Finding Peace

Jean Vanier reflects on recent world events, identifying the sources of conflict and fear within and among individuals, communities, and nations that thwart us in our quest for peace. Peace is not just the work of governments or armies or diplomats, he argues, but the task of each one of us. We can all become makers of peace. We can do our part. And though it's easy to be a lover of peace and much more difficult to be a worker for peace, Vanier shows us that ordinary people, unknown and unrecognized, are transforming our world little by little, finding peace in our neighbourhoods and lighting the way to change.

One of our deepest human desires and needs is to live in peace. We all yearn for peace, but what is it exactly? How do we find it, and how can we bring peace to our lives and our communities? Jean Vanier reflects on recent world events, identifying the sources of conflict and fear within and among individuals, communities, and nations that thwart us in our quest for peace. Peace is not just the work of governments or armies or diplomats, he argues, but the task of each one of us. We can all become makers of peace. We can do our part. And though it's easy to be a love of peace and much more difficult to be a worker for peace, Vanier shows us that ordinary people, unknown and unrecognized, are transforming our world little by little, finding peace in our neighborhoods, and lighting the way to change.

Jean Vanier, is the founder of L'Arche, an international organisation that creates communities where people with developmental disabilities and those who assist them share life together. Until the late 1970's, Jean Vanier carried the responsibility for L'Arche in Trosly-Breuil in France and for the International Federation of L'Arche. He stepped down from these responsibilities, to spend more time today counseling, encouraging and accompanying people who come to live in L'Arche as assistants to those with disabilities. Vanier still makes his home in the original community of Trosly-Breuil, France.