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Jean Vanier
Jean Vanier: Portrait of a Free Man | Anne-Sophie Constant
7 posts | 1 to read
The life of Jean Vanier, founder of l'Arche, who changed the way the world views disability It's a crazy story. In August 1964 a thirty-six-year-old Canadian from a famous family - one who has already joined the navy during war at age thirteen, become an officer, earned a PhD, and taught ethics at the University of Toronto -- takes up residence in a little house he just bought in the village of Trosly, France, with two mentally disabled men he has removed from a care home. The house, which he calls l'Arche (the Ark), has neither water nor electricity. His plan? None. He is just convinced he has to do it, touched by the silent cry of these men shut up in the gloomy, violent institution where he found them. His example is contagious; within months the community has grown to over fifty. Jean Vanier is known and loved around the world for having created L'Arche, those unique communities of people with disabilities and their volunteer caregivers in more than one hundred and fifty sites on five continents. But Vanier is also a philosopher, a spiritual master who touches believers and nonbelievers alike, a tireless messenger of peace and ecumenism, and an adventurer with life full of twists and turns. Anne-Sophie Constant's literary biography paints a rare portrait of this extraordinary man and the events and influences that shaped his destiny. "The story of Jean Vanier is the story of a free man - a man who knew how to become himself, who knew how to free himself from restraints, opinions, and prejudices; from intellectual, religious or moral habits; from his epoch; from popular opinion. . . . Jean Vanier has transformed the lives of thousands and thousands of mentally disabled people. And he has transformed the understanding of thousands of people regarding the disabilities of their own children and of people with disabilities. Where we see only failure, disgrace, impossibility, limit, weakness, ugliness, and suffering, Jean Vanier sees beauty. And he knows how to open the eyes of others to see it."
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Caterina
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Just finished my first book of #BFCr2! Pippin is under the blanket on top of my lap. People are working on our back porch today and all the noises are stressing him out, so I guess I just HAVE to snuggle him on the couch and am stuck here reading for a while. 😂 #BookFitnessChallenge #BFC #BookNerdHerd #ARC #Netgalley @wanderinglynn

wanderinglynn Great job! 🙌🏻 5y
cherinium Sounds like a perfect day! (Minus the noises) 5y
hermyknee Is that a book cover on your lap? It‘s beautiful. 5y
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TheSpineView One book down already! Awesome! 5y
BarbaraJean First book finished—awesome!! 👏🏼 5y
Caterina @hermyknee It's my Kindle case! 💕 5y
45 likes6 comments
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Caterina
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This is how I wind down at night (except I turn the light off): lying in bed with my head on my pillow and my Kindle precariously balanced at an angle so I can comfortably read it, and when I'm ready to fall asleep I just turn it off and fall asleep. 😴💕 Included my totals for today! I'll post my final #BookFitnessChallenge #BFC update in the morning, in case I finish a book before bed. 😁 @wanderinglynn

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Caterina
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No better way to read than cross-legged with a pupper in your lap on a rocking chair watching a storm roll in and the wind toss the trees of the forest you live in. 💕🥰 #dogsoflitsy #bostonterriersoflitsy #Pippin

Hoping to finish one more book today for #BookFitnessChallenge! If only I could pick one to focus on finishing out of the 17 I'm reading. 😂 Maybe the tagged? #BFC @wanderinglynn

wanderinglynn Aw, puppy love! ❤️🐱 6y
42 likes1 comment
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Caterina
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There's a soft, warm dog lightly snoring on his person's lap under this blanket. 🥰

Yesterday I woke up from a late afternoon nap with a bad headache that kept me up most of the night, prevented me from working out this morning, and has kept me in bed for most of today. Now I'm finally on the mend, and I can read this #ARC from #Netgalley while Pippin sleeps on my lap. 😊 #BookFitnessChallenge #BFC @wanderinglynn

wanderinglynn Hope you feel better soon! 💚 6y
charl08 Ouch. Glad your dig is keeping you company. 6y
charl08 Or even, dog!! 6y
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cobwebmoth Hope you're feeling better soon. 6y
BookwormAHN Hope you feel better 💐 6y
Caterina @wanderinglynn @cobwebmoth @BookwormAHN Thanks y'all, I'm feeling better and will probably be 100% after a good night's rest. 😊 @charl08 Haha he's a good dig/dog like that. 😂❤️ 6y
43 likes6 comments
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Caterina
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No walk yet, but spent the last few hours going through old boxes of stuff in preparation for moving out of my parents' house for the last time and moving across the country. There's a lot of trashing and donating and organizing to do this summer. Took a break with another migraine relieving smoothie (don't know if it's helping yet but it tastes good! @wanderinglynn ) and an #ARC from #Netgalley. Naptime now. #BookFitnessChallenge #BFC

wanderinglynn Yay for naps! 🙌🏻 6y
BookwormAHN I hope your smoothie works 🍀 6y
38 likes2 comments
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Caterina
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It's time to relax! 💕

Karisa Love your Kindle cover! 6y
53 likes1 comment
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Caterina
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Loving this #ARC from #Netgalley - a biography of Jean Vanier, founder of L'Arche. New smoothie recipe today that's supposed to help with migraine. It's very pretty, and it has lemon, celery, ginger root, cucumber, kale, pineapple, etc.

Not sure I'll exercise today because of the chronic migraine, but I'm hoping if I take really good care of myself it'll help me get better in days instead of months! 🙏 #BookFitnessChallenge #BFC @wanderinglynn

wanderinglynn Let me know how that recipe works out for you! I may need it. 👍🏻💚 Feel better. 6y
45 likes1 comment