- Paperback: 52 pages
- Publisher: Paulist Press International,U.S. (Dec 1992)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0809133415
- ISBN-13: 978-0809133413
- Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 10.9 x 0.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 273,987 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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In some ways it seems very strange, even absurd that I should be with you all here today in Harvard. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
In some ways it seems very strange, even absurd that I should be with you all here today in Harvard. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Jean Vanier, the 'father' of L'Arche Communities all over the world show how we all function together, whatever start we had in life... a great read!
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A beautiful little booklet. This is the first of Vanier's books that I have read, but probably no the last. For a little book it has a lot in it, and I simply couldn't read it all in one night. It seems to me to be a lifetime of experience distilled into two short lectures. Amazing stuff really.
Vanier speaks from deep experience. This is not your usual pop-Christianity, which is all about self-promotion, self-respect, and so on. Though it will cause some self-realization.
Vanier seems to be a very sincere man. So much out there of what I read seems so fake like the author is putting on a mask. People (including me) are so good at that, and Vanier has learned to take the masks off through his experiences with handicapped people.
The stuff I read in this book I can put to use in any relationship. When I read his definition of love I thought "I should be treating my wife like that, but so often I don't.
I would heartily recommend this book to anyone, especially at the low price I got it for.
Vanier speaks from deep experience. This is not your usual pop-Christianity, which is all about self-promotion, self-respect, and so on. Though it will cause some self-realization.
Vanier seems to be a very sincere man. So much out there of what I read seems so fake like the author is putting on a mask. People (including me) are so good at that, and Vanier has learned to take the masks off through his experiences with handicapped people.
The stuff I read in this book I can put to use in any relationship. When I read his definition of love I thought "I should be treating my wife like that, but so often I don't.
I would heartily recommend this book to anyone, especially at the low price I got it for.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
I often give this book as a gift.
11 Sep 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Vanier is a rare, authentic individual. I don't know of a smaller book that is so large on wisdom. If you ask those that have been through a formation program for the gem of their experience, it often comes in the form of "embrace your shadow." From Brokenness to Community makes the same point.
Vulnerable, we become approachable. Community is possible.
Aware of our shadow, we become less judgmental. Community is possible.
The residents of Vanier's community have severe physical and mental handicaps which soon test the souls of "regular" community members who support them. Once anger, jealousy, rivalry and impatience is exposed, it can be acknowledged and dealt with. The "evil" is not so much in the community as it is in ME. Contact with the handicapped residents is healing, transformational. People become "real." Community results from the relationship established among authentic people.
"Elitism is the sickness of us all...Healing takes place at the bottom of the ladder, not at the top."
-Jack H. Bender, author of Disregarded: Transforming the School and Workplace through Deep Respect and Courage
Vulnerable, we become approachable. Community is possible.
Aware of our shadow, we become less judgmental. Community is possible.
The residents of Vanier's community have severe physical and mental handicaps which soon test the souls of "regular" community members who support them. Once anger, jealousy, rivalry and impatience is exposed, it can be acknowledged and dealt with. The "evil" is not so much in the community as it is in ME. Contact with the handicapped residents is healing, transformational. People become "real." Community results from the relationship established among authentic people.
"Elitism is the sickness of us all...Healing takes place at the bottom of the ladder, not at the top."
-Jack H. Bender, author of Disregarded: Transforming the School and Workplace through Deep Respect and Courage
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Vanier's Insight
13 Oct 2007
Format:Paperback
After nearly 20 years, Vanier's words still ring true. His insights are at the heart of the gospel. One of his more powerful observations is that Jesus came to bring good news to the poor, not those who serve the poor. We all need to attend the "university of the poor" to learn of our own brokenness and so enter into community.
This book takes only couple of hours to read, but will take years of living to digest.
This book takes only couple of hours to read, but will take years of living to digest.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Blown Away
18 Dec 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book will blow your doors off if you let it.
The book is so simple - two lectures delivered just around 1990. Less than 50 pages (43 total) and in a small framework. Yet, it is arguable the best and most powerful $6 purchase one might ever make. Twenty years after these lectures it rings as true as ever because it gets at the core of Christlikeness - humility toward self, exaltation of the lowly, the poor, the rejected and marginalized (though Vanier's focus is on the mentally handicapped - a great work that he does - it applies to every person marginalized by a culture; even those within churches! But, especially the poor and rejected).
I am mindful of Luke 14, Mt. 25 & 1 Cor. 12 as I read this.
My advice: buy it; read it; meditate on it; ingest it; pray for insight and sacrifice and humility (above all) to find ways to reach the downtrodden in this world. Then, recommend it to your friends.
The book is so simple - two lectures delivered just around 1990. Less than 50 pages (43 total) and in a small framework. Yet, it is arguable the best and most powerful $6 purchase one might ever make. Twenty years after these lectures it rings as true as ever because it gets at the core of Christlikeness - humility toward self, exaltation of the lowly, the poor, the rejected and marginalized (though Vanier's focus is on the mentally handicapped - a great work that he does - it applies to every person marginalized by a culture; even those within churches! But, especially the poor and rejected).
I am mindful of Luke 14, Mt. 25 & 1 Cor. 12 as I read this.
My advice: buy it; read it; meditate on it; ingest it; pray for insight and sacrifice and humility (above all) to find ways to reach the downtrodden in this world. Then, recommend it to your friends.
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