"Jean Vanier, founder of the L’Arche community for people with mental disabilities, [this the community that Henri Nouwen worked in that I wrote about in an earlier entry] offers a contrasting perspective of what ‘living’ or ‘giving life’ may be for the believer. Vanier suggests that to offer life, we must offer that which we most love to others. Offering what we most treasure allows us to transmit life to others. By living with people with disabilities, Vanier learned that to “be human is to be bonded together, each with our own weaknesses and strengths, because we need each other.”

What do we treasure most today? Perhaps it is our money, our time, our independence, our intellect or our ability to serve others. May God show us our brokenness and need for each other so that we might truly live. "

from Launa Rohrer, Goshen College