The story of Jean Vanier and that of L'Arche are so deeply intertwined that you cannot tell one without telling the other. Vanier's story began long before L'Arche, in the various countries where his father served and where he himself grew up and came of age. Looking back at these events, nothing appears accidental—and the same is true of L'Arche's communities, from their founding through their growth and spread across the globe. Today L'Arche walks on its own in country after country, never losing sight of the vision that set it in motion, yet moving forward and expanding through its own momentum.
But the two stories are one. How did it begin? How did it unfold? What conviction and tireless search guided and sustained it? Through what stages, what encounters? In what moments did the grace of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, accompany it?
This book seeks to answer these questions. We already know the major milestones and fruits of Jean Vanier's life and of L'Arche—what happened in the past decades and what happens now. But the book also takes us through many episodes we know nothing of, episodes that matter deeply for understanding more fully.
L'Arche takes its name from its mission: to welcome and to save. It is a communion of love, as the book's subtitle declares. A communion of love between Jean Vanier and his communities, and among the members within them—a communion of love lived out through people without autonomy, through people with disabilities.
The author spent considerable time with Jean Vanier and those close to him at Trosly-Breuil, and months visiting communities in London, Canada, the United States, and Honduras. Through living alongside them in their daily life, she came to know what is "the mystery" of L'Arche. And its struggles. Its joys.
Jean Vanier explains it in his characteristic clear language, born from experience and love for those who suffer: "We must learn what it means to wash one another's feet, to eat with the poor, because I am convinced these acts will always be bound up with communion. The two poles of the Church are the broken body of Christ in the Eucharist and the broken body of humanity."
— Natalia Livi, 1998
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