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.
Jean VanierRead
Every human activity can be put at the service of the divine and of love. We should all exercise our gift to build community.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that all our actions can contribute to a greater purpose driven by love and community.
Jean Vanier's quote highlights the idea that every action we take can serve a higher purpose, particularly when motivated by love. He encourages us to use our unique gifts not only for personal gain but to foster connection and build community, suggesting that our contributions can make a positive impact on the collective human experience.
Themes
LoveCommunityServiceHuman ActivityGifts
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about community service at a local charity event.
More from Jean Vanier
All quotes →One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn't as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing.
Jean VanierRead
We all know well that we can do things for others and in the process crush them, making them feel that they are incapable of doing things by themselves. To love someone is to reveal to them their capacities for life, the light that is shining in them.
Jean VanierRead
True peace can rarely be imposed from the outside; it must be born within and between communities through meetings and dialogue and then carried outward.
Jean VanierRead
In any case, community is not about perfect people. It is about people who are bonded to each other, each of whom is a mixture of good and bad, darkness and light, love and hate.
Jean VanierRead
We have to remind ourselves constantly that we are not saviours. We are simply a tiny sign, among thousands of others, that love is possible, that the world is not condemned to a struggle between oppressors and oppressed, that class and racial warfare is not inevitable.
Jean VanierRead
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