"In the beginning of L'Arche," writes Jean Vanier, "there was a call from God revealed to me through Pere Thomas." The story of the beginnings of L'Arche is simple, charming, tender - like the story of Mary's annunciation and Jesus' birth in a stable, or the infant Moses' rescue from the Nile.
Interestingly, in L'Arche's birth story, all the principles are male. There is Mr. Prat who founded a small institution in Trosly, France, about 20 kilometers from Paris, called the Val Fleuri, for the care of his son. There is Dr. Preaut, a psychiatrist and chairman of the Board of the Val. There is Jean Vanier, a new professor of moral theology (Christian Ethics) at St. Michael's College in Toronto who "loved teaching, but at the same time," he writes, "I did not feel that Jesus wanted me to stay there." There is Pere Thomas Philippe, Jean's spiritual director, a Dominican priest, an academic, who as chaplain at the Val began to appreciate the giftedness of people with mental handicaps. He gently suggested that Jean could "begin something." And Jean bought a small stone cottage in Trosly, badly in need of repair.
There is Daniel Barrigan, eating with Jean at a restaurant in Paris, suggesting an architect who could help with repairs. There are the three men who, on August 4, 1964, were brought to the little stone cottage by the Director of an asylum near Paris where they had been placed: Raphael, Philippe, and Dany. Dany could not see or speak. He was filled with anguish. "He was living so much in his own world of pain and dreams, that he was not able to stay with us for more than one day." Jean and Philippe and Rafael set up housekeeping. They learned to cook together, as they learned together HOW to cook.
The cottage had a wood burning stove but no toilet - just a bucket in the garden. Jean had no pre-set ideas. He knew only that he wanted to create community with Raphael and Philippe at the center. However, he didn't ask their opinions on anything; he made all the decisions. One day he woke up to the fact that if he really wanted to create community, he had to learn to listen more. He saw, too, that his choice to "start something" had been an irreversible act. A Covenant had been established between Raphael, Philippe, and himself. An irreversible commitment had been made.
Friends brought food and offered skills, such as carpentry. The little group of men at L'Arche met weekly with these women and men for worship. Liturgy was led by Pere Thomas and Gospel sharing was led by Jean. Christian community was forming! And, marvelously, Raphael and Philippe were thriving on these new relationships. Jean, too, was thriving. As he learned about the pain of Rafael and Philippe, he experienced transformation (not in intellect, or in leadership abilities, gifts in which he abounded); he grew in what he calls the qualities of the heart, of the child within.
The little stone cottage needed a name and from hundreds of suggestions Jean chose "L'Arche," meaning "The Ark." Only later did he realize the symbolism behind the Biblical name.
A L'Arche prayer and song took shape, suggested by words of St. Vincent de Paul:
Lord, bless us through the hands of your poor ones.
Lord, smile on us through the eyes of your poor ones.
Lord, receive us one day in the happy company of your poor ones.
Within two weeks of welcoming Raphael and Philippe, Jean sent a circular letter to his friends (prototype for the Letters of L'Arche). He, the former naval officer and college professor now a homemaker, wrote: "There is still a lot to do in the house. But the garden is planted. We are awaiting the arrival of two ducks, two chickens and a rabbit."
Though he had no pre-set ideas, in his heart were three models of community from North America in which lay people and poor people lived together: the Catholic Worker founded by Dorothy Day; Friendship House founded by Catherine Doherty; and a community in Montreal founded by Cardinal Leger which welcomed people with very severe mental handicaps.
Jean expected that the community would never grow larger than one carload; he would continue to travel, and they would all ride together. He expected that the community would include "people who had other difficulties," people who were physically disabled or elderly and infirm. One day, he gave a streetperson a lift. The man lived with the community for a while, but Rafael and Philippe annoyed him, and one day he became violent. This event showed Jean the need for priorities. Rafael and Philippe were his priority; he could not endanger their lives. "It was not an easy thing for me to do," he writes, but he had to send the man away.
Then, suddenly, four months after the opening of the L'Arche cottage, the staff at the Val Fleuri resigned and Jean was asked to take over as director. The Val was an institution for 32 men, run pretty much in the rigid ways of the old school. For example, when a group of residents went out for a walk, they were marched through the streets of Trosly, in single file, an attendant at the front, an attendant at the rear. When they returned to the Val, they filed in, and the door was locked behind them.
Some of the men were deeply troubled. Some needed insulin; Jean practiced giving injections on an orange. He lost sleep: he lost the keys. People of the village pitched in to help. Later, there was conflict with the village. From this conflict, however, grew the fruit of Wisdom in the form of a foundational understanding: a L'Arche community must be integrated into the surrounding neighborhood. With the Val another dimension of L'Arche emerged. ˇ°We needed to meet state norms," Jean writes. "As Director I learned about per diems, salaries, and budgets. We were not to be a community that was just prophetic and marginalized, we were to be rooted in the structures of the state." Dr. Preaut asked Jean to be Chair of the Board, and "breaking all the rules," as he says, he became both Chair of the Board and Director of the Community.
During this time Jean underwent another transformation that he calls an "intellectual transformation." He learned from professionals in the fields of mental health and mental retardation to better understand the deep psychological pain and needs of the men at the Val. He grasped this key concept: ˇ°Relationship is the specific therapy of L'Arche.ˇ± And so, a few months after its foundation, some fifty people were involved with L'Arche. There were links with the state, with professionals, with Boards of Directors, with the Church.
The Question became: "How can we maintain unity?" In answer, Jean points to the "mysterious power hidden in the powerless." People who are powerless are the source of unity and of life and of community. They attract and waken the heart. In the next few years through his lectures, Faith and Sharing Retreats, Faith and Light pilgrimages, L'Arche expanded to Canada, to India, to England, and within France. Again the question: How to maintain unity? To this point all the communities were founded by people who had a personal relationship with Jean. In 1972 these founders gathered together (prototype for the Federation Meetings). They wrote down the vision of L'Arche - the Charter. They formed an International Council with Jean as International Coordinator. Now unity was aided both structurally and by the written word of the Charter.
In 1975 Sue Mosteller of Daybreak in Toronto was named International Coordinator. Responding to the need of communities for support and external authority, the global Federation was decentralized into Regions with Regional Councils. In 1982 three Zones were created: the Americas, Europe, and Asia (Regions are subsets of the Zones). Though crises abounded - (a few communities left the Federation: a few were disbanded altogether) - structures of support did much more abound: Retreats, Renewals, Accompaniment, the Covenant. Councils were formed at Regional, Zone, and International levels where needs were compassionately discussed and decisions made. Commissions were struck to look at issues such as sexuality, spirituality, and advocacy for Long Term Assistants, families in L'Arche, and the ecumenical vocation of L'Arche. (Early on, a conscious choice was made not to try to convert people who came, but to nurture people in the faith traditions in which they were raised. L'Arche, itself, was born in the Roman Catholic tradition, with, as one person has phrased it, a vocation to ecumenicity.)
In looking back on the very early days, Jean writes: "The Hand of God was clearly present at the foundation of each of the communities. God did not wait until I was perfect." At the end of 25 years, he wrote: ˇ°People with a mental handicap are prophetic. The poor show us the path to unity. We have structures in L'Arche that have proven themselves to be adequate. My wish is that we continue to be prophetic, that people with a mental handicap continue to disturb and challenge us, calling us to deeper faith and courage. I pray that we will not close ourselves up in what we have learned in 25 years or in a search for greater security. If we are to remain prophetic, we are to remain weak and little. We must allow the strength and wisdom of God to manifest itself in our weakness so that the weak show us the path of Love.
Text adapted by Carole Brown
Adapted from Letters of L'Arche, special edition, March/June 1989, No. 59 and 60; (Daybreak Publications/11330 Yonge St. Richmond Hill/ Ontario L45 1L1 CANADA).
