Community

Len at Next Reformation posts this quote from Jean Vanier.

If we enter community because of our own choice, we will stay only if we become more aware that it was in fact God who chose us for this community. It is only then that we will find the inner strength to live through times of turmoil.

Is it not the same thing in marriage? The bond becomes truly deep when husband and wife become conscious that they were brought together by God, to be a sign of lvoe and of forgiveness for one another. Parker Palmer writes,

Community is finally a religious phenomenon. There is nothing capable of binding together willful, broken human selves except some transcendent power.

Jean Vanier, Community and Growth