if we were
God’s spies: and we’ll wear out, in a wall’d prison, packs and
sects of great ones, that cbb and flow by th’moon.” (Lear V. iii 8-
19)
It is a gentle time for me as I come to the end of this period of my
life, where in the future I will travel less, and no more visit
communities. I had dreamt of going to Vietnam and China, I had
dreamt of returning to the Ivory Coast to visit our community, and
see and share again with N’Goran and others. I had dreamt of
returning to Haiti, and to our communities in Latin America – I had been prevented from going there with Nadine a
year or so ago because of sickness.
My dream now is to live in my community, in my home, to live a simple life in Trosly. I will try to live what I have
preached for so many years, hoping to be a support and not a burden to my community, trying to deepen my
relationship with Jesus and with my brothers and sisters. I will continue, as long as I can, to give retreats at the
Farm, the little spiritual center at the heart of L’Arche. My joy is to announce Jesus and the love of God, to
announce the presence of God in those who are the most vulnerable and to announce also the humility and the
vulnerability of God.
So I am a pilgrim wanting to live well the last stage of my life not as a loss of activities but of gaining a new way to
live. I am also realizing how L’Arche and all our communities are like pilgrims. Pilgrims are heading for a holy
place, and their hearts want to be holy. The pilgrimage is filled with the unexpected: surprise meetings with
beautiful people, accidents, sore feet and blisters, horrible weather (raining or too hot) and all the rest. There is no
real security except pilgrims know where they are going: the holy place. They are not always sure they will find the
necessary food and a place to sleep.
Certainly, all of our communities would love to have stability, a large group of well trained people, ardent in
spirituality, focused in a prayerful life, recognized and valued by local authorities, convinced of the vision of the
weak, who will heal the strong, secure financially, and so on, and so on.
The reality is not like that. Our communities are pilgrim communities. We are not even sure who are or are not
members of our communities, because membership is more of a spirit than a law. We never have enough
assistants, so few are prepared to stay a long time in our homes. We have a beautiful vision, a vision to be like the
yeast in the bread of society, and where the weak heal the strong. We are continually shaken by unexpected
events, strong winds which make people topple over, but also extraordinary events when we can almost see the
long hand of God protecting us and holding those who are the weakest and the most vulnerable. L’Arche and Faith
and Light are not like well constructed, well known monuments, glorious cathedrals, prestigious universities,
efficient hospitals; all fixed, stable, on firm ground. We are but little homes filled with happy prayerful celebrating
people whose fragility is marked on their bodies, minds and spirits, and with assistants and friends who believe in
a spirit of love and of tenderness. Yes we are a pilgrim people, holding a vision and walking daily to a promised
land of love. However, lets face it, there are many cultural and historic factors in our modern world which render
difficult the living out of the vision. Yet L’Arche and Faith and Light are born of God, and God will watch over us.
I have just finished reading a remarkable book about the theology of disability. It is called “Vulnerable Communion”
(Brazos Press) and is written by Thomas Reynolds who teaches theology at Emmanuel College in Toronto. I
cannot recommend it enough. For some it can be difficult reading for it is dense. But it is filled with light and a clear
and strong vision, which is the vision of L’Arche and Faith and Light.
For some of you it will soon be holiday time (for others it will soon be winter) Holiday time is holy days. I will be in
my monastery in Belgium. Time to rest, to pray, to read, to walk, to listen to the birds, to listen to the gentle music
of God. I will be in communion with you – be it holy days or winter days (days of stress…), let us pray for each
other and for all in our world who are suffering of loneliness and despair.
Peace, peace, peace.
Jean Vanier
Jacqueline d’Halluin and
Père Thomas