60 minutes / Theme: Introduction to L’Arche Mission & Identity
FACILITATOR’S NOTES are italicized. / Suggested
Techniques / Questions/
Materials
Objectives:
Participants will:
· Deepen their understanding of L’Arche Mission and Identity.
· Share spiritual experiences associated with L’Arche Mission and Identity.
Facilitator Preparation
1. Review Katherine Spink’s book, The Miracle, the Message, the Story.
2. Review 11 Spiritual Themes of L’Arche outlined on p. 9 of A Learning Guide for the Spirituality of L’Arche.
15 min. / Ice Breaker (optional)
Toilet paper: Have each person tear off squares of toilet paper. They can take as many pieces as they want. After everyone has some of the toilet paper, each person has to tell one thing about himself or herself for each piece of toilet paper they have in front of them. This game can also be done with pretzels or M&M’s. / Group activity / Toilet Paper (1 roll)
5 min. / Opening Prayer: Matthew 5:1-12 – the Beatitudes
Read or invite someone to read the prayer aloud. Ask a reader ahead of time to give reader time to prepare. / Read aloud / Bible or provided handout
Overview of Theme
Briefly state that you will be talking about:
-L’Arche’s founding story and the three key words Relationship, Transformation and Sign
-L’Arche’s Mission and Identity Process
-How both of these offer opportunities for spiritual reflection
5 min. / Review of Participant’s Objectives / Expectations:
Review aloud the objectives listed above. / Invite participants to share any expectations or questions they may have about this theme.
10 min. / Setting the Scene
Tell the founding story of L’Arche, briefly highlighting
Relationship, Transformation & Sign. One version of the
founding story is available as a handout.
ñ Jean came to an institution for people with intellectual
disabilities where Pere Thomas was the chaplain. Pere Thomas told
Jean he was discovering Jesus. “L’Arche began in 1964 when
Jean Vanier and Father Thomas Philippe, in response to a call from
God, invited Raphael Simi and Philippe Seux, two men with mental
handicaps, to come and share their life in the spirit of the Gospel and
of the Beatitudes that Jesus preached.” Relationship.
ñ Brokenness is the avenue for the transformation of our
Hearts. “As I touched the fragility and pain of people with mental handicaps, and as their trust in me grew, new springs of tenderness welled up in me. I loved them, and was happy
with them. They awakened a part of my being that had been
under-developed, dormant. Through them, a new world began to open
up for me, not the world of efficiency, competition, success and power, but the world of the heart, of vulnerability and communion. They were leading me on a path towards healing and
wholeness.” The Heart of L’Arche by Jean Vanier
Transformation
ñ Jean invited Raphael and Philippe to come live with him –
He discovered the spirituality of the poor. Brokenness led
them to recognize their profound need of each other, and to
the recognition of belonging. … “brokenness was not something to be
healed but instead, brokenness would lead those with a disability to
recognize their profound need for each other. This profound need for
one another would lead to a sense of recognition of belonging. A
recognition of belonging would lead to community and community
would lead to oneness.” Sign / Story telling
Lecture/discussion / Resource: Chapter 1 of A Learning Guide for the Spirituality of L’Arche: History of L’Arche adapted from Kathryn Spink, The Miracle, the Message, the Story.
20-25 min. / L’Arche Mission and Identity
Several years ago (2004-2007) L’Arche went through a process called Mission and Identity. At the conclusion of that process, three key words were identified. These are the essence of L’Arche—relationship, transformation, and sign.
These key words are foundational to our spiritual identity. We will use these key words to frame the 11 Spiritual Themes of L’Arche identified in the Learning Guide.
One way to understand spirituality in L’Arche is to use the three words that emerged during our Mission & Identity process to categorize our spiritual themes. Here is a sample of how themes might relate to the three key words:
1. Relationship—trust, mutuality, celebration, covenant relationships
2. Transformation—vulnerability, acceptance, belonging
3. Sign—forgiveness, simplicity, welcome, solidarity
These associations aren’t fixed in stone. For the purpose of formation curriculum, we’ll work from the above associations. Please do not reference each spiritual theme against more than one key word (i.e., relationship, transformation, sign). / Review three key words with group.
Review 11 Spiritual Themes with group.
lecture / Resource: 11 Spiritual
Themes of L’Arche outlined on p. 9 of A Learning Guide for the Spirituality of L’Arche.
1. Trust
2. Mutuality
3. Forgiveness
4. Celebration
5. Vulnerability
6. Simplicity
7. Acceptance
8. Welcome
9. Belonging
10. Solidarity
11. Covenant Relationships
Flip chart / markers
15 min. / Small Group Discussion
Invite group to break into small groups (6-10 individuals) to discuss the following (pass out handout for small groups to use):
1. Choose one of the three key words (e.g., relationship) that is compelling to you.
(List some of the 11 Themes that you feel go well with your word)
2. What are the core members teaching you about living this aspect and the spiritual themes beneath it? / Small group discussion. / Copies of handout
10 min / Plenary: What am I thankful for and what have I learned At the end of the discussion time, thank participants for their involvement. If appropriate, Indicate that you are looking forward to subsequent formation modules. The next module will focus on the Mission & Identity principle of relationship. / Go around the circle – record responses
Chapter 3
The Gifts Offered and the Practices Encountered
during Our Spiritual Journey
The Identity Statement of L’Arche International states: Mutual relationships and trust in God are at the heart of our journey together. Given this identity, the following gifts given to L’Arche by the Holy Spirit are, in turn, offered to each of us:
ª Trust
o As a L’Arche Community we are called to grow in relationships of trust with God and with one another.
ª Mutuality
o Believing that faithful and open relationships are mutually transformative, L’Arche encourages authentic and mutual relationships that reveal each person’s strengths and weaknesses.
ª Forgiveness
o As a L’Arche Community we are called by God to forgive one another.
ª Celebration
o As a L’Arche Community we are called by God to rejoice in and celebrate significant events in our members’ lives.
ª Vulnerability
o As a L’Arche Community, we are called by God to reveal that: Weakness and vulnerability in a person, far from being an obstacle to union with God, can foster it. It is often through weakness, recognized and accepted, that the liberating love of God is revealed. (Charter of L’Arche)
ª Simplicity
o As a L’Arche Community, we are called by God to discover God’s presence in daily life. We have a simple life-style which gives priority to relationships. (Charter of L’Arche)
ª Acceptance
o As a L’Arche Community we are called by God to announce that whatever their gifts or their limitations, people are all bound together in a common humanity. Everyone is of unique and sacred value, and everyone has the same dignity and the same rights. (Charter of L’Arche)
ª Welcome
o As a L’Arche Community we are called by God to “open our hearts” to one another.
ª Belonging
We may think our deepest need is to be loved. Jean Vanier thinks that even deeper and more universal is our desire to belong. “Unity is founded on the covenant of love to which God calls all the community members. This implies welcome and respect for differences (Charter of L’Arche)
ª Solidarity
L’Arche USA is linked spiritually, humanly, and financially to our sister L’Arche communities in Central and South America. “The communities of L’Arche want to be in solidarity with the poor of the world, and with all those who take part in the struggle for justice.” (Charter of L’Arche)
ª Covenant Relationships
o As a L’Arche community we are called by God to be a sign of hope where belonging and relationships evolve. The covenant is a journey where we become more conscious that God is hidden in the most vulnerable people in our own community.
Reflections using Community and Growth by Jean Vanier
These themes are lived out in our communal and personal life. The following are exerts from Community and Growth to assist with your reflections. We invite you to take time to reflect, pray and—or journal to see what surfaces from these readings.
TRUST IN GOD
“I am becoming more and more aware that the great difficulty of many of us who live in community is that we lack trust in ourselves. We can so quickly feel that we are not really lovable, that if others saw us as we really are, they would reject us. … As we gradually discover that God and the others trust us, it becomes easier for us to trust ourselves, and in turn to truth. “The experience of Providence grows stronger with time, with the discovery that God has watched over the community in times of trial which could have destroyed it. Serious tensions have been resolved, people have arrived exactly when they were needed, there has been unexpected financial or material help, someone has found inner freedom and healing.
With time, the members of the community realize that God is close and is watching over them with love and tenderness. Then the experience of God is no longer personal but communal, and this generates peace and a luminous certainty. It enables the community to accept difficulties, times of trial, need or weakness with a new serenity. It even brings the courage the community needs to keep going through daily setbacks and sufferings, because it knows from experience that God is present and will answer its cry. (Community and Growth Pg. 157-158)
MUTUALITY
“A community is only truly a body when the majority of its members is making the transition from ‘the community for myself’ to ‘myself for the community,” when each person’s heart is opening to all the others without any exception. … It means answering their call and their deepest needs. It means feeling and suffering with them – weeping when they weep, rejoicing when they rejoice. … It is living in each other, taking refuge in each other.” “The promise of Jesus is to help us discover that the poor are a source of life and not just objects of our charity. If we are close to them, we will be renewed in love and in faith.” (Community and Growth. 142)
FORGIVENESS
“Community is the place of forgiveness. In spite of all the trust we may have in each other, there are always words that wound, self-promoting attitudes, situations where susceptibilities clash. That is why living together implies a cross, a constant effort, an acceptance which is daily, and mutual forgiveness. … To forgive is to recognize once again – after separation – the covenant which binds us together with those we do not get along with well; it is to be open and listening to them once again. It is to give them space in our hearts. That is why it is never easy to forgive. We too must change. We must learn to forgive every day, day after day.”
CELEBRATION
“Forgiveness and celebration are at the heart of community. These are the two faces of love. Celebration is a communal experience of joy, a song of thanksgiving. We celebrate the fact of being together; we give thanks for the gifts we have been given. Celebration nourishes us, restores hope, and brings us the strength to live with the suffering and difficulties of everyday life.”
VULNERABILITY
“The more a community deepens, the weaker and more sensitive its members become. You may think exactly the opposite – that as their trust in each other grows, they in fact grow stronger. So they do. But this doesn’t disperse the fragility and sensitivity which are at the root of a new grace and which mean that people are becoming in some way dependent on each other. Love makes us weak and vulnerable; because it breaks down the barriers and protective armor we have built around ourselves. Love means letting others reach us and becoming sensitive enough to reach them. The cement of unity is interdependence.”
SIMPLICITY & HUMILITY
“When people love each other, they are content with very little. When we have light and joy in our hearts, we don’t need material wealth. The most loving communities are often the poorest. If our own life is luxurious and wasteful, we can’t approach poor people. If we love people, we want to identify with them and share with them. The important thing is for communities to know what they want to witness to. Poverty is only a means of witness of love and a way of life.” A 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....In our L’Arche communities, we have to put still more thought into the quality of life. We have to learn to live each day and find our own internal and external rhythms. (Community and Growth pg. 310)