jean vanier 1

Some people flee from commitment because they are frightened that if they put down roots in one soil they will curtail their freedom and never be able to look elsewhere.  It is true that if you marry one woman you give up millions of others--and that's a curtailment of freedom!  But freedom doesn't grow in the abstract; it grows in a particular soil with particular people.  Inner growth is only possible when we commit ourselves with and to others.  We all have to pass through a certain death and time of grief when we make choices and become rooted.  We mourn what we have left behind.


So many people do not realise that in giving up everything to follow Jesus and live in community, he gives back everything a hundredfold.