Taffy
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Joined: April 05 2005
Location: Canada
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1567
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| Posted: Feb 01 2006 at 9:35pm | IP Logged
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This is a post script to a post I just made to the "Is it OK to cry" thread. This really helped me accept my ds with PDD for who he is... and to realize that his potential is even greater than I could have imagined. He has taught me so much and I honestly believe that without him, I would still be a christian in name only.
From the L'Arche website.
SOMEONE VERY SPECIAL
I met Laurita in Montes de Oca, where she has lived almost since her birth. Montes de Oca is a fairly large institution, outside of Buenos Aires, in Argentina. Nine hundred people with a disability live in this institution. Laurita, a young teenager, spends most of her time either on a bed or on the floor, and occasionally, when she has visitors, she enjoys a ride in a wheelchair. She needs assistance for every single moment of her daily routine. She does not see very well, nor hear very well, but she has a wonderful smile. A woman looks after her and the 16 other people who live there -- feeding her, changing her diapers and giving her a bath.
Laurita is totally dependent upon others, not making any apparent contribution to our world, and yet I am talking about her in this newsletter. Why am I writing about Laurita? Although she does not communicate much, over the past three years slowly a network of friends has grown up around Laurita. They have been taking turns visiting her once or twice a week for a few hours, and they say they enjoy their time with her. How is this? How is it that a house has been found in Buenos Aires (a house that could be suitable for L’Arche), and two young Argentinians are in Honduras learning about L’Arche? Why do groups of professionals meet and talk about the best way to address Laurita’s needs? Why is a young lawyer, Paulina, leaving her practice and experiencing L'Arche in Brazil with the intention of coming back to Buenos Aires? Why is a well-off family dedicating its time and energy to finding resources for this project? Why is a group of people gathering to pray and reflect, sharing about their faith journey and seeking God's will for their life -- and in particular their life in relationship to Laurita? Why is this?
I met all these people when I was in Argentina. The answer they gave me is this: it is because of Laurita and two other persons with a disability, Jonathan and Sandra. So Laurita must be someone very special. She must be very unique to call all these people to make such choices.
Why is it that we are gathering together forming communities around the world? What is making all of us want to be part of this community called L’Arche?
......
Our experience is that Laurita is carrying in her being a special gift that most ordinary people do not have: she calls forth in others their true humanity. Ordinary life usually does not allow people to discover this. What we are living in L’Arche shows that something different is possible for our world.
Most people in our societies do not know the unique gift of Laurita, and they try to keep people like her hidden away. They generate patterns of exclusion that, in fact, foster not just inequalities, but also depression and anger and violence. At the most fundamental level, our world needs all its members, especially the weakest. Our societies have not yet made the link between patterns of exclusion and the depression and violence that prevail today. L'Arche is a place where this gift can be revealed and
transformation can happen.
A popular saying often quoted, at least in the French language, is: “One always needs someone smaller nearby.” (Lafontaine) But if we look around, we see that the world does not operate as though this were true. Competition is everywhere and only success is valued; to be the best, to own the largest and the biggest, is what people run after. And this is generating inequity and violence. The weak save the strong from misusing their strength. The little one saves the smart person from believing that he or she has power and control over everything. The weak person reveals the fragility and complexity of humanity and challenges the understanding of what life is about. The fool saves the wise from pride and arrogance.
This is the reason why so many are gathering around Laurita, and this is the gift that Laurita brings to our world. For the Year 2000 Jubilee, a painter whom I like very much, designed a poster in which the globe is a ball of yarn. The multitude of intricate connections that together form the globe of yarn illustrate the myriad links between people. This is what the Federation is about — it is making those bridges between realities that normally would not be connected.
At the end of a long day during my visit to Buenos Aires, I had a conversation with Padre Oscar, a parish priest, who is dreaming about having L’Arche in Argentina. I asked him about the slow building up of the network that is surrounding Laurita, and how all of what I described is happening. He told me about Margarita Moyano, who recently died and who dreamt and prayed for years for L’Arche to come in Argentina. Our conversation continued. Padre Oscar mentioned there are others who are praying, in particular Leticia, a Carmelite nun. When he told me about the special mission he had given her, I was intrigued and asked if I could meet her. So a meeting was arranged with Leticia in her monastery, and we talked about her contemplative life and the very contemplative dimension of daily life in L’Arche. She pointed out that so much is given, so much is happening when a person is simply looking at Laurita’s face! The next day, I was able to meet with all the other members of her community around this hope for L’Arche in Argentina, and I discovered how much they know about L’Arche and how they support L’Arche. L’Arche exists today because of the prayers of many,
including in particular all those members of religious communities dedicating their lives to support L’Arche through prayer. Let’s give thanks for God’s faithfulness to all of us.
__________________
Susan
Mom to 5 on earth and 1 in heaven
Susan's Soliloquy
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Topic: We are all important in God's eyes...
