But
each of us lives in a specific place and historical moment. Every life is
influential in ways we might not see at the time.
In
this context, I have been re-reading Ann Shearer’s profound and
thought-provoking biography, Thérèse Vanier: Pioneer of L'Arche, palliative care and
spiritual unity.
The eldest of five Vanier children, Thérèse
Vanier was a medical doctor with a distinguished career. She was the first female
consultant in haematology at St Thomas’ Hospital in Central London,
then worked with Cicely Saunders at the world-renowned St Christopher's Hospice.
In 1974,
Thérèse Vanier founded the first L'Arche community
in the UK near Canterbury, and for the next forty years continued to advise and
lead L’Arche in a variety of roles.
Her long-term commitment to enduring thoughtfully and truthfully
the pain of the separation between Christian churches was honoured by her
funeral at Canterbury Cathedral in 2014 – likely the first Roman Catholic
funeral mass held in the Cathedral since the Reformation.
She was wise, straightforward, deeply prayerful, unsentimental
and generous, with a keen sense of humour. And her probing questions stay in my
mind long after finishing the book. ‘Is humankind also on a journey to old age,
over the centuries gradually being called to greater maturity and
responsibility?’
As a doctor, Thérèse Vanier took seriously St Paul’s insistence
that when one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers. Whether the
suffering was individual or communal, suffering was a language that needed
attention. I am thinking about this as we try to grapple in these weeks with
the pain of isolation, of racism, of violence against vulnerable people.
The book concludes with a prayer written by Thérèse Vanier. It
is a good prayer for our hearts in these strange days in the spring and summer
of 2020, as we pray for healing and a new vision for our shared future:
May
oppressed people
and those
who oppress them
free each
other.
May those
who are handicapped
and those
who think they are not
help each
other.
May those
who need someone to listen
touch the
hearts of those
who are
too busy.
May the
homeless bring joy
to those
who open
their
doors reluctantly.
May the
lonely heal
those who
think
they are
self-sufficient.
May the
poor melt
the
hearts of the rich.
May
seekers of truth
give life
to those
who are
satisfied that they have found it.
May the
dying who do not wish to die
be
comforted by those
who find
it hard to live.
May the
unloved be allowed
to unlock
the hearts
of those
who cannot love.
May
prisoners find
true
freedom
and
liberate others from fear.
May those
who sleep on the streets
share
their gentleness with those
who
cannot understand them.
May the
hungry tear
the veil
from the eyes of those
who do
not hunger after justice.
May those
who live without hope
cleanse
the hearts of their brothers and sisters
who are
afraid to live.
May the
weak confound the strong
and save
them.
May
violence be overcome
by
compassion.
May
violence be absorbed
by men
and women of peace.
May
violence succumb to those
who are
totally vulnerable.
That we
may be healed.
Amen.
***
Carolyn Whitney-Brown, PhD,
lived at L’Arche Daybreak, near Toronto, from 1990-97. She wrote the
Introduction to DLT’s edition of Henri Nouwen’s Road to Daybreak. She is
currently working with Henri Nouwen’s unpublished manuscript about the flying
trapeze, tentatively titled All of Life in Nine Minutes.
***
This
is the latest Lockdown Blog article by one of Darton, Longman and Todd’s
amazing authors, offering a personal reflection on our current situation in
life. These blogs post are written sometimes in reference to one of the
writer’s books, and sometimes about how they are living in response to the
coronavirus and our current world situation. We hope it will give you a taste
of the depth and diversity of DLT’s list – books for heart, mind and soul that
aim to meet the needs and interests of all.
Today’s
post by Carolyn Whitney-Brown makes reference to fellow DLT author Ann
Shearer’s biography Thérèse Vanier: Pioneer of L'Arche, palliative care and
spiritual unity, which you can buy here.
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