Welcome to L'Arche Ontario 2018!

Hello Family and Friends!

This spring break, there will be five students and two faculty accompaniers traveling to Ontario. Although we have not arrived in Ontario yet, we have already begun our adventure with L’Arche! The group has started to explore the surface level of L’Arche communities and what they represent.

We are fortunate enough to have a wonderful resource right here on campus that can teach us about L’Arche: Father George Strohmeyer. Father George founded the L’Arche Erie community with colleagues in 1972. Since the founding, L’Arche has grown and prospered within the Erie community. Our group meet up with him recently to dive into the topic of L’Arche.

Some of our group members would love to share some insight and knowledge that stemmed from our meeting and our introduction to L’Arche:

“What stuck out to me most from Fr. George's talk was that in order to have the best experience with the L'Arche community, he advised we should go in with no expectations. This was a pressing question I had in regard to this ABST trip. I wondered how I should prepare so that I can get the most out of this experience. I see how just letting go and letting God will ultimately bring the best out of our L'Arche Ontario journey.” - Favour

“I was impacted by Fr. George’s discussion when we talked about what it meant to say that every life is worth living. It can’t just be something that we talk about but don’t put into action. I love the fact that both Fr. George and L’Arche communities work everyday to spread the awareness surrounding this topic through their treatment of the disabled and their genuine love for others.”- Meghan

“One point what stuck out to me was, that Fr. George was mentioning that he learned to become more human through living and working with L’Arche. L’Arche seems to have a great transforming component. I am so excited to be part of this trip. Already the preparation is so precious.”-Sister Carmen

As we leave for Christmas Break, we continue to reflect on the values of L’Arche and Father George’s statements. Stay tuned for more updates during Spring Break from Ontario!

Until then with love,

The L’Arche Ontario ABST Members

(Alli, Casey, Favour, Mary Margaret, Meghan, Lydia, and Sister Carmen)

Know That You Are Blessed

Our last day at L'Arche Hamilton has officially come to a close. Fortunately for us, the gifts that the L'Arche community has given to us will last a lifetime. 

Today we had a very laid back day that began with a closing reflection from Lynn, a very important member of the L'Arche community. We then went to lunch at 541 Cafe and had some of the best coffee shop food any of us had experienced. Afterwards we made our way James Street to decorate the gifts we got for each of our houses that welcomed us into their families. Later, we went to dinner at our houses and presented them with the gift, which was a picture of all of us in front of the L'Arche Hamilton sign with a decorated frame specific to each unique home.Presenting those gifts was something none of us will ever forget because each house absolutely loved them. Lastly, we came back to spend a bit more time with our home base at the Sherman House while watching the Emperors New Groove 2, then had our own final reflection later on.

More specifically, one of the most powerful parts of our last day was the final reflection with Lynn. To end a very beautiful and impactful reflection, a core member and her came around the room and individually blessed each of us. What she said to us is:

Know that you are blessed

Know that you have a gift

Go out and share your blessing

These are words we all definitely needed to hear. 

Know that you are blessed: This week, L'Arche has made us realize an unbelievable long list of reasons why we are all blessed. The people involved in L'Arche, whether it be core members or assistants, have welcomed us into their homes and hearts and have shown us what love really is. They have taught us that the smallest actions can represent something much bigger, such as touching noses, a pat on the back, or even just a few seconds of eye contact. These actions can show that you have built a relationship with a person that doesn't build relationships as easily as many people may. These relationships are a gift that we will not take for granted. We have been blessed with the opportunity to build these relationships with the assistants and most importantly the core members and through these relationships we have realized the overwhelming amount of love we were gifted this week.

Know that you have a gift: Coming into this week, many of us didn't know what to expect. However, I am positive that all of us have discovered the different gifts we have, thanks to our experience at L'Arche. During this time we have all grown very close to each other by watching each others interactions and the formation of bonds between us and core members. Our own final reflection was an activity that involved each of us saying positive things about everyone in the group. The fact that a week ago, we barely knew anything about each other, but now we can see a novels worth of nice things about each other really says a lot about what this trip has done for us. We have watched each other grow into beautiful women that each have unique gifts to offer to this world. Whether it be our laid-back and thoughtful personalities, our resilience, our thirst to improve ourselves, our ability to form deep connections with people. our want to care about each person we meet, or our appreciation and zest for life, we realize now that we all have a beautiful gift to offer this world. 

Go out and share your blessing:

Fortunately, we have all already made plans to stay connected as a group, and also potentially staying connected to the L'Arche community. This trip has made us realize that our gifts we have to offer are important, but equally so is actually putting those gifts into action. The L'Arche community has shown us that can be so inspiring to use our gifts for good and this was an important lesson for all of us. While we can get caught up with school and work, we need to remember that we owe ourselves to the world. It's not fair to humanity to hold back what we have to offer, because we learned this week that we can make a hugely positive impact on the people and the world around us.

All in all, this trip is something that we are all walking away from as changed people. We are walking away with a renewed sense of community, a new sense of purpose, a better understanding of human dignity, and most importantly, hearts filled to the brim with love. 

The unconditional love and support we received this week was awe-inspiring and is something that none of us will ever forget. We can only hope that someday, you will be blessed enough to have an experience like we did. It's honestly very hard to put into words how amazing these past seven days have been. L'Arche is not something that can be expressed, but only experienced.

Sign of Hope

Today began bright and early. We started our day off with a little road trip to L'Arche Daybreak in Toronto. Daybreak is a L'Arche community that started out as a farming community who housed several core members and assistants. They started out raising and growing their own food, while selling eggs at the local farmers market and doing some small projects here and there. Daybreak now consists of 8 houses and has multiple day programs and jobs for core members. These programs are run by assistants and members of the community. They provide a space for core members to come and be who they truly are and to do what they love to do.


While being there, we split up and helped out at the different programs. A few of us went to the Club, the Craft Studio, the Day Program or the Woodery. While being at these day programs we became one with the community. We got the beautiful opportunity to work along side the core members and to be included in the process of making a final product, whether it be a wheel, cookies, clay, or just good memories.  In the Woodery, we made circle wheels that would be sold in craft stores. Some of the jobs consisted of cutting with a saw, painting, or just sorting and counting the objects. It was neat to be doing one step of the process and to watch the next step happen. At the Day Program some of us had the opportunity to hang out and to get some one on one time with the core members. We also had the opportunity to make cookies with the core members and to assist them in this special project. At the club some of us made shamrocks out of paper and modge podged canvases with newspaper as a base for a later project. At the craft studio some of us got to cut out clay crosses or flowers along with getting to watch and learn how to make paper because L'Arche Day Break makes their own. Around lunch time some of us got to spend a few minutes doing meditation that was led by a core member which was very special. We then finished our day at these programs after learning to become one with the community. As we prepared to head back to Hamilton, we were blessed with beautiful medallion necklaces that were made just for us by a few of the core members. On them they have the L'Arche logo along with the saying "sign of hope."

In the afternoon we started to head back for dinner within our homes in Hamilton.This time was such a sacred time for us all as we have grown very close to our designated homes, along with the core members and assistants. In these times, we got to spend quality time with everyone while enjoying a home cooked meal and sharing stories about our days. The stories we gain along with making memories to take along the road with us are ones that we truly will cherish forever.

Later this evening we went to a little cafe called 541 which is also called a button cafe. The buttons serve a purpose for those who do not have enough money or no money at all. People can grab a button or 2 to help to pay for a meal or a cup of coffee. This little cafe closed their doors at 7 and allowed L'Arche to come in and run a fundraiser. It had an entrance fee of a donation of whatever you could give. This fundraiser consisted of a bake sale, beverages such as coffee, hot chocolate and hot apple cider. For our part, we sold baked goods at the counter as well as ran the donation table. They had live music along with a sale of crafts that were made by some of the core members. It was so moving to see all the core members and assistants come together to do such a beautiful job. It was very touching to see the amount of people from within the community purchase baked goods or drinks or who just came out to support the local cause of L'Arche Hamilton.

Over the past few days, L'Arche has become more than just L'Arche. It has become a place of generosity, new relationships. memories, love, and most of all, family. We have been so welcomed and overwhelmed with love. It has created in us a new joy, and has given us new outlooks on life. For many it has become a new opportunity in life, or it has even become a sign of hope for the future.

Little to No Lows

The fourth complete day of our amazing trip to L'Arche Ontario has come to an end and as we think back on today, we realize how lucky we really are to be here. 

At the end of every night we have done a "High, Low, and Moment Closest to the Sacred." During this time we name a moment during the day that we had a very high point, a lower point, and a moment that we feel truly connected (mind, body, and spirit) to the people around us. 

Let's review each.

High: Connecting with the core members through the creation of art at L'Arche Hamilton's Day Program, sharing a home cooked meal with the core members, getting to know some of the assistants better, sharing the same energy as one of the core members, connecting on an even more personal level with the people who's house we've been staying in, laughing about soup, truly working as a team to help set up and tear down multiple events and do dishes quickly, capturing some of these amazing moments on camera so we are able to look back and remember these awesome times, walking to and from multiple events with the core members and just getting to spend that extra time with them, cracking up and uncontrollably laughing during a very serious time with one of the core members

Moment Closest to the Sacred: Discovering aspects of our spirituality we didn't know existed, growing closer to God through the L'Arche Lenten Retreat, letting emotions and a simple gesture speak rather than using words, spending time together reflecting on what it means to be successful, powerless, or vulnerable, some of us experiencing an Ash Wednesday service for the very first time, learning what the Lenten season really means, letting the core members open up to us, realizing that adding a positive action to your life can be just as helpful as removing a negative one, connecting on a very powerful level to the lessons that the core members have to teach us, gathering as a group to celebrate life and what God can do for us

Low: realizing how soon our trip is coming to an end

We have been so busy these past few days that it can be extremely draining at times but it is so completely worth it that it doesn't even matter. Even though it's only the end of the fourth complete day, we have all been changed in a very positive way. We now have a better understanding of what it means to be human and what it means to treat another with dignity and respect. We understand better what it means to love another person selflessly and completely. To put it into simpler words, today was wonderful and there was definitely little to no low's.

Happy Mardi Gras from Hamilton!

Happy Mardi Gras from Hamilton!

Today was quite a busy day for us here at L'Arche! This morning, we made the hour and a half long drive into Toronto to visit the Sole Express program run through L'Arche Toronto! This program helps core members from L'Arche, as well as other people with disabilities but who have different living situations, get in touch with and learn about the arts. The group we worked with today was a performance group. They work on all sorts of projects throughout the year based on the year's theme, and are even preforming at the Fringe Fest coming up in Toronto! During our time with sole express, we participated in the group's improv exercises, ate lunch with them, and joined in some other activities. We then traveled back to Hamilton to set up for the L'Arche community Mardi Gras party and dinner. We were very excited, we knew that all of the core members had been anxiously looking forward to this Mardi Gras party.
As each core member arrived, they put on the masks they had made on Tuesday and their beads. Before we arrived, some of the assistants had already made the pancake dinner. Once it hit 5:30pm it was time to eat. Each student served either pancakes or sausages to the core members. After everyone was served we were able to sit down and eat with the core members. We love building on the connections we have created and spending time with the core members.
We are excited to see what tomorrow has in store for us!!

A Birthday Celebration

Hello everyone!

This beautiful Monday started with volunteering with a community program in Hamilton called the Welcome Inn Community Center and New Horizons. The Welcome Inn is a community outreach program that serves the needs of the surrounding neighborhoods, it creates a diverse community that is welcoming to anyone. Half of us served at the Welcome Inn consisting of setting up the food bank, cleaning up outside, and baking. The baked goods will go to the after school program and food bank participants. The other half of the group went to New Horizons, the community's thrift store. We tagged clothing and cleaned around the store. From interacting with the staff and volunteers, we could all sense a true sense of teamwork and family.

For dinner we went to our individual L'Arche homes where we were able to dive deeper into the relationship with the core members and assistants. After only the second day there we can all sense that the level of comfort has increased with the core members and students.
It is very special that this community invites us into their homes and lets us experience their everyday life. Today it was one of the core member's birthdays, after dinner there is a tradition where each core member goes around the table and says something meaningful about the birthday core member. Listening to each little story or loving memory each core member expressed was so impactful. This led to a realization that L'Arche is not just a community, it is a family. The birthday core member was moved by each story and began to cry; it was quite a beautiful  tradition that we were able to be a part of.

There was a big celebration for the birthday core member. All core members came to one L'Arche home for cake. We were able to interact with all of the core members in a home setting. It was easy to see that the birthday core member was so happy that all her L'Arche family was there to celebrate with her, and being in this experience really made us feel like we were part of the family. The love was overflowing and the sense of community was great!

We are excited for the rest of the week. Tomorrow we spend the day in Toronto and then have a community dinner for Mardi Gras!!