A Network of Friends: The Letters of Jean Vanier to the Friends and Communities of l'Arche Vol. 2: 1974-1983

Les Harding is the author of The Voyages of Lesser Men: Thumbnail
Sketches in Canadian Exploration and The Journeys of Remarkable Women:
Their Travels on the Canadian Frontier.

L’Arche is a Christian community devoted to helping the mentally and
physically handicapped and to integrating them into society as much as
possible. Often the greatest gift that can be given the handicapped is
the realization that they are loved.

The first l’Arche home was founded in France, in 1964, by Jean
Vanier. In this volume of circular letters to friends and supporters we
see the development of l’Arche during its second decade (1974-83), a
period when the movement expanded worldwide. Vanier works tirelessly,
maintaining a frenetic pace of lectures, seminars, interviews, and board
meetings. By my count he visited 33 countries. But Vanier is mindful of
letting l’Arche become just another faceless social welfare agency. As
Vanier writes, “L’Arche has a role to play in our world and in the
Church, but only to the degree that we allow the little ones, the
wounded ones to develop, to express themselves without fear; only to the
degree that their simplicity confound our complexity and hypocrisy and
that we do not close ourselves up in pride but remain humble.”

Vanier’s letters are often quite moving and are brimming with God’s
love and compassion. Jean Vanier is a deeply spiritual man filled with a
simple goodness—an inspiration to all of us.