Jean Vanier citáty

„Nie je vždy potrebné, aby duchovný vodca dával rady. Všetci máme svetlo pravdy vo svojom srdci, a ak sme dostatočne zrelí a pokojní, odpoveď nájdeme vo svojom vnútri. No vždy potrebujeme niekoho, kto kladie dobré otázky.“

„Sviatok je pokrmom, načerpaním síl. Je znamením vzkriesenia, ktoré nám dáva silu niesť každodenný kríž. Oslava a kríž sú v úzkom spojení.“

„Odpúšťať znamená byť stále otvorený, chápavý a trpezlivý voči tým, ktorí na vás útočia.“

„Ježiš urobil niečo výnimočné: rozhodol sa ísť cestou slabosti a na prvý pohľad sa zdalo, že dopustil, aby iní zvíťazili nad ním. Na cestu, ktorá viedla k slabosti a pokore sa vydal už vo chvíli, keď sa v Máriinom lone Slovo stalo telom.“

„Človek je vnútorne tak hlboko rozdelený, že ak sa nachádza v prostredí, ktoré ho vedie k svetlu a starostlivosti o druhých, vykročí týmto smerom. A naopak, ak žije v prostredí, ktoré sa týmto hodnotám vysmieva a podporuje túžbu po moci a rozkoši, stane sa jeho obrazom.“

„Jeden z najvzácnejších darov v spoločnosti majú ľudia, ktorí zrejme nemôžu zastávať dôležitú funkciu. Nie sú schopní organizovať, animovať, predvídať a prikazovať.“

„Najlepším predstaveným je ten, kto prijíma svoju funkciu ako poslanie od Boha a opiera sa o Božiu moc a o dary Ducha Svätého. Bude sa cítiť úbohý a neschopný, ale vždy bude konať pokorne pre dobro všetkých. Podriadení mu budú dôverovať, lebo pocítia jeho dôveru nie k sebe a k svojej vlastnej predstave, ale k Bohu.“

„Postihnutí nám často oznamujú pravdu bez toho, či ju chceme počuť, alebo nechceme. Nie vždy je ľahké mať takýto barometer pri sebe.“

„Pravý ekumenizmus nespočíva v tom, že odstránime rozdiely, ale naopak v tom, že sa ich naučíme rešpektovať a milovať.“

„Uplatňovať autoritu je veľká zodpovednosť, ale zároveň čosi prekrásne, lebo ten, koho poverili uplatňovať ju, si môže byť istý, že dostane od Boha svetlo, silu a dary potrebné na splnenie svojej úlohy. Preto sa predstavený nemá len ako tajomník na schôdzi pýtať tých, ktorí mu zverili zodpovednosť, čo má robiť, ale musí aj v skrytosti hľadať Božiu radu, objaviť v hĺbke svojho srdca božské svetlo. Boh vždy prichádza na pomoc tomu, kto má autoritu, ak je pokorný a usiluje sa slúžiť v pravde. Majú však milujúce pozorné srdce. Hneď spoznajú, že niekto má problémy, a úsmevom, pohľadom, kvetom či slovom mu dajú pocítiť: ´Som ti nablízku. Nesiem kríž s tebou´. Vycítia, že nechce nič dokazovať, že nechce nič pre seba, že jeho predstavu neblokujú vlastné problémy a že Je ochotný odísť, keď vyprší jeho čas.“

“The great thing about people with intellectual disabilities is that they’re not people who discuss philosophy… What they want is fun and laughter, to do things together and fool around, and laughter is at the heart of community.”

“Somewhere, the deepest desire for us all is to be appreciated, to be loved, to be seen as somebody of value. But not just seen — and Aristotle makes a difference between being admired and being loved. When you admire people, you put them on pedestals. When you love people, you want to be together. So really, the first meeting I had with people with disabilities, what touched me was their cry for relationship.”

“I am struck by how sharing our weakness and difficulties is more nourishing to others than sharing our qualities and successes.”

“Every child, every person needs to know that they are a source of joy; every child, every person, needs to be celebrated. Only when all of our weaknesses are accepted as part of our humanity can our negative, broken self-images be transformed.”

“If we are to grow in love, the prisons of our egoism must be unlocked. This implies suffering, constant effort and repeated choices.”

“When we love and respect people, revealing to them their value, they can begin to come out from behind the walls that protect them.”

“People cannot accept their own evil if they do not at the same time feel loved, respected and trusted.”

“When children are loved, they live off trust; their bides and hearts open up to those who respect and love them, who understand and listen to them.”

“Peace can only come as people begin to meet each other. Those that do have the courage to cross the road, however, to look kindly at people and to listen to them with tenderness, will find people much like themselves, people seeking to be loved for who they are. And that it is OK for each one of us to admit, "I don't have all the truth…. I am vulnerable, I am broken. I need help." Then comes the realization, "I need your help. I need your friendship." In the end, what you will find, and what you will help the world to discover, Vanier said, is what it means to be human.”

“Love is to recognize that the other person is a person, is precious, is important and has value.. Each one has a gift to bring to others. Each one has his or her mission in the larger family of humanity. Each one reveals the secret face of God.”

“Try and find somebody who is lonely. And when you go to see them, they will see you as the messiah. Go and visit a little old lady who has no friends or family. Bring her flowers. People say ‘but that’s nothing.’ It is nothing—but it’s also everything. It always begins with small little things. It all began in Bethlehem. That was pretty small.”

“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 other 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.”

“To be lonely is to feel unwanted and unloved, and therefor unloveable. Loneliness is a taste of death. No wonder some people who are desperately lonely lose themselves in mental illness or violence to forget the inner pain.”

“We are not called by God to do extraordinary things, but to do ordinary things with extraordinary love.”

“Many people are good at talking about what they are doing, but in fact do little. Others do a lot but don't talk about it; they are the ones who make a community live.”

“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.”

“Love doesn't mean doing extraordinary or heroic things. It means knowing how to do ordinary things with tenderness.”

“Growth begins when we start to accept our own weakness”

“Jesus is the starving, the parched, the prisoner, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the dying. Jesus is the oppressed, the poor. To live with Jesus is to live with the poor. To live with the poor is to live with Jesus.”

“Peace is the fruit of love, a love that is also justice. But to grow in love requires work -- hard work. And it can bring pain because it implies loss -- loss of the certitudes, comforts, and hurts that shelter and define us.”

“A Christian community should do as Jesus did: propose and not impose. Its attraction must lie in the radiance cast by the love of brothers.”

“It is only when we stand up, with all our failings and sufferings, and try to support others rather than withdraw into ourselves, that we can fully live the life of community.”

“All of us have a secret desire to be seen as saints, heroes, martyrs. We are afraid to be children, to be ourselves.”

“Every human activity can be put at the service of the divine and of love. We should all exercise our gift to build community.”

“A growing community must integrate three elements: a life of silent prayer, a life of service and above all of listening to the poor, and a community life through which all its members can grow in their own gift.”

“But let us not put our sights too high. We do not have to be saviours of the world! We are simply human beings, enfolded in weakness and in hope, called together to change our world one heart at a time. (163)”

“I have discovered the value of psychology and psychiatry, that their teachings can undo knots in us and permit life to flow again and aid us in becoming more truly human.”

“There is that little compass within each one of us where we know what is right, what is just, what is good, what is true.”

“To look forward, to want life, means we have to be willing to look backwards and become more conscious of all those who have hurt us, all that is broken in us and that has brought us inner deaths, hurts that we may have hidden and stifled. It means that we acknowledge the story of our origins, of our own lives, see and accept our brokenness and the times we also have hurt others. When we have accepted who we are and what we need in order to grow in compassion and peacemaking, we can move forward to give life. To forgive is a gift of God that permits us to let go of our past hurts.”