Community means caring: caring for people. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
says: ‘He who loves community destroys community: he who loves the brethren builds community.’ A community is not an abstract ideal. We are not striving for perfect community.
Community is not an ideal: it is people. It is you and I. In community we are called to love people just as they are with their wounds and their gifts, not as we would want them to be. Community means giving them space, helping them to grow. It means also receiving from them so that we too can grow. It is giving each their freedom; it is giving each other trust; it is confirming but also challenging each other. We give dignity to each other by the way we listen to each other, in a spirit of trust and of dying to oneself so that the other may live, grow, and give. – Jean Vanier
hat tip: Contemplative Day Book
More Jean Vanier on Beyond Meds:
And a book:
You must be logged in to post a comment.